The Beacon #1 September 1, 2021
By Gary Berton
In 1882, two years before the Thomas Paine National Historical Association was formed, a statuette was created by David Richards celebrating Thomas Paine. It is probably the first sculpture of Paine. The creation of the statuette shows the growing atmosphere in support of Paine which led to the formation of TPNHA soon after.
One of the dozens of copies of the statuette was part of the TPNHA Collection, but it went missing in the 1980s. All attempts to retrieve it were unsuccessful. If anyone in the New Rochelle area has any knowledge of this statuette, please contact our Association. The present holder may have honestly purchased it, not knowing it was stolen. All information will remain confidential.
Here is Robert Ingersoll’s letter to Richards at the time. Ingersoll was a great orator, lawyer, and freethinker of the time, and was Paine’s leading advocate:
LAW OFFICE OF Robr. G. INGERSOLL,
DAVID RICHARDS, Esq.:
WASHINGTON, D. C.,
Dec. 30, 1882.
MY DEAR FRIEND —
Your Statuette is incomparably the best I have ever seen. It is in perfect taste. The position, the drapery, the surroundings, are all admirable. You have given to PAINE a noble, a reflective and kind face. The whole work’ shows MERIT OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, and I am delighted with it.
I thank you more than I can express—not only for presenting me with the statuette—but for having made it.
I feel under a certain personal obligation to every man who in any way assists in rescuing the name of that great thinker – a disinterested patriot, and an intellectual hero – from the malice of superstition and from the calumnies of those who have enjoyed, and who are now enjoying, the fruits of his labors. Thanking you again and again, I remain,
Yours always,
R. G. INGERSOLL