Nathan Hale, 1913
Bela Lyon Pratt (1867-1917, B.F.A. 1899)
Location: Old Campus
An idealized bronze statue honors the heroism of Yale College graduate
Nathan Hale (1755-1776; B.A. 1773, M.A. 1776), a young schoolteacher
captured and executed by the British during the American Revolution. Hale’s
youth and defiant last words, inscribed on the statue’s base, made
him a national hero, and his legend remained powerful over a century after
his death when alumni donated this monument. Unable to afford the renowned
Gilded Age sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, they commissioned the piece
from his former assistant, Bela Pratt, who had studied at the Yale School
of the Fine Arts under John Ferguson Weir. Combining dignity and beauty
with a traditional martyr pose, Pratt’s statue stands beside Connecticut
Hall, where Hale lived as a student.
A gift to Yale College by graduates and friends, 1914
