The Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) was memorialized with a bronze statue in Washington Square Park in New York City in 1888. With statues a subject of recent controversy, especially as Columbus Day approaches yet again, the historical context behind this surprising statue of Garibaldi is worth digging into.

The mid-nineteenth century was the age of the nationalist revolutionary as an international celebrity, of which Garibaldi was one of the main exemplars, having spent time in exile in Uruguay and New York.