Leif Erickson Statue

Anne Whitney's Leif Erikson statue stands at the western end of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston and is considered the first public monument in the New World to honor the Norse explorer. Erected in 1887, the bronze monument shows Leif as a young man holding his left hand to his forehead as he gazes out toward the new continent. He stands on a red sandstone pedestal flanked by a small stone sculpture of a boat. The surrounding granite basin originally served as a fountain; today it holds a flower bed. The statue bears runes as well as an English inscription identifying Leif as the discoverer who landed on this continent from Iceland in the year 1000.