| Artist | Charles Y. Harvey |
|---|---|
| Year | 1912 |
| Type | Bronze |
| Location | Worcester, Massachusetts |
The Burnside Fountain, affectionately called Turtle Boy,[1][2] is a statue of a boy "riding" a hawksbill sea turtle created by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey. The statue stands on a pedestal of pink granite created by architect Henry Bacon,[3] who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The Fountain, while originally placed in Central Square, Worcester, Massachusetts, it is now located on Worcester Common.
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Harriett P.F. Burnside gave $5,000 to the city of Worcester in 1905. This money was to create a sculpture and fountain for the public and their horses in memory of Burnside's father. [3] The fountain was given to the city in 1912 by Harriet Pamela Foster Burnside.
Daniel Chester French was the artist chosen for the Burnside Fountain. He supervised Charles Harvey, who actually designed and sculpted it. Sherry Fry completed the sculpture after the death of Harvey. [4]
The Fountain was originally located in Central Square, then moved across the street to its current location in 1969.[3] Since then it has been stolen on one occasion. Several other attempts to purloin the sculpture were foiled. [1]
The designation "fountain" is puzzling because there is no water in the basins of the fountain today. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a philanthropic movement centered around the difficult lives of the many horses that provided transportation in cities. Philanthropists wishing to ease the lives of these animals provided public watering troughs. Some were simple, but others were works of art featuring sculpture, of which the Burnside Fountain is an example. Originally, water poured from the turtle's mouth into a series of four drinking basins for horses. There is also a lower trough for dogs to drink from at the rear of the pedestal.[3]
In 2010, The fountain was named one of WAAF's "Hill-Man's 25 Greatest Places in Massachusetts",[5] as well as nominated for "Worst Public Art in New England" by a regional Art blog.[6]
"Turtle Boy" has become a mascot for Worcester a way analogous to The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen or the Manneken Pis in Brussels. [7] A local music contest is called the Turtle Boy Music Award [8] and at least one children's story has been written about the statue. [7]