Sacred Cod: Difference between revisions

External images
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	News photo (Leslie Jones, Boston Herald-Traveler, 1933) showing the scene of the crime
	Leslie Jones photo showing the Sacred Cod with Harvard official Charles Apted, who had recovered it from "Codnappers"

The Sacred Cod
The Sacred Cod
	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]
Year	1784
Medium	Woodcarving
Dimensions	4 ft 11 in (150 cm) long
Weight	80 lb (36 kg)
Location	Massachusetts State House, Boston

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The Sacred Cod is a four-foot-eleven-inch (150 cm) carved-wood effigy of an Atlantic codfish, hanging in the House of Representatives chamber of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. It memorializes the cod fishing industry in the state.^[2] The current Cod is the third iteration in 300 years, as the first was lost in a 1747 fire, and the the second during the American Revolution.

"Sacred Cod" is not a formal name but a nickname which appeared in 1895, soon after the carving was termed "the sacred emblem" by a House committee.^[C]^: 3-4,12 The term would subsequently come to use in reference to actual codfish as well, in recognition of the creature's historical role in building Massachusetts's prosperity and influence.

In 1933, the Sacred Cod was stolen by editors of the Harvard Lampoon, which resulted in police searching the Charles River and an airport in New Jersey to find it. In 1968, the Cod was again taken briefly, this time by students at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

A fish figure is also displayed in the State Senate chamber as well‍—‌a brass casting (sometimes called the Holy Mackerel) above its central chandelier.^[3]

Significance

a round seal with an upright fish on the left, a bundle of five arrows in the center, and a tree on the right — Seal of New Hampshire, 1776

Years before the statesmen of the period had decided to make public acknowledgement of the indebtedness of the colony to the codfish, and had voted to adorn the assembly chamber with a wooden representation thereof, individuals and private corporations were eager to pay tribute to the codfish, and vied with one another in their anxiety to make the recognition as conspicuous as possible.

A History of the Emblem of the Codfish in the Hall of the House of Representatives. Compiled by a Committee of the House. (1895)

Codfishing was the first industry practiced by Europeans in Massachusetts, and fish has been described as the colony's first export,^[C]^: 23 this making the codfish an important symbol of New England. The image of the cod appeared on many early coins, stamps, corporate and government seals, and insignias, such as the early crest of the Salem Gazette.^[4]^[5] In the early 1900s, a codfish emblem began to appear on many Massachusetts license plates.^[6]^[7]^[8]

History

Poised high aloft the old hall of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, riding serenely the sound waves of debate, unperturbed by the ebb and flow of enactment and repeal or the desultory storms that vexed the nether depths of oratory, there has hung through immemorial years an ancient codfish, quaintly wrought in wood and painted to the life.

[... T]his sedate and solitary fish is instinct with memories and prophecy, like an oracle. It swims symbolic in that wider sea whose confines are the limits set to the activities of human thought. [...] To the sober student of the world's past this historic codfish is fraught with ripe significance. This old codfish has kept its place under all administrations, and has looked upon outgoing and incoming legislative assemblies, for more than one hundred years. -->

A History of the Emblem of the Codfish in the Hall of the House of Representatives. Compiled by a Committee of the House. (1895)

The modern Massachusetts State House (seen here c. 1862), where the third Sacred Cod hangs in the Representatives chamber.

What is now called the Sacred Cod has hung for three centuries‍—‌though with interruptions, and in at least two (and possibly three) successive incarnations‍—‌in the chamber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (or its predecessor, the House of Assembly of the Province of Massachusetts Bay).

