The Howitzer Monument, unveiled December 13, 1892, is located in a small park at the corner of Park Avenue and Harrison Street, opposite VCU's James W. Black Music Center and W. E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. The statue is dedicated to the Richmond Howitzers Artillery Battalion which originally organized as the Virginia Howitzers Artillery Battery in November of 1859.
The statue was designed by William Ludwell Sheppard (1833-1912) who served during the Civil War as a second lieutenant in the Richmond Howitzers. Sheppard was a long time Richmond resident who studied art in New York before the war and later in Paris. A landscape artist and illustrator of many books, Sheppard is primarily remembered for his numerous engravings that appeared in Harper's Weekly and other national magazines during and after Reconstruction.
The inscription on the front of the base of the statue reads: "To Commemorate the Deeds and Services of The Richmond Howitzers of the Period, 1861-1865."
VCU students often decorate the statue, which many refer to as the "Q-Tip Man", with a scarf and hat.
I was just at this very spot not 4 hours ago. The statue came up in conversation at the Susan Greenbaum concert in Meadow Park.
ReplyDeleteWhen I attended VCU in the mid-1990s, we all referred to this as the "Q-tip Monument."
ReplyDeleteWe called it tampon park
ReplyDeleteremoved by protesters 6/16/20
ReplyDelete