George Dunham

George Dunham, by the noted Sicilian artist Filippo Sgarlata.  It is located at the Holland Avenue and sits atop a modest and slender, yet striking pedestal.

Civic leader and businessman George Dunham. One of his principle causes was helping immigrants integrate into the community and become citizens.

A bronze bust of George Dunham (1931), atop a granite pedestal, is located at the Holland Avenue intersection of the Parkway, one block from Genesee Street. Dunham was the founding editor of the Utica Daily Press, a progressive newspaper of which Thomas R. Proctor was vice president and part owner, and a founding director of the Utica Mutual Insurance Company (now known as the Utica National Insurance Group).

The bust was the creation of Filippo Sgarlata (1901-79), a noted Sicilian artist whose best-known public works are found in Palermo, the capital of Sicily; he gained most recognition as a designer of commemorative medals. Sgarlata executed this bust of Dunham during multiyear sojourn in the United States that began in 1926 but ended in 1931 because of the Depression, which cost him prospective commissions in New York City and inspired him to return to Italy.

This bust is one of only two public sculptures by Sgarlata in the United States, the other being a bust of Giuseppe Garibaldi in Providence, Rhode Island. It was fitting that a migrant from Italy crafted this dignified bust, which contemporaries considered an excellent likeness; Dunham, who was beloved in Utica for an array of public services, was particularly respected for his work with immigrants, among whom southern Italians were then the largest group locally, and Sgarlata had relatives in Utica.