Eternal Presence (Big Head)

Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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Eternal Presence is a monumental bronze head by sculptor John Wilson, which the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston says was commissioned in 1982 and unveiled in 1987 on the grounds of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, Boston. The Trustees of Reservations gives its height as seven feet. Local people call it the Big Head.

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Eternal Presence (Big Head)

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Site-level location · 42.3163° N, 71.0924° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

In Roxbury, a monumental bronze face looks out over the grounds of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, and the neighbourhood simply calls it the Big Head.

The sculptor John Wilson (1922 to 2015) was born in Roxbury. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, writing in April 2025, says Eternal Presence was commissioned in 1982 and unveiled in 1987. A smaller bronze maquette in the deCordova collection, described by The Trustees of Reservations, is a study for the full-size sculpture, which that page gives as seven feet tall.

Wilson said of it: “It is a Black image, but I want it to have a kind of presence and life force that will suggest a universal humanity that all people can identify with.” The MFA says he was inspired by the seated Buddhist sculpture in its collection and by the Olmec heads of ancient Central America, and that the texture of the hair is based on casts of Roxbury puddingstone, a stone found locally. According to the MFA, the head is meant to be androgynous.

The centre's director, Barry Gaither, told the MFA that he and Wilson first discussed the idea of a monumental head in the early 1970s, and that Wilson's essential concept was that it would be installed in the community of his birth. A community advisory member, D. McMillion Williams, is quoted by the MFA: “The Big Head is ours.”

In April 2025 the MFA said you can visit the sculpture at any time, and that each year, on the first Saturday after the Fourth of July, the centre hosts a community event called “Putting Your Touch on Greatness”, when the sculpture is cleaned and rewaxed.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A monumental bronze head (about seven feet tall, per the Trustees of Reservations) outdoors on the grounds of the National Center of Afro-American Artists. The MFA (2025) says it can be visited at any time and describes an annual community cleaning and rewaxing on the first Saturday after the Fourth of July.

ACCESS

Outdoors on the grounds of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Roxbury, Boston. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (April 2025) says the sculpture can be visited anytime.

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