After the destruction of the first Cod and disapearance of the second Cod, a third Cod was installed in 1784 (the Committee continued) after Representative John Roweasked leave "to hang up the representation of a Cod Fish in the room where the House sit, as a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth" in the old State House once again.^[C]^: 20 In 1798 the Cod was moved to the Representatives chamber in the new State House,^[C]^: 12-13 where it originally hung over the Speaker's desk. In the 1850s it was moved to the rear of the chamber.^{[note 1]}

The Cod has faced north (that is, leftward as seen from the Speaker's rostrum) since its installation in the House chamber in 1895, though after being repainted in 1965 it was, at least temporarily, rehung the other way.^[11]

"Sacred Cod" nickname

A poem appeared in the Boston Globe in 1895 referring to the carving as "the Sacred Cod".^{[note 2]} Within a few years, observers from across the career spectrum and the nation were using the term routinely.^[14] The phrase quickly came to refer not only to the wooden Cod in the State House but to actual cod from the sea as well, especially as an item of commerce.

"Cod-napping" and other incidents

Harvard Lampoon

In an incident now referred to as "The Cod-napping" by State House officials,^[15] on the evening of April 26, 1933, members of the Harvard Lampoon (the Harvard College humor magazine) entered the House of Representatives gallery, cut down the Cod, and carried it away in an unusually large florist's box equipped with protruding decoy lilies.^{[note 3]}

According to the New York Times, which itself had described the Cod as "worthless," Massachusetts officials were "shocked into a condition bordering on speechlessness" by the theft,^[19] with some legislators oppoesd to even transacting any state business without the carving.

Police dragged the Charles River searching for the carving,^[18] and, acting on a tip that a Lampoon editor had flown to New Jersey with the Cod, had the plane in question searched upon landing, although neither search proved fruitful. Harvard's Dean questioned students thought to be connected to the theft, and the Times reported that "So much general interest was provoked that The Boston Transcript indulged in two columns of news, hearsay, and speculation upon the missing emblem,"^[18] later referring to the Cod as Boston's "Palladium".^[20]

Eventually, a telephone call directed Harvard official Charles R. Apted to West Roxbury, where he was met by an automobile and was handed the Cod by two young men who promptly drove away.^[21] The Cod was repaired and restored on April 29 and re-hung in the House chamber, "six inches [15 cm] higher [than] the reach of any individual" so that a step-ladder would be needed to remove it in the future.^{[note 4]}

University of Massachusetts

Using a stepladder, on November 14, 1968, students at the new Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts took the Sacred Cod in protest of perceived legislative indifference to their school.^[24] It was found days later in a little-used State House hallway.^[25]^[1]

Greyhound replacement proposal

In 1937 Representative John B. Wenzler offered a facetious proposal to replace the cod with a greyhound, arguing that "the 1937 Legislature has shown itself to be completely under the power of the dog track operators." ^[26]

World War II

After the House of Representatives moved to its new chamber in 1895, the Massachusetts Senate, which took over the old House chamber, incorporated a fish figure, often dubbed the "Holy Mackerel,"^[3] into the chandelier in the chamber, as a reminder of the Sacred Cod that the House had taken with them.^[27] When officials of the World War II aluminum-for-defense drive, misinformed that the Sacred Cod was aluminum, asked that it be donated to the war effort, House Speaker Christian Herter explained that the Cod had been created decades before aluminum's discovery, and suggested that the Holy Mackerel be considered for sacrifice instead.^[28]

Notes

^ ^[C]^: 20 The Committee elaborated: "In 1867, for a brief space, the fish was missing from its accustomed haunt; but it soon returned, brighter than before, in a new coat of submarine motley. Again, in 1874, while the chamber was being renovated, the codfish was taken down to be repainted; and at the time [the House's 'venerable doorkeeper'] Captain Tucker measured it, finding its length to be four feet and eleven inches. He also noted that it was carved from a solid piece of wood. Since that time, a period of twenty-one years, the sacred emblem has not been profaned by mortal touch." Additionally, the Cod was painted in December 1879 (cost: 12 shillings) by Samuel Gore,^[9] older brother of future Massachusetts governor Christopher Gore and brother-in-law of Thomas Crafts, Jr.;^[10] and yet again in 1965.^[11]
Another source gives the Cod's length as four feet eleven and one-half inches, and its maximum diameter as ten inches.^[9]
^ The poem asked, rhetorically, whether "breathe there men so base, ignoble, treason-tainted / that from thy aerial throne would wrest thee, sacred sign?" ^[13]
^ ^[16] According to the Harvard Crimson (the campus daily, and the Lampoon's longtime rival)^[17] editors of the Lampoon, to distract their Crimson competitors from interfering with the planned "Cod-napping", first "laid siege to the Crimson building at 5:15 o'clock in the morning and commenced a futile search for the morning's papers which they intended to stamp 'Compliments of the Lampoon.' Disappointed and infuriated by their failure to find the sheets which had previously been hidden ... the invaders took their revenge by binding and gagging J. M. Boyd '35, Crimson editor, who was at the time working in the building. In spite of the gallant attempt at rescue made by R. P. Buch '34, and the effective defense afforded by the shovel of Adolph, veteran janitor, who was subsequently imprisoned in the boiler room, the visitors succeeded in driving Buch out of the building and into the inner sanctuary of the Catholic church [i.e. nearby The Church of St. Paul]. They immediately removed Boyd from the premises, and drove away to Wellesley Hills." ^[17]

