The statue is of William I, Prince of Orange (1533–1584), an early leader of the Dutch revolt against Habsburg Spain which led to the Netherlands' independence in 1648.

Turck, with the assistance of railroad executive and Rutgers alumnus Leonor F. Loree, arranged the anonymous donation through the Holland Society of New York.

While travelling in Europe after World War I, biologist and physician Dr. Fenton Benedict Turck (1857–1932) purchased a bronze statue of William I (1533–1584), Count of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and national hero of the Netherlands.

[2][3] The statue is a replica of a similar monument created in 1848 by Dutch sculptor Lodewyk Royer (1793–1868) that was installed in Het Plein, a city square in the Hague's Oude Centrum (trans.

[9][13] In the following years, the society considered commissioning the work from prominent American sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) and Daniel Chester French (1850–1931).

[9] In 1913, Tunis Bergen, a physician chairing the Holland Society's committee investigating options for a monument, visited the Netherlands and enquired whether a copy of the Royer's statue in the Hague could be made and took measurements and photographs of the work.

After its founding, the college was affiliated with the church through the early nineteenth century, and graduated many students of Dutch ancestry.[18]: passim.

[1][5][20] On the afternoon of October 11, 1976, United States Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts held a campaign rally at Rutgers during the presidential election of 1976.

[18]: pp.105, 107  Over the years, Princeton students have frequently doused the William the Silent statue with orange paint, usually in advance of athletic events.

[5] On October 11, 1947, before the annual football game between the two schools, "in the early hours of the morning a group of Tigers (i.e. Princeton students) infiltrated the Rutgers campus and painted the statue of William the Silent".

It was cleaned to remove the effects of graffiti and transparent tape residue, and conservation efforts were needed to restore the statue's bronze casting and granite base.

[25] In 1928, the statue of William the Silent was installed at the western end of Voorhees Mall, a section of academic buildings on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick.

The sculpture bears two inscriptions, a signed Founder's mark, near its base: "ROYER – STATUAIRE" and "FONDERIE NATLE DES BRONZES".