Our Boy Could Be An American!

Look familiar? This wonderful illustration is not our Boy, but rather "The Unfortunate Boot", pictured in the News-Herald, published in Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio on 22 March 1894.The illustration came from the catalogue of J.L. Mott Iron Works in New York and the statue was first produced there in the mid-1870s. There are still around two dozen of them in existence in America, including three in Ellenville, New York, which http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/28906suggests was ground zero for the Boy with the Leaking Boot, as it was the home of Henry Brodhead, paymaster of J.L. Mott Iron Works. He took one home and for years it was proudly displayed on his lawn. Apparently it is now in storage in Ellenville undergoing long-term restoration, but the other two are still on display to the public.

There are many theories about the origins of the Boy with the Leaking Boot or the Unfortunate Boot as it was called in the late nineteenth century. Some say it originally came from Europe, but given the number of them in America compared to Europe, it seems more likely that Europe discovered the Boy in America. On the other hand, perhaps the statue was designed, manufactured or based on a European immigrant? We may never know.

John Carlbom, who donated the Boy to Cleethorpes in 1918, is reported to have been inspired by a statue of the boy that he saw in a restaurant in Hasselbacken, Sweden, but again maybe this had been imported from America.

Whatever its origins, the statue is now over 140 years old and still going strong, mainly across America but also in Cuba, Venezuela,Canada...and of course Cleethorpes!