In Cambridge, meanwhile, an arranged fracas between Lampoon and Crimson men was staged for the benefit of invited journalists.^[17] After sundry other hijinx, "Boyd was taken from Wellesley to Boston, where he and his captors ... were entertained at tea by friends of the kidnaped editor." ^[17]

Late on April 27, having deduced that the Lampoon was behind the Cod theft, Crimson editors issued an ultimatum: either the Lampoon hand the Cod over by midnight (allowing the Crimson to take credit for its return), or its deeds would be exposed. On the morning of April 28, The New York Times reported that the Crimson had accused the Lampoon of taking the Cod.^[18]
^ ^[22] A month later the Los Angeles Times published a poem by James J. Montague, "The Pilfered Cod":
From Winthrop Beach to Bunker Hill, / From Cambridge to Revere,
The voice of happiness was still, / One heard no note of cheer.
A pallor whitened every face. / All eyes were red and swollen;
A dreadful crime had taken place – / The Codfish had been stolen.

The Fish that symbolized a trade / Which, in the days of old,
The shores of old New England made / A strand of shining gold,
The Fish that millions came to view / With ardent admiration,
The Fish whose fame has echoed to / The corners of the nation.

When first I set my roving feet / Upon Bostonian sod,
I hastened blithely up the street / To view the Sacred Cod,
And in its dull and glassy eyes, / The instant of our meeting,
I fancied that I saw arise / A glance of cordial greeting.

Today there is an end of grief; / No more the skies loom black;
A chastened and repentant thief / Has brought the Codfish back.
No Stygian gloom now broods around, / No heart with woe is freighted;
Bostonian pulses leap and bound – / The Cod is reinstated.^[23]

Sources and further reading

Further reading

C.

Massachusetts. General Court. House of Representatives. Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish. (1895). A History of the Emblem of the Codfish in the Hall of the House of Representatives. Compiled by a Committee of the House. Boston: Wright and Potter.

