Statue of Junípero Serra (San Francisco)

The bronze statue of Junípero Serra that once stood in Golden Gate Park was a product of the early twentieth century City Beautiful movement. Former San Francisco mayor James Phelan commissioned the work from the noted sculptor Douglas Tilden and donated it to the park in 1907. At the time, the project was part of a broader effort to create a romanticized history of the Spanish mission era in California, often overlooking the harsh realities faced by the Indigenous populations who lived within that system.