Why Is There a Statue of George Washington in London?

There is a statue of George Washington in a place you wouldn’t think he would be. The statue of the first president and leader of the American Revolution stands in Trafalgar Square in London outside of the National Gallery.

The statue was a gift from the state of Virginia in 1921 and commemorated the 300th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Washington is depicted standing with his left hand resting on thirteen rods which represented the original thirteen colonies.

But Washington had once vowed to “never set foot again on English soil.” So to make good on that promise, soil from Virginia was brought in and placed below the pedestal of the statue. The original marble statue of Washington was commissioned in 1794 by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and stands in Richmond, Virginia, at the Virginia State Capitol Building.

The statue was created by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon and is believed to be the most accurate depiction of Washington as it is based on his actual measurements and a cast of his face. While Houdon’s original marble statue is in Virginia, copies of it reside in many places around the globe. In the early 19th century, the statue was copied and cast in bronze by Richmond artist William James Hubard out of fear the original might be destroyed. Eleven bronze casts…