Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale (1755–1776) was a soldier and spy for the American army during the Revolutionary War. He is best known for his last words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” which he said before his execution by the British. The bronze sculpture was designed by Bela Lyon Pratt, who depicted Hale as a young man, with his hands and feet bound, waiting for the hangman’s rope. Hale faces forward with an attentive posture and appears unbowed and unafraid. Presumably, he is about to say or has just proclaimed his famous last words, which are also inscribed on the base of the sculpture.

In 1945, the sculpture was donated to the U.S. Government by George Dudley Seymour, a lawyer and historian who had a particular fascination with Nathan Hale. Seymour carefully researched the life of the Revolutionary patriot, and at one point he purchased and restored the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry, Connecticut. In his will, Seymour donated the statue to the federal government, and it was moved from the Hale estate to be installed outside the U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. Many copies of this sculpture can be found around the country. The original version at Yale University dates to 1915, while this copy was likely cast around 1930.