Matthew Fontaine Maury

Bronze statue of a seated man in a suit covered in yellow, green, red, and black graffiti.

Matthew Fontaine Maury
Richmond, Virginia

Bronze statue of a seated man in a suit covered in yellow, green, red, and black graffiti.

Matthew Fontaine Maury and Globe, 1929 with paint from 2020
Bronze statue with spray paint
90 x 63 x 66 in. (228.6 x 160 x 167.6 cm) (figure)
154 x 120 x 132 in. (391.2 x 304.8 x 335.3 cm) (globe) Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia


Filed Under:

Matthew Fontaine Maury


Sponsor: United Daughters of the Confederacy, Matthew Fontaine Maury Association, State of Virginia, City of Richmond
Dedicated: 1929
Removed: 2020

Scientist and naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) is considered the father of modern oceanography. In his 1847 Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic, he aggregated ship logs to collect information on winds, currents, and whale migration, creating a uniform system of recording oceanographic data that was adopted by navies and merchant marines worldwide. Maury’s system led to improved commercial routes throughout the Atlantic, revolutionizing steamship commerce. This achievement, however, was hardly an end in itself. Maury was an ideologue for whom science and exploration served the expansion of U.S. commercial interests, notably into South America. For Maury, ventures into the Southern Hemisphere would include the expansion of slavery, a position for which he lobbied strenuously in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Although not a slave owner himself, Maury was an ardent Southerner who supported the institution of slavery. Envisioning a future for slavery in which Americans would settle with their enslaved people in Brazil, he wrote, “[t]here is no colonizer, civilizer, nor Christianizer like commerce,” but the work “must be done by the African, with the American axe in his hand.” His plan, he argued, would serve a twofold purpose. American interests could extract Brazil’s natural resources, including spices, rubber, and gold, while also acting as a “safety-valve” for the enslaved population in the American South. Like many white Americans, Maury believed that a race war, or what he called “a death struggle for the mastery,” was inevitable. Uprisings like those led by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner frightened slaveholders, who were determined that the enslaved should not outnumber whites. Maury claimed that his plan of offshoring slavery would lead to gradual emancipation in the U.S. and prevent more slaves being made of free Africans via the transatlantic trade, ignoring the creation of new chattel of babies born to enslaved mothers.

When Virginia seceded from the Union, Maury resigned from the federal military and enrolled in the Confederate navy, where he was made a commander. In this role, he traveled Europe purchasing ships and other supplies while also attempting to persuade European leaders to recognize the Confederacy. At the end of the war, he sent a letter of surrender but remained abroad to avoid arrest and trial for treason. He landed in Mexico, where he was appointed Imperial Commissioner of Colonization by Emperor Maximilian with the intent of convincing former Confederates to immigrate there. This plan failed; as Robert E. Lee wrote, “I prefer to struggle for [the South’s] restoration, and share its fate rather than give up all as lost.” After Maximilian was deposed and former Confederates were pardoned, Maury returned to the United States, teaching at the Virginia Military Institute and giving scientific lectures until the end of his life.

In December 1912, nearly forty years after Maury’s death, Richmonder Gaston Lichtenstein wrote to the Richmond Times-Dispatch that “the capital of his own State ought to take pleasure in erecting a statue to his memory.” Lichtenstein had been inspired by seeing Maury’s name displayed at the Seaman’s Institute in Hamburg, Germany. The Matthew Fontaine Maury Association formed in 1915 for the purpose of building a monument in Richmond. The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) joined the effort in 1920. They selected Frederick William Sievers, a Richmond-based sculptor whose practice centered on Confederate memorials, including the Virginia Monument at Gettysburg and the Stonewall Jackson Monument formerly on Monument Avenue.

The design of the Maury monument focuses on his oceanic and meteorological accomplishments, which are depicted on a bronze globe surrounded by allegorical figures with “a storm raging on land and sea, encircling the earth.” While Maury’s Confederate service was not visually represented in the monument’s composition, the cornerstone box laid in 1922 contained tiny Confederate flags from every division of the UDC ranks. The last major Confederate monument erected on Monument Avenue, it was unveiled on Armistice Day, November 11, 1929, signaling the start of a new era of Lost Cause mythologizing, a conflation of Confederate heritage and American patriotism. Regional hostility began to subside as Northern and Southern soldiers fought alongside each other in the Spanish American War and the Great War. Confederate monuments, once viewed by Northerners as offensive and treasonous, were now seen by the white public as part and parcel of honoring important American historical figures.

