Sacred Cod of Massachusetts
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| Year | 1784 |
|---|---|
| Type | Wood carving |
| Dimensions | 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) |
| Location | Massachusetts State House, Boston, Massachusetts |
The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts, also known simply as the Sacred Cod, is a carving of a codfish that hangs in the House of Representatives chamber of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, Massachusetts. The Sacred Cod measures 4 feet 11 inches (1.50 m) long, is carved out of a solid piece of pine,[1] and symbolizes the importance of the fishing industry to Massachusetts.[2] There have been a total of three Sacred Cods, the latest of which was carved in 1784 and presented to the House later that year by the Boston merchant John Rowe.[3] The current cod was stolen as a practical joke in 1933 by students from Harvard University, but was returned two days later.
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[edit] History
A representation of a cod has hung in the seat of Massachusetts government since at least the early 18th century. The first cod was a gilded wood carving of the fish which hung from the ceiling of what is now called the Old State House.[4] It has been suggested that this cod was a gift from Judge Samuel Sewall, but nowhere in his estate is this gift mentioned. [5] This Cod hung in the building until 1747 when it and the building's interior were destroyed by a fire.[6]
When the State House was rebuilt, the Sacred Cod was replaced by another wood carving, which was subsequently painted by Thomas Crafts Jr. in 1773[7], and a golden lion and a silver unicorn, symbols of the British monarchy, were added to the exterior of the State House.[4][6]
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony of the Old State House. Afterwards, the crowd that had assembled to listen, tore down and burned the lion and the unicorn as an act in defiance of British rule.[8] The Sacred Cod survived the destruction, but went missing from the House Chamber during the British occupation of Boston early on in the American Revolution.
The third Sacred Cod was carved in 1784 after John Rowe introduced the motion to the House "that leave might be given to hang up the representation of a Cod Fish in the room where the House sit [sic], as a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth, as had been usual formerly."[4][9][10]
The new Massachusetts State House, designed by Charles Bulfinch, was completed on January 11, 1798.[11] The governing bodies of the commonwealth moved to this building, bringing the Cod with them.[12] It hung in the House chambers only being taken down twice due to renovations of the room, and both times it received a new coat of paint.[1] Over time the State House again proved to be too small and an expansion was planned, which brought with it a new House chamber. The last business transacted in the former House Chamber before the move in 1895 was a unanimously adopted motion that created a three man committee to "prepare and report to the House the complete history of the codfish suspended in the chamber of the House of Representatives." [13]
Once moved into the new Charles Brigham expansion (which would be finished in 1898) of the Statehouse, the House ordered the "...immediate removal of the ancient 'representation of a codfish' from present position in the chamber recently vacated by the House, and to cause it to be suspended in a suitable place over the Speaker's chair in this chamber..."[13] The Sacred Cod was lowered from the ceiling and then wrapped in an American flag. It was placed on a bier and was carried by three Massachusetts Representatives, while being escorted by the Sergeant-at-Arms.[14] A procession to the chamber began and the Cod was carried as such to its new home. When the procession arrived at the new chamber, the members of the House rose and applauded the fish.[14] At this point a Resolution was passed to have the "representation of a codfish" re-painted, and it subsequently was by Walter M. Brackett. [15] It was then hung in the rear of the House Chamber, over the public gallery, in such a manner that the Speaker of the House faces the cod when he addresses the House.[16]
[edit] Cod-napping
On April 26, 1933, members of the Harvard Lampoon magazine stole the Sacred Cod as a practical joke in an event that came to be known as "The Cod-napping".[3][17]
Three members of the Lampoon staff pretending to be tourists, sneaked a pair of wire cutters into the State House and, when no one was looking, cut the cords suspending the cod. They hid the cod in a flower box that they had brought for that purpose and left the State House with it. An anonymous call tipped off State House officials that the cod was missing.[18][19] The theft was considered a major one, with the House of Representatives declaring that it would not legislate without the cod present. The Harvard Crimson investigated the theft themselves and determined that the Lampoon was behind it. On April 27, the Crimson gave the staff of the Lampoon an ultimatum to give the Sacred Cod, by midnight, to them and allow the Crimson to take credit for returning it or they would go public with their findings.[20] After not receiving a reply from the Lampoon, the details of theft were printed in the next morning's edition of the Crimson.
The Massachusetts State Police were called in to assist with the search for the cod. They went so far as to dredge the Charles River, in hopes of recovering the Sacred Cod.[20] The authorities also found out that a member of the Lampoon staff was on board a plane heading to Newark, New Jersey. They searched Logan International Airport and wired the authorities in Newark to search the plane the student was on when it arrived, but the cod was still not recovered.[21] The office of the mayor of Boston also received a call saying to "tell the Mayor that when the Sacred Cod is returned it will be wrapped in the municipal flag, now flying in front of City Hall" and to "Try and catch us when we cop the flag."[19]
Two days after the Sacred Cod was stolen, the Harvard University Police Department received an anonymous phone call informing them on how to get the Sacred Cod back.[19] This led to the Harvard University Police following a car without a license plate in West Roxbury. After 20 minutes, two men, dressed in collared shirts with the collars turned up and hats pulled down, jumped out of the car and handed the cod to the police before speeding away.[3][19] The cod was not wrapped in the municipal flag as threatened.
