Virginia Dare Statue

This graceful statue is the artist’s version of an adult Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World.

Sculpted of Carrara marble in Italy by American sculptor, Maria Louisa Lander in 1859, the statue spent two years at the bottom of the sea following a shipwreck off the coast of Spain. The statue was salvaged and shipped to Boston, where it survived a fire.

In 1923, Miss Lander willed the statue to the State of North Carolina, where it was displayed in several buildings but was eventually sent to the basement of the old Supreme Court Building as some found her lack of clothing objectionable.

When The Lost Colony drama was written by Paul Green, the statue was sent to the waterside theatre. In the meantime, Fort Raleigh became a National Historic Site. Again, she fell out of favor. The statue was shipped to Paul Green’s estate near Chapel Hill.

When The Elizabethan Gardens were created, Mr. Green sent the statue to its present site, almost a hundred years after her creation.

Today, Virginia Dare stands at the place of her birth gazing toward the future despite the odds of the history, mystery and fantasy that surround her.

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