Robert Gould Shaw Memorial

The Shaw Memorial remains one of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens' most stirring and celebrated masterpieces and is considered by some to be America's greatest public monument. It also took him the longest sculpture to complete; 14 years until the unveiling in Boston in 1897. The sculpture's origins began after the battle of Fort Wagner, when men of the 54th proposed a memorial to Shaw near the Fort and the mass burial site. Shaw's father suggested at that time "The monument, though originated for my son, ought to bear, with his, the names of his brave officers and men, who fell and were buried with him." Because of local hostility, and the unstable ground, the memorial was never erected. The funds went instead, to the first free school for African American children in Charleston, which was named for Shaw.