- City: Boston
- State: Massachusetts
- Country: United States
- Source: Bodin Collection
- Approx. Date: 1916
- Photographer: Unknown
Dressed in his clergy attire, an eleven-foot-tall statue of the American preacher Phillips Brooks stands outside the Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts. He boldly raises his right hand in the air as if addressing his audience while his left hand is placed firmly on a copy of the Holy Bible. Surrounding Brooks is a decorative marble niche with Greek-style columns, as well as a wooden cross and statue of Jesus Christ behind him. Inscribed on the front of the granite base used to support the statue is an inscription reading:
PHILLIPS BROOKS
PREACHER OF THE WORD OF GOD
LOVER OF MANKIND
BORN IN BOSTON AD MDCCCXXXV
DIED IN BOSTON AD MDCCCXCIII
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY
HIS FELLOW CITIZENS AD MCMX
This statue of Phillips Brooks was commissioned in 1893 and completed in 1910 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Brooks was one of the most famous American preachers during the 19thcentury, and his hymns were very well-known: the most notable one being the Christmas hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” He appears to have been very involved with the Trinity Church as he is featured several times throughout its architecture, and a statue of him can also be found in the Lincoln Memorial, as Brooks also delivered the funeral sermon of President Lincoln.
From the collection of Fred Bodin of Gloucester, MA. Fred was a long time resident and well-known photographer of Gloucester and had one of the best private collections of New England nautical photographs in private hands. Fred was a photojournalist having graduated with this degree from Syracuse University and worked for Yankee Magazine. Fred passed away in 2016 and HIP purchased his collection from his estate.