Other sources cited

^ ^a ^b Harting, William (November 18, 1968). "Sacred Cod Fish Found—in State House". Boston Globe.
^ General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. "Ch. 2 §13". Massachusetts General Law. General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved January 15, 2013.^{[better source needed]}
^ ^a ^b Citizen Information Service. "The Massachusetts State House Today". Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
^ Hans Sperber (1962). "Codfish Aristocracy". American Political Terms. Wayne State University Press. p. 86. OL 5851122M.
^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008). Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (4th ed.).
^ Lovecraft, H. P. (June 1, 2006), Robert M. Price (ed.), "The Whisperer in Darkness", The Hastur Cycle, Chaosium Inc., pp. 177–8, ISBN 978-1-56882-192-4
^ Susanne K. Langer (2009). Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art. Harvard University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-674-03994-0.
^ "Chris Woodcock's Massachusetts License Plates".^{[better source needed]}
^ ^a ^b Burrell, Ellen Mudge (1927). The State House, Boston, Massachusetts (9th ed.). pp. 140–143.
^ Bell, J.L. (2016). The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War.
^ ^a ^b "Sacred Cod Back – And Backwards". Boston Globe. November 25, 1965. p. 58.
^ Cite error: The named reference taft was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "The Sacred Cod Again". Daily Boston Globe. January 20, 1895. p. 31.
^
"The Cod Must Move. New Massachusetts State House is Ready for the Fish". The Daily Free Press. Easton, Pennsylvania. February 22, 1895. p. 4.
- "Pension Row Makes Sacred Cod Squirm", Life, Time, p. 34, September 22, 1952
- Jones Brothers Garage (November 1, 1923), Land of the Sacred Cod [travel brochure]
- "Irreverence Toward the Sacred Cod". New York Times. September 21, 1930. p. BR3.
^ "House of Representatives". State House Tours. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
^ "'Clews' to Spare, but No Codfish". Boston Globe. April 28, 1933.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Canny Crimson Captive Claimed From Crass Commercialized Comic Cut-ups". The Harvard Crimson. April 27, 1933.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Sacred Cod Theft Laid to Lampoon—Prank Angers Officials—They Warn That Miscreant Will Be Persecuted—Return Promised in Call Twitting Curley". The New York Times. April 28, 1933. p. 19.
^ "Massachusetts Sacred Cod Vanishes From State House". New York Times. April 27, 1933. p. 1.
^ "Sacrilege in Boston". The New York Times. April 30, 1933. p. 4.
^ Cite error: The named reference NYT3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "State Police Says They'll Get Purloiners of Cod". Daily Boston Globe. April 29, 1933. p. A22.
^ Montague, James J. (May 16, 1933). "The Pilfered Cod". Los Angeles Times. p. A4.
^ Fripp, William (November 16, 1968). "Sacred Cod Gone from House Perch". Boston Globe.
^ "Our Opinion: Sacred Cod and not so Sacred Students". Mass Media. Boston. November 19, 1968. p. 2.
^ "Proposes Racing Dog Replace Sacred Cod". Daily Boston Globe. June 5, 1937. p. 13.
^ Henderson, Helen W. (1919). A Loiterer in New England. p. 360. See also photograph following page 354.
^ "Sacred Cod Escapes Defense Melting Pot". The Evening Independent. 16 July 1941. p. 9. Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 7 June 2023.

42°21′29.4″N 71°3′49.3″W / 42.358167°N 71.063694°W / 42.358167; -71.063694

[profane-12] [C]^: 20 The Committee elaborated: "In 1867, for a brief space, the fish was missing from its accustomed haunt; but it soon returned, brighter than before, in a new coat of submarine motley. Again, in 1874, while the chamber was being renovated, the codfish was taken down to be repainted; and at the time [the House's 'venerable doorkeeper'] Captain Tucker measured it, finding its length to be four feet and eleven inches. He also noted that it was carved from a solid piece of wood. Since that time, a period of twenty-one years, the sacred emblem has not been profaned by mortal touch." Additionally, the Cod was painted in December 1879 (cost: 12 shillings) by Samuel Gore,^[9] older brother of future Massachusetts governor Christopher Gore and brother-in-law of Thomas Crafts, Jr.;^[10] and yet again in 1965.^[11]
Another source gives the Cod's length as four feet eleven and one-half inches, and its maximum diameter as ten inches.^[9]

[15] The poem asked, rhetorically, whether "breathe there men so base, ignoble, treason-tainted / that from thy aerial throne would wrest thee, sacred sign?" ^[13]

[preemptive-21] [16] According to the Harvard Crimson (the campus daily, and the Lampoon's longtime rival)^[17] editors of the Lampoon, to distract their Crimson competitors from interfering with the planned "Cod-napping", first "laid siege to the Crimson building at 5:15 o'clock in the morning and commenced a futile search for the morning's papers which they intended to stamp 'Compliments of the Lampoon.' Disappointed and infuriated by their failure to find the sheets which had previously been hidden ... the invaders took their revenge by binding and gagging J. M. Boyd '35, Crimson editor, who was at the time working in the building. In spite of the gallant attempt at rescue made by R. P. Buch '34, and the effective defense afforded by the shovel of Adolph, veteran janitor, who was subsequently imprisoned in the boiler room, the visitors succeeded in driving Buch out of the building and into the inner sanctuary of the Catholic church [i.e. nearby The Church of St. Paul]. They immediately removed Boyd from the premises, and drove away to Wellesley Hills." ^[17]