Despite the grandiose memorial to his legacy, Maury never became a household name or figured prominently in Civil War histories. Absent blatant Lost Cause symbols, his monument did not generally attract protesters but was still considered part of the city’s Confederate backdrop. In the late 1970s, after Richmond elected a majority Black city council, which selected its first Black mayor, Henry Marsh, political leaders were absorbed with “a plate full of issues—housing, transportation, education, unemployment” and removing Confederate statues was not a priority, as former councilman Chuck Richardson noted in 2020. Willie Dell, the city’s first Black councilwoman, also recalled of that period, “Robert E. Lee is dead. It ain’t him I got to worry about. It’s the racist living and sitting across from me at Council.” But in 2020, Maury’s treasonous Confederate service drew the ire of social-justice advocates armed with spray paint. The bronze elements came off on July 2, 2020, and Team Henry Enterprises removed the pedestal in February 2022.

 

Bronze statue of a seated man in a suit covered in yellow, green, red, and black graffiti.

Matthew Fontaine Maury and Globe, 1929 with paint from 2020
Bronze statue with spray paint
90 x 63 x 66 in. (228.6 x 160 x 167.6 cm) (figure)
154 x 120 x 132 in. (391.2 x 304.8 x 335.3 cm) (globe) Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

Bronze statue of allegorical figures holding up a globe surrounded by abstract paintings

Matthew Fontaine Maury Globe (installation)
Photo by Frederik Nilsen

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Matthew Fontaine Maury (installation)
Photo by Frederik Nilsen

Profile view of bronze statue of balding man that has been spray painted in a yellow clown-like pattern

Matthew Fontaine Maury (detail)
Photo by Frederik Nilsen

Bronze allegorical figures in a mass underneath a globe

Matthew Fontaine Maury Globe (detail)
Photo by Frederik Nilsen

Bronze allegorical figures in a mass underneath a globe

Matthew Fontaine Maury Globe (detail)
Photo by Frederik Nilsen

Bronze allegorical figures in a mass underneath a globe

Matthew Fontaine Maury Globe (detail)
Photo by Frederik Nilsen

Bronze allegorical figures in a mass underneath a globe

Matthew Fontaine Maury Globe (detail)
Photo by Frederik Nilsen

Granite base inscribed "Maury Pathfinder of the Seas" with a bronze statue of a seated man and a large globe surrounded by allegorical figures.


Matthew Fontaine Maury monument, Richmond, Virginia
Frederick William Sievers, sculptor
Kunst Foundry, fabricator
Bronze statues on granite base
Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Matthew Fontaine Maury: Richmond Times-Dispatch · Oct 18, 2020

Richmond Times-Dispatch · Oct 18, 2020

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Jul 14, 2020

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Nov 12, 2017

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Mar 30, 2008

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Aug 26, 2006

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Aug 16, 2006

Matthew Fontaine Maury: Richmond Times-Dispatch · Jun 22, 1996

Richmond Times-Dispatch · Jun 22, 1996

Matthew Fontaine Maury: Richmond Times-Dispatch · Sep 18, 1962

Richmond Times-Dispatch · Sep 18, 1962

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Matthew Fontaine Maury: Richmond Times-Dispatch · Jan 17, 1954

Richmond Times-Dispatch · Jan 17, 1954

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Oct 12, 1943

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Jan 15, 1941

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Sep 20, 1937

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Nov 12, 1929

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Nov 12, 1929

Matthew Fontaine Maury: Richmond Times-Dispatch · Nov 12, 1929

Richmond Times-Dispatch · Nov 12, 1929

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Nov 10, 1929

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Richmond Times-Dispatch · Oct 29, 1929

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The Baltimore Sun· Nov 11, 1887

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: The Raleigh News · Jan 8, 1873

The Raleigh News· Jan 8, 1873

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: The Missourian Republican · Dec 1, 1872

The Missouri Republican · Dec 1, 1872

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: Baltimore Sun · Aug 7, 1872

The Baltimore Sun· Aug 7, 1872

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: Baltimore Sun · Aug 25, 1869

The Baltimore Sun· Aug 25, 1869

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: Knoxville Weekly Whig· Aug 8, 1865

Knoxville Weekly Whig· Aug 8, 1865

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: The Baltimore Sun· Feb 24, 1865

The Baltimore Sun· Feb 24, 1865

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: Cleveland Daily Leader· Feb 17, 1865

Cleveland Daily Leader· Feb 17, 1865

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: Western Reserve Chronicle· Sep 9, 1857

Western Reserve Chronicle· Sep 9, 1857

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: The National Era· Jun 18, 1857

The National Era· Jun 18, 1857

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: Belmont Chronicle · Jan 31, 1857

Belmont Chronicle· Jan 31, 1857

Roger B. Taney Newspaper: The Democratic Pioneer· March 10, 1857

The Democratic Pioneer· March 10, 1857

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser Dec 12, 2021

The Montgomery Advertiser· Dec 12, 2021

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser Dec 09, 2021

The Montgomery Advertiser· Dec 9, 2021

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The Montgomery Advertiser· Oct 27, 2021

