He’s not the guy on Quaker Oats: he’s much more interesting

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Jim deMaine
<p/>Not William Penn. <em>Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images</em>“/></figure> <p><em>Ed note: The statue of William Penn is a Philadelphia landmark. Sitting on top of City Hall, it maintained the highest perch in the center of the city for many years until the building codes changed. The history below gives a fascinating glimpse of this complicated man.</em></p> <p><em>From Aeon by Andrew Murphy:</em> “This year marks the 300th anniversary of the death of William Penn. For someone with such a prominent name, he remains a little-known and much-misunderstood figure. Iconic representations abound, of course, none more prominent than the 37-foot bronze statue atop Philadelphia City Hall. In that rendering, decked out in lace cuffs and holding his colonial charter, Penn looks every bit the far-seeing, visionary founder. Many assume that the familiar face on the Quaker Oats box, with its peaceful mien and slightly bemused smile beckoning the viewer to a healthy breakfast, is Penn. And then there is the portly older Penn, wearing a serious expression – a scowl, almost – and a vest that seems barely to button around his midsection.</p> <p>There are others, of course, including the images of Penn meeting with the Lenni Lenape under the Treaty Elm at Shackamaxon, which both reflected and reinforced Pennsylvania’s powerful founding mythos differentiating Penn’s just treatment of natives from the violence countenanced by other colonial founders.</p> <div class=Pages: 1 2
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