Sawyer, one of the two lions outside of the Oshkosh Public Library, and part of the Hicks Collection. June 26, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — All across Oshkosh, you can find statues commemorating past presidents and important figures in the city’s history.
They’re part of a collection of 23 statues donated by Colonel John Hicks in the 1900s and his estate in the years after his death.
One of those statues, a bust of President Abraham Lincoln, sits outside the Oshkosh Public Museum.
“He wanted to beautify the city, and in doing so, decided to gift a collection of bronze and marble statues to the city of Oshkosh to be placed in public view,” said Assistant Director and Chief Curator Emily Rock. “Either in front of schools, at parks, in front of the library.”
Hicks’ collection extends to the two iconic lions outside the Oshkosh Library, Harris and Sawyer. Hicks shared a deep connection with the library’s history, according to Director Darryl Eschete.
“A lot of his efforts to collect, because Hicks was a member of the library board at one time,” said Eschete. “Some of his collecting was with an eye towards, we want to collect things that would make sense in a public library. So that’s why they ended up here.”
Statues inside the library include Wisconsin Senator Philetus Sawyer and Marshall Harris, who owned the land the library currently sits on.
The statues extend all the way to Menominee Park, with a monument to Chief Oshkosh, a chief of the Menominee Native Americans.
Rock says the statues are a way to keep history alive.
“Not only are some of them by sculptors that were significant at the time, but also just the fact that we have this strong legacy of public art in the city of Oshkosh,” she said.
Rock said the city is working to keep that public art legacy strong.
“There’s still a lot going on as far as public art. Might look a little different now, because bronze statues were very popular at the time, but we still have other art. It evolves, people evolve and so we have a bunch of it to beautify the city,” she said.
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