In 1966, the Sun-Bulletin newspaper commissioned Wilson to design a memorial monument to President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated three years earlier. For this, his first public commission, Wilson designed an 11-foot-tall, triangular granite obelisk that contained seven bronze plaques, the Seven Seals of Silence. Each plaque represented an aspect of what he called the evils of noninvolvement of man in life.
The complete ensemble can be seen on the monument to Kennedy in Centennial Plaza, at the corner of Chenango and Henry Streets in downtown Binghamton.
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
The Seven Seals of Silence
Ed Wilson with Model for Seven Seals of Silence
Ed Wilson Installing Seven Seals of Silence
Ed Wilson Installing Seven Seals of Silence
Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Ed Wilson at a reception for Seven Seals of Silence at SUNY Binghamton
Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Ed Wilson at a reception for Seven Seals of Silence at SUNY Binghamton
Dedication of the Memorial to President John F. Kennedy
Dedication of the Memorial to President John F. Kennedy
Click here and here to read the dedication.
Ed Wilson's Faculty Fellowship Application for Summer in Harlem, 1968
Click here to read the entire application.
Excerpts from a journal that Ed Wilson kept during his Faculty Fellowship leave in Harlem (1968)