18. Lafayette, Prospect Park

Visitors to the ninth street entrance to Prospect Park are greeted by the Lafayette Memorial. Daniel Chester French designed the ten foot high bronze relief, which was a gift to the City by Henry Harteau, a French-Brooklynite glass insurer. The statue is likely based on a painting by Jean-Baptiste Le Paon entitled Lafayette at Yorktown. As a result, some historians believe (though it is far some settled) that that the man on the left of the sculpture is James Armistead, a slave from Virginia who served under Lafayette and was ultimately freed and became a slave owner himself.

Next check out the two other monuments honoring the Marquis de Lafayette in Union Square and Harlem.