In Cambridge, meanwhile, an arranged fracas between Lampoon and Crimson men was staged for the benefit of invited journalists.^[17] After sundry other hijinx, "Boyd was taken from Wellesley to Boston, where he and his captors ... were entertained at tea by friends of the kidnaped editor." ^[17]

Late on April 27, having deduced that the Lampoon was behind the Cod theft, Crimson editors issued an ultimatum: either the Lampoon hand the Cod over by midnight (allowing the Crimson to take credit for its return), or its deeds would be exposed. On the morning of April 28, The New York Times reported that the Crimson had accused the Lampoon of taking the Cod.^[18]

[27] [22] A month later the Los Angeles Times published a poem by James J. Montague, "The Pilfered Cod":
From Winthrop Beach to Bunker Hill, / From Cambridge to Revere,
The voice of happiness was still, / One heard no note of cheer.
A pallor whitened every face. / All eyes were red and swollen;
A dreadful crime had taken place – / The Codfish had been stolen.

The Fish that symbolized a trade / Which, in the days of old,
The shores of old New England made / A strand of shining gold,
The Fish that millions came to view / With ardent admiration,
The Fish whose fame has echoed to / The corners of the nation.

When first I set my roving feet / Upon Bostonian sod,
I hastened blithely up the street / To view the Sacred Cod,
And in its dull and glassy eyes, / The instant of our meeting,
I fancied that I saw arise / A glance of cordial greeting.

Today there is an end of grief; / No more the skies loom black;
A chastened and repentant thief / Has brought the Codfish back.
No Stygian gloom now broods around, / No heart with woe is freighted;
Bostonian pulses leap and bound – / The Cod is reinstated.^[23]

[globe02-1] Harting, William (November 18, 1968). "Sacred Cod Fish Found—in State House". Boston Globe.

[2] General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. "Ch. 2 §13". Massachusetts General Law. General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved January 15, 2013.^{[better source needed]}

[CIS-3] Citizen Information Service. "The Massachusetts State House Today". Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved April 8, 2009.

[4] Hans Sperber (1962). "Codfish Aristocracy". American Political Terms. Wayne State University Press. p. 86. OL 5851122M.

[5] Hendrickson, Robert (2008). Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (4th ed.).

[6] Lovecraft, H. P. (June 1, 2006), Robert M. Price (ed.), "The Whisperer in Darkness", The Hastur Cycle, Chaosium Inc., pp. 177–8, ISBN 978-1-56882-192-4

[7] Susanne K. Langer (2009). Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art. Harvard University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-674-03994-0.

[8] "Chris Woodcock's Massachusetts License Plates".^{[better source needed]}

[burrell-9] Burrell, Ellen Mudge (1927). The State House, Boston, Massachusetts (9th ed.). pp. 140–143.

[10] Bell, J.L. (2016). The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War.

[backwards-11] "Sacred Cod Back – And Backwards". Boston Globe. November 25, 1965. p. 58.

[taft-13] Cite error: The named reference taft was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[14] "The Sacred Cod Again". Daily Boston Globe. January 20, 1895. p. 31.

[16] "The Cod Must Move. New Massachusetts State House is Ready for the Fish". The Daily Free Press. Easton, Pennsylvania. February 22, 1895. p. 4.
"Pension Row Makes Sacred Cod Squirm", Life, Time, p. 34, September 22, 1952

Jones Brothers Garage (November 1, 1923), Land of the Sacred Cod [travel brochure]

"Irreverence Toward the Sacred Cod". New York Times. September 21, 1930. p. BR3.

[19] "Pension Row Makes Sacred Cod Squirm", Life, Time, p. 34, September 22, 1952

[20] Jones Brothers Garage (November 1, 1923), Land of the Sacred Cod [travel brochure]

[21] "Irreverence Toