The Puritan (statue)

[1] Originally designed to be part of Stearns Square, since 1899 the statue has stood at the corner of Chestnut and State Street next to The Quadrangle.

In 1899, the statue was moved to Merrick Park, on the corner of Chestnut and State Streets next to the old city library, which would later become part of Springfield's Quadrangle cultural center, where it has remained.

This move was initiated in part due to the restoration of the Turtle Fountain and other fixtures at that location, but the proposal lacked support.

[10][11] In 2014, Chicopee city historian Stephen Jendrysik submitted the theory that the figure was a surreptitious portrait of the militant abolitionist John Brown, who was also a direct descendant of Deacon Chapin and a devout Calvinist.

[19] The anti-war congressman Samuel S. Cox considered that "[a]bolition is the offspring of Puritanism [which] introduced the moral elements involved in slavery into politics.

But Mr. Chapin's face is round and Gaelic in character, so in the Philadelphia work, I changed the features completely, giving them the long, New England type, besides altering the folds of the cloak in many respects, the legs, the left hand, and the Bible."

[9] Numismatist and art historian Cornelius Vermeule, in his volume on U.S. coins and medals, suggested The Puritan was one of American sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin's influences in designing the portrait of Governor William Bradford on the 1920-1921 Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar.