Standing in the center of Stevens’ upper campus is a 16-foot-tall aluminum statue known as the Torch Bearers. Created by the American sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, the statue was presented to Stevens in April 1964 as a gift. Although hundreds of students pass by it every day on their way to and from class, most don’t give it much thought and miss the story told about perseverance, sacrifice, and the generational inheritance of knowledge.
The statue shows two men in the middle of passing a torch, one lying on the ground and the other mounted on a horse. The man on the ground has his face twisted into a grimace, visibly exhausted as he drags himself forward. His toes dig into the ground as he stretches his arm up, passing the lit torch along to his successor despite the clear struggle.
Meanwhile, the man on horseback leans down to receive it. Unlike his predecessor, he is smiling as he looks at the torch and the man offering it to him. His horse is mid-stride, hoof raised to take the next step, not fully stopping even for the exchange. The future moves forward. It doesn’t stop for anyone or anything. The contrast between these two figures is striking: one having pushed himself to the brink while the other is bright-eyed and eager to start his leg of the journey.
So, what does all of this mean? The Torch Bearers symbolizes the continuation of civilization from one generation to the next. The torch represents enlightenment, knowledge, and the responsibility of continuing the eternal relay of progress. Progress is never the work of a lone person. It compounds from one generation to the next, each carrier of the torch pouring everything into bringing it forward.
The sculpture itself has origins far beyond Hoboken. The original Torch Bearers was made in 1955, with Huntington dedicating it to the University of Madrid in Spain. Our version was dedicated nine years later, bringing the same message to our university’s campus.
The sculptor herself was an incredibly commercially successful artist, noted for her lifelike depiction of animals in a time before pictures could aid with understanding animal movements. Stemming from a family of artists, Hyatt Huntington was born in 1876 in Cambridge, MA. Hyatt Huntington was mostly self-taught, spending time at the Bronx Zoo to study the anatomy and movement of animals, with her talent eventually earning her international recognition.
At Stevens, the sculpture’s message feels especially relevant. Students arrive to learn from the discoveries of earlier generations before graduating and making their own contributions to the world. Whether they go on to be engineers, researchers, innovators, or entrepreneurs, everyone participates in the same exchange represented by the torch. The work we do now will eventually be ours to pass on to the next generation. So, the next time you walk through campus, consider taking a look at the figures and the story they tell, because we all participate in it. We are the man on horseback today, and the man passing the torch tomorrow.