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser Oct 7, 2021

The Montgomery Advertiser· Oct 7, 2021

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser Dec 9, 2020

The Montgomery Advertiser· Dec 9, 2020

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser Dec 3, 2020

The Montgomery Advertiser· Dec 3, 2020

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser May 27, 2018

The Montgomery Advertiser· May 27, 2018

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser May 30, 1986

The Montgomery Advertiser· May 30, 1986

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser, May 2, 1986

The Montgomery Advertiser· May 2, 1986

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser, May 1, 1986

The Montgomery Advertiser· May 1, 1986

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser· Apr 17, 1986

The Montgomery Advertiser· Apr 17, 1986

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: The Montgomery Advertiser· Apr 16, 1986

The Montgomery Advertiser· Apr 16, 1986

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: Alabama Journal· Apr 16, 1986

Alabama Journal· Apr 16, 1986

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: Alabama Journal · Mar 24, 1986

Alabama Journal · Mar 24, 1986

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: Montgomery Advertiser, 7 Jan 1890

The Montgomery Advertiser· Jan 7, 1890

Jeff Davis Ave. Newspaper: Montgomery Advertiser, 7 Jan 1890

The Montgomery Advertiser· Jan 7, 1890

A stack of bronze ingots on top of a wooden pallet

Ingots from Robert E. lee Monument, Charlottesville, Virginia

Swords Into Plowshares

2023
Bronze
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, Virginia

Josephus Daniels

Josephus Daniels

János Farkas

1985
Bronze
Daniels Family Charitable Foundation, Raleigh, North Carolina

Roger B. Taney

Roger B. Taney

William Henry Rinehart

1887
Bronze
City of Baltimore, Maryland

Bronze statue of Robert E. Lee & Stonewall Jackson on horseback. Jackson wears a Confederate uniform and kepi hat. Lee wears a Confederate uniform, overcoat, and brimmed hat.

Robert E. Lee & Stonewall Jackson

Laura Gardin Fraser

1948
Bronze
City of Baltimore, Maryland

Bronze statue of a seated man in a suit covered in yellow, green, red, and black graffiti.

Matthew Fontaine Maury

Frederick William Sievers

1929
Bronze
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

A bronze statue that has been splattered with yellow and pink paint. It lays on its back with its arm outstretched to the sky. The face and head have been flattened.

Jefferson Davis & Vindicatrix

Edward V. Valentine

1907
Bronze
The Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

Installation view of slabs of granite that have been graffiti'd

Fragments from Robert E. Lee monument base

Paul Pujol

1890
Granite
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

Three green street signs installed on a column. One sign reading "Rosa L. Parks Ave" hangs from one side side. Two signs reading "W Jeff Davis Ave" and "W Fred D Gray Ave" hangs from another side

W. Jeff Davis Ave. & Rosa L. Parks Ave. & Fred Gray Ave.

Aluminum
City of Montgomery, Alabama

A vertical bronze statue which recombines elements of a general and his horse charging into battle. A disembodied arm hangs off the base while another holds a sword in its hand blade first. Four horses legs sprout out of a central mass of limbs and a horses snout protrudes from its belly. A faceless head dangles from the top.

Unmanned Drone

Kara Walker

2023
Bronze statue made from Chales Keck's 1921 statue of Stonewall Jackson, which stood in Charlottesville Virginia and was decomissioned in 2021
Commissioned by The Brick
Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins

HOMEGOING by Davóne Tines & Julie Dash

HOMEGOING

Davóne Tines & Julie Dash

2025
Two channel video projection (color, sound)
Commissioned by MOCA & The Brick
Courtesy of the artists

Sculpture in the shape of civil war cap with latticed exterior, steel brim, and crosshair at the top

Tabernacle

Martin Puryear

2019
Steel, red cedar, American cypress, pine, makore veneer, canvas, printed cotton fabric, glass, stainless steel
Glenstone Museum

Double exposed black and white portraits of a young Black girl and a young white woman superimposed on one or another

Studio Portraits

Hugh Mangum

Untitled, ca. 1897-1922
Courtesy of the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Three reflective black trapezoidal sculptures stand in a triangular arrangement

Rate of Transformation, Distance

Torkwase Dyson

2018/2025
Wood and acrylic
Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery

Animation of monument forms made of many white dots on a black background. Some forms are in the process of dissolving.

An American Reflection

Monument Lab

2025
Digital video (black and white; sound)
Commissioned by MOCA & The Brick
Courtesy of the artist

A bronze statue of a woman in a draping robe pointing her finger to the sky is placed in the corner with its back to the camera. It sits in front of two reflective black walls. Red, purple, and blue theater lights shine. A camera on a post hangs from the ceiling.

The Warden

Cauleen Smith

2025
CCTV camera, single-channel live feed video
Courtesy of the artist and Morán Morán

A Black woman wearing a long white skirt, white pumps, and a draped white fabric that partially covers her breasts stands in an empty lot looking towards the camera directly. Multistory brick buildings can be seen in the background and to her right and left are two murals, one of which includers the American flag.

White Shoes series

Nona Faustine

Ye Are My Witness, Brooklyn, NY, 2018
Pigment Print
Courtesy of the Estate of Nona Faustine and Higher Pictures

Practice, Practice, Practice by Kevin Jerome Everson

Practice, Practice, Practice

Kevin Jerome Everson

2024
Single channel video projection transferred from 16 mm film (black and white; sound)
Commissioned by MOCA & The Brick
Courtesy of the artist

Bronze cast models of a city landscape with trees, billboard, smokestacks, armored police cars, and telephone poles atop metal tables.

New Nation (States) Battle of Manassas - 2014

Kahlil Robert Irving

2024-2025
Cast bronze
Commissioned by MOCA & The Brick
Courtesy of the artist

Large painting with light blue background with bands of dark blue, light orange, deep orange, and maroon comprised of the artist's footsteps

Cadence Series

Walter Price

Evidence of progression, 2023
Acrylic and gesso on canvas
Commissioned by MOCA & The Brick
Private collection

Bronze statue of winged female allegorical figure holding a dying young soldier in one arm and holding up a laurel wreath with the other. Red paint has been splashed on the monument

Confederate Soldiers & Sailors

Frederick W. Ruckstuhl

1903
Bronze
City of Baltimore, Maryland

Five channel video installation that is set in Reconstruction era South Carolina. Three channels show a white woman speaking with a Black man in an army uniform. The Black man is played by three different actors, one of whom is a white man in blackface. In one channel a white man is shown in profile walking through town. In the final channel, a man hunting in a field with bow and arrows is shown from behind.

Birth of a Nation

Stan Douglas

2025
Five-channel video installation (color; silent)
Commissioned by the Hartwig Art Foundation with The Brick
Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner

A mass of wooden china cabinets and scaffolding covered in singed fabric with glowing orange, red, and blue lights.

Deo Vindice
(Orion's Cabinet)

Abigail DeVille

2025
China cabinets, charcoal, rusted steel scaffolding, pig blood, salt, mud, lights, and natural fiber
Commissioned by MOCA & The Brick
Courtesy of the artist

A plaster sculpture depicting a teen boy holding a small replica of a statue of a man on a horse. The sculpture stands atop a pedestal.

Descendant

Karon Davis

2025
Plywood, MDF, latex paint, metal hardware, steel, aluminum, fiberglass
Commissioned by MOCA and The Brick
Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94

Scattered rose petals carved from granite sit amidst a large slab of granite (front view)

Love is dangerous

Bethany Collins

2024-2025
Pink granite
Commissioned by MOCA & The Brick
Courtesy of the artist; Alexander Gray Associates, New York; and PATRON Gallery, Chicago

Newspaper: The Baltimore Sun · Oct 21, 1923

The Baltimore Sun · Oct 21, 1923

A bright orange Dodge Charger with a Confederate battle flag on the top of the car stands upright, nose first, in a sand box. "01" is painted in black block letters on the door and "General Lee" in blue text surrounds the battle flag on the hood.

A Suspension of Hostilities

Hank Willis Thomas

2019 
1969 Dodge Charger Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery

The Klan Series by Andres Serrano

The Klan Series

Andres Serrano

Klansman, Grand Dragon, 1990
Pigment print
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Newspaper: Memorial Exhibition At Maryland Institute

The Montgomery Times (Montgomery, Alabama)
Sat, Apr 22, 1905

Bronze statue of a standing woman looking off into the distance. Below her, another woman holds a dying Confederate soldier

Confederate Women of Maryland

J. Maxwell Miller

1917
Bronze
City of Baltimore, Maryland

Number 363 by Leonardo Drew

Number 363

Leonardo Drew

2023
Cotton and matte medium
Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation

Stranger Fruit by Jon Henry

Stranger Fruit Series

Jon Henry

Untitled #31, 2017
Digital archival print on matte paper
Courtesy of the artist

Newspaper: The Baltimore Sun · Oct 26, 1918

The Baltimore Sun · Oct 26, 1918

Newspaper: The Baltimore Sun · May 14, 1933

The Baltimore Sun · May 14, 1933

Newspaper: Confederate Monument

The Montgomery Times (Montgomery, Alabama) Sat, Apr 22, 1905

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