3-043-877 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The National Memorial to the Prince Consort: "America," by John Bell,1872. 'The group consists of a central figure of America, as a quarter of the globe, mounted on a bison, charging through the long prairie grass. Their advance is directed by the United States on the one side, while on the other Canada attends them...In the other figures of the composition are presented Mexico...and South America equipped for the chase...The figure of America is of the Indian type, and in native costume and feathered head-dress...in her left she bears a shield with blazons of the principal divisions of the hemisphere - the eagle for the States, the beaver for Canada, the lone star for Chili, the volcanoes for Mexico, the alpaca for Peru, and the southern cross for Brazil...The features of the figure representing the United States are of the North American Anglo-Saxon civilised type. Her tresses are surmounted by an eagle's plume...the attempt of the artist has been to present three distinct types of womanhood. The emblematic characteristics of Mexico are his somewhat Aztec face, his Mexican head-dress, staff, and feather cincture, and the cochineal cactus at his feet. He rises, restless and disturbed, from his panther's skin, but yet looks forward with hope'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.