Arts by Dylan: Andrew Jackson Canvas

I first saw a replica of this Andrew Jackson statue in Jackson Square NOLA in 2010.  The statue there sits in front of the location of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase and is in honor of the hero of the War of 1812 who saved New Orleans from a British invasion.  He gathered together a group of pirates, drunks, militia men, and random people in New Orleans at the time and saved the city.  The bar where his crew stored gun powder is still on Bourbon Street and claims to be the oldest bar west of the Missisippi. (even thought it's about 3 old city blocks away from the Missisippi River it still counts as west of the Missisippi).  The Andrew Jackson statue in New Orleans is in the French Quarter and was erected in 1856 and is a replica of this one in Lafayette Square.

 

This statue was sculpted by an artist named Clark Mills and is the world's first equestrian statue where the horse is on their hind legs.  He made replicas of this statue for New Orleans and Nashville.  He had never seen or created an equestrian statue until he created this one. 

 

Andrew Jackson is famous for many reasons other than defeating the British in New Orleans.  He also was President of the USA and founder of the Democratic Party. He also viewed himself as a regular every day man and would through dinners at the white house where he would invite random people from outside into the white house.  Often times itmes such as drapes, curtains, china, candles, etc went missing during these drunken white house parties that Andrew Jackson would host.  He also ruined the smell of the white house for his successor when he let a 300 lb block of cheese sit in the entryway for a year before throwing a party on Washington's Birthday in 1837 where they consumed the 1,400 pound block of New York Cheese.  Andrew Jackson left office 2 months later but some of the crumbs of the cheese got into the carpet and the smell may have lingered for the next 3-4 years and may have attracted rats. 

 

Ofcourse all of that is what makes history fun.  Another fascinating somewhat related fact to this statue is that the British did invade Washington District of Columbia in the war of 1812 and famously burned the White House and set the Senate Chamber on fire by starting a fire with the desks.  The US Army was not well prepared to repell the invasion.  However, by a freak climate event the British were defeated in their goal of destroying American Democracy.  A thunderstorm, rain, and a tornado swept through the District of Columbia a few hours after the fires were set by the British.  The rain put the fires out and the tornado did more damage to British regulars than the US Army did during the war of 1812 (maybe, at least thats what some politicians joked at the time).  The British were scared having never seen a tornado before and soon returned home.  Peace negotiations happened and an agreement was made.  It was after the agreement was made but before the news of the agreement could reach British forces in the Gulf or Andrew Jackson in New Orleans that the Battle of New Orleans happened.  

 

At one point in time the climate saved American Democracy.

 

Photographer: Dylan Carpowich