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New York City Removes Theodore Roosevelt Statue From Museum of Natural History

New York City Removes Theodore Roosevelt Statue From Museum of Natural History

“Last month, the museum covered the 10-foot-tall statue with an orange tarp ahead of its shipment to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota.”

This fall, the city of New York decided they were going to remove the statue of Theodore Roosevelt from the front of the Museum of Natural History and send it off to North Dakota.

Well, they finally did it.

Natalie O’Neill reports at the New York Post:

Theodore Roosevelt statue removed from American Museum of Natural History

Roosevelt went on a rough ride.

A statue of Theodore Roosevelt that has stood in front of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan for more than 80 years was hauled away Wednesday, photos show.

The bronze monument depicting the nation’s 26th president on a horse flanked by an African man and a Native American man — which has sparked protests for glorifying colonialism and racism — was yanked out with a crane just after midnight, leaving behind only its concrete pedestal.

The controversial effigy will be sent to a library in North Dakota on a long-term loan, officials have said.

The $2 million removal, carried out by the museum and the city, comes after the New York City Public Design Commission voted in June to relocate the monument.

Last month, the museum covered the 10-foot-tall statue with an orange tarp ahead of its shipment to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota.

One of Roosevelt’s living descendants apparently approves of this, but I imagine there are millions of Americans who do not agree.

You can see a video of the removal below:

This is not an obscure figure from history or a Confederate general, it’s the 26th President of the United States. His face is on Mount Rushmore. If they can do this to Roosevelt, they can do it to anyone.

It’s also important to remember that this is not an isolated incident.

Roger Kimball recently wrote at the Spectator:

Everywhere one turns, America’s past is being dismantled. Just last month, a statue of Thomas Jefferson that had graced New York’s City Hall for 187 year was removed. At schools and colleges across the country, images are being covered or removed, buildings renamed, history rewritten. It’s open season on the past.

Back in June 2020, I wrote about the decision to remove the statue of Roosevelt from in front of the institution he help to found. The piece seems as pertinent now as when it was first written, so I offer it unaltered to mark this melancholy consummation of the barbaric forces of political correctness.

So now they have come for Teddy Roosevelt. The large bronze statue of TR on horseback, flanked by a black man and an American Indian, will be removed from the spot it has graced since 1940 in front of New York’s Museum of Natural History. Why? According to Warren Wilhelm Jr. — known to some as Bill de Blasio — the statue is being moved (to where no one yet knows) “because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior.”

Does it? I don’t think so. I think both flanking figures exude strength and dignity. I also think they stand in solidarity with the jovially commanding figure of Roosevelt. But then my hermeneutical antennae have not be trained to discern the whole world through the scrim of endless racial and ethnic outrage.

This is not about righting wrongs of the past. It’s about the erasure of American history and it’s dangerous.

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Comments

I liked the tableau displays of primitive man and family long ago. I don’t suppose they’ve survived political correctness.

“His face is on Mount Rushmore.” Don’t give them any ideas!

We are moving closer to Year Zero territory.

That was Roosevelt? I thought it was Robin Williams! 🙂

The Gentle Grizzly | January 20, 2022 at 5:26 pm

When will the still-majority populace in this country finally say, “enough!”?

Communists like to get rid of a nation’s history, so they have a better chance of enslaving the populace, who might not know how to act like heroes.

That’s probably the point of those useless masks, too.

2smartforlibs | January 20, 2022 at 5:29 pm

They removed brains a long time ago too.

“This is not an obscure figure from history or a Confederate general, it’s the 26th President of the United States.”

Yes, but he was the first Progressive president. If they want to eat their own, I won’t stop them.

He moved the presidency out from under from the constitutional chains that bound it, and became a populist ruling figure. He was determined to move America closer to the operation of the social democracies of Europe. And he established a tradition of federal ownership of land within the sovereign states that directly contradicted the limitations imposed by the Constitution, to the point where some of our “sovereign states” are >50% (in area) owned by the federal government.

They can let him sink to the bottom of the East River, for all I care.

    gonzotx in reply to henrybowman. | January 20, 2022 at 7:44 pm

    I thank God he “moved” those lands into federal lands because businessmen would cut every tree and mow down all the mountains to Build cheap ass apartments if given the chance.

      ThePrimordialOrderedPair in reply to gonzotx. | January 20, 2022 at 9:03 pm

      That’s really silly.

      If you think that land needs to be protected from businessmen then you are welcome to commit every cent you have to buying the land and letting it sit. You have no right to use my money to do that.

      In addition to that, I think you vastly overestimate the population fo the US and vastly underestimate the amount of land in the US, Texas, alone, has over 170 million acres … and with your “cheap ass apartments” you can squeeze lots of people into even 1 acre. The US is quite a bit bigger than that.

      The federal government has no business holding land just for the hell of it, or even worse, to stop commerce on it. In fact, promoting commerce is one of the main thrusts of the blueprint of the United States.

      If you want to conserve land then pay to do it. Oh, and BTW, lots and lots of this federal land was initially bought by the evil businessmen and given to the federal government, which then went on to ineptly manage it (see the out-of-control wildfires in California, for example).

      henrybowman in reply to gonzotx. | January 21, 2022 at 2:19 am

      Then maybe you could afford a house.

    thetaqjr in reply to henrybowman. | January 21, 2022 at 4:32 pm

    “ If they want to eat their own, I won’t stop them.”

    The problem is absence of due process, isn’t it? Whatever TR’s failings. his statue is not theirs … progressives … to eat.

    Progressives’ failure to follow process allows progressives to eat, not just “theirs” but ours.

    The bastards want to sit high on mighty due process law when their views are minority ones, and switch to 50.001% when they mount to the .001% advantage.

Teddy moved to North Dakota after his first wife died. He was heart broken and figured ranching would get him through his depression. Teddy will be happier there and his statute will be appreciated.

The Lesson is “Escape from New York”

When we finally get to the place where the only statues in this country are those of black people this nonsense will stop.

Teddy will be happier in North Dakota.

The morons in NYC don’t derserve him anyway.

How does removing a statue cost 2 million dollars?

    The Gentle Grizzly in reply to randian. | January 20, 2022 at 10:30 pm

    Government contract.

    henrybowman in reply to randian. | January 21, 2022 at 2:15 am

    Virginia had a confederate statue removed last year. At least two bidders offered to pay the city to remove the statue. Nope. Those wise custodians of your money actually pad a minority firm a princely sum to do the job, to ensure that the statue would not find a more appreciated home elsewhere.

    Peabody in reply to randian. | January 21, 2022 at 3:10 pm

    $10,000 to take it down
    $10,000 to move it
    $1, 980,000 profit

“A Night at the Museum”…to the racist dustbin of wokestory you go!

They also removed the statue of the noble chief standing next to TR. As they used to say, “you have break some eggs to make an omelette

Subotai Bahadur | January 20, 2022 at 9:40 pm

Look, Teddy Roosevelt was an American President. The statue will be moved to America from New York City which arguably has not been part of America for quite some time.

Subotai Bahadur

Richard Aubrey | January 20, 2022 at 9:56 pm

So they’re mad at the Roosevelt who didn’t put American citizens in concentration camps.
Tells you something.

It’s very strange that NYC has moved the statue of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. from in front of the American Museum of Natural History. The museum is in Theodore Roosevelt Park, and one of its founders was Theodore Roosevelt Sr. No other POTUS did more for preserving the natural wonder of America than did Roosevelt Jr. His founding of the Boone and Crockett Club has done more to preserve and protect American wildlife than any other organization. He was the first POTUS to dine with a black man at the White House, that man being Booker T. Washington, a name I’m sure is unknown to many of the BLM activists or Warren Wilhelm Jr., known to some as Bill de Blasio, the two main drivers behind the statue being moved. Roosevelt did more for any other POTUS before him to aid black and Native American rights. The first Democrat to take office after him, Woodrow Wilson, immediately resegregated the federal workforce, including the armed forces, upon taking office. The clowns behind the statue removal, at a cost of $2 million, I might add, have proven nothing except their ignorance of a subject who was a giant among men, and did more for this nation in slightly less than 2 terms than our past 5 Democrats.

TR was a remarkable man–he overcame some difficult physical issues that plaqued him throughout his life–his mind was incredible–much of what we enjoy as the national park system, with huge areas of natural wonder preserved for all of us is a direct result of his efforts and imagination–he was a tireless warrior for the incredible natural bounty that we inheirited(and still possess)in this country

an iconic american of his age–his monument deserves to stand in a better place than what ny has become