On April 28, the Sacred Cod was again hung in the rear of the House Chamber, over the public gallery, only this time it was hung 6 inches (150 mm) higher to prevent future thefts.[22] No charges have ever been filed against anyone for the "Cod-napping", and the details on the whereabouts of the cod, during the 50 hours it was missing, never surfaced.[19][21]
The next threat to the Sacred Cod came in 1941, when the Aluminum-for-defense Collection Drive in Massachusetts was mistakenly informed that the Cod was made of aluminum, and asked that it be donated to the war effort. Christian Herter, the Speaker of the House at the time, informed the drive that the Cod was created 43 years before aluminum was discovered. Herter passed the request along to the Massachusetts State Senate where another fish emblem is displayed. [23]
In 1968 the Sacred Cod disappeared for a second time. it was found three days later behind a door in the House chamber.[24]
[edit] The Cod as a symbol
The Sacred Cod symbolizes the importance of the fishing industry in the early history of the state.[11] Cod are very abundant in the waters surrounding Massachusetts so much so that in 1602 Cape Cod was named by English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, for the sheer amount of the fish in the bay.[25] In 1974 it was chosen as the official state fish.[26]
Fishing for the Atlantic Cod, Gadus morhua, was the key industry for much of coastal Massachusetts. In both the Gloucester and Boston area, the cod industry supported about 400 boats to catch cod, as well as many other businesses related to the storing and shipping of the fish. These included salt mining, ice harvesting, and ship building.[27] The Fishing industry in the state was the largest around 1840, with roughly 1,300 vessels and 12,000 employees.[25] However, today, because of advances in fishing since the Industrial Revolution, the Atlantic Cod is in danger of becoming commercially extinct.[27] The Atlantic Cod is also now considered a Vulnerable species.
Representations of codfish have appeared all over New England for the same symbolic purposes as the Sacred Cod for centuries. Cod were represented on many early American coins as well as a two penny stamp for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[4] Cod also appeared on the Plymouth Land Company seals and the 1776 state Seal of New Hampshire.[4]
[edit] Other State House symbols
The State House has other symbolic carving and paintings. For instance, A pine cone adorns the lantern on top of the State Houses Dome. This represents the importance of the lumber industry in Massachusetts colonial days.[17]
The Massachusetts Senate also has a fish in its chamber. This fish, a brass casting, is incorporated into the central chandelier of the Senate Chamber.[3] This brass casting is unofficially known as the Holy Mackerel[2][28] in reference to the Sacred Cod,[2] but does not have the long history its more famous counterpart has.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Committee 1895, p. 20
- ^ a b c "The Massachusetts State House Today". Citizen Information Service. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cismaf/mf3.htm. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
- ^ a b c d "The "Sacred" Cod Moves to the New State House". Mass Moments. Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. 2009. http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=1. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Kurlansky 1997, p. 79
- ^ Committee 1895, p.17
- ^ a b "History of the Old State House Building". The Bostonian Society. 2009. http://www.bostonhistory.org/?s=osh&p=history. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
- ^ Committee 1895, p. 18
- ^ "Old State House". The Freedom Trail Foundation. http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/old-state-house.html. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
- ^ Belanger 2008, p. 149
- ^ Committee 1895, p. 13
- ^ a b A Tour of the Massachusetts State House
- ^ Committee 1895, p.12
- ^ a b Committee 1895, p. 4
- ^ a b Committee 1895, p. 7
- ^ Committee 1895, pp. 8–9
- ^ Committee 1895, p. 9
- ^ a b "House of Representatives". State House Tours. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/trs/trsbok/hourep.htm. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
- ^ "Massachusetts Sacred Cod vanishes from State House". The New York Times: p. 1. April 26, 1933. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50710F73F5F1A7A93C5AB178FD85F478385F9&scp=1&sq=Massachusetts%20Sacred%20Cod%20Vanishes%20From%20State%20House&st=cse.
- ^ a b c d e Boese, Alex. "Theft of the Sacred Cod". Museum of Hoaxes. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Theft_of_the_Sacred_Cod. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
- ^ a b "Sacred Cod theft laid to 'Lampoon'". New York Times (Boston): p. 19. April 28, 1933. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB071FFB3F5C16738DDDA10A94DC405B838FF1D3&scp=1&sq=Sacred%20Cod%20theft%20laid%20to%20%27Lampoon%27&st=cse.
- ^ a b "'Sacred Cod' back in Honored Place". New York Times. April 29, 1933. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A10F93F5C16738DDDA00A94DC405B838FF1D3&scp=2&sq=%27Sacred%20Cod%27%20back%20in%20Honored%20Place&st=cse.
- ^ Gellerman 2005, p. 5
- ^ "Sacred Cod Escapes Defense Melting Pot". The Evening Independent (Boston). July 16, 1941. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FKULAAAAIBAJ&sjid=C1UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6395,4595144&dq=sacred-cod&hl=en. Retrieved November 12, 2009.
- ^ "Codfish Still In Old Haunts". Toledo Blade (Boston). November 18, 1968. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gwMVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pAEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4516,5874238&dq=sacred-cod&hl=en. Retrieved November 12, 2009.
- ^ a b The Sacred Cod Celebrate Boston. Retrieved on May 7, 2009
- ^ Massachusetts General Laws Ch. 2, § 13
- ^ a b Brief history of the groundfishing industry of New England November 24, 2004. Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Retrieved on May 7, 2009
- ^ Haines, Jerry V. (July 18, 2004). "Beantown's Fine Brew of Politics and the Past". Los Angeles Times. http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-boston18jul18. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
[edit] References
- Belanger, Jeff (2008). Weird Massachusetts. New York: Sterling Publishing. ISBN 9781402754371.
- Committee of the House (1895). A History of the Emblem of the Codfish in the Hall of the House of Representatives. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing. http://www.archive.org/details/historyofemblemo00mass.
- Gellerman, Bruce; Erick Sherman (2005). Massachusetts Curiosities. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 0762730706.
- Kurlansky, Mark (1997). Cod: A biography of the Fish that Changed the World. New York: Walker and Company. ISBN 0802713262.
[edit] External links
