Traditionally, statues in Boston are of a President, Patriot, General, Civic Leader or illustrious Bostonians. But at the far end of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall (Kenmore Square side), stands a life-sized statue of Lief Ericsson, who was none of the above!

Lief Ericsson is believed to have traveled to North America, from Iceland and Grenland, and establish a colony in Newfoundland which he called Vineland. (You can see the remains of this colony in Western Newfoundland – almost Labrador.) In the late 1800’s there was a revival in interest in finding evidence of viking visits to North America – hence the statue. In fact there is also a carving of a viking ship on one of the bridges crossing the Charles River. It was erroneously believed that the remains of a boat found underwater were in fact those of a viking ship. Sad to say, that was not the case.

But back to Lief and the statue.

The statue was made in 1887 and is one of, if not the, oldest statues of Lief Ericsson in North America. The statue was sculpted by Ann Whatley one of the few women sculptors of her  day. Finally, the statue has Leif facing west – looking for North America. Or maybe he’s looking for Fenway Park to see how the Red Sox are doing?

Combining the visit to Lief with a visit to Momma Duck and her ducklings (from Make Way for Ducklings) at the Garden end of the mall is a great opportunity to provide a little known piece of history to visitors, as well as seeing many other statues. And it is a very enjoyable 9-10 block walk.