Sacred Cod
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The Sacred Cod is a four-foot-eleven-inch carved-wood effigy of an Atlantic codfish, painted to the life, hanging in the House of Representatives chamber of Boston's Massachusetts State House—"a memor
The Sacred Cod in its "natural habitat". "Humble the subject and homely the design; yet this painted image bears on its finny front a majesty greater than the dignity that art can lend to graven gold or chiselled marble", said an 1895 paean by Massachusetts legislators.[C]
A "sacred cod" in its natural habitat
The modern Massachusetts State House (seen here c. 1862), where the third Sacred Cod hangs in the Representatives chamber.
Etching (Ballou's Pictorial, 1856) of the old Representatives (now Senate) chamber, with the Sacred Cod near upper right
Massachusetts State House
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The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, located in the Beac
The Massachusetts State House in Boston, November 2016
View from above Boston Common
Aerial view