Henry B. Hyde

This statuette is a reduction after a portrait statue of Henry B. Hyde (1834–1899), founder of the Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1859. In 1901, on the second anniversary of Hyde's death, the bronze was unveiled in the Equitable building at 120 Broadway in New York. This vigorous and realistic depicts Hyde in modern-day attire, and its success inspired the Equitable to authorize casting of at least eighty-one statuettes between 1901 and 1903. The Metropolitan’s is one of the first six, all cast in 1901.

Credit: Gift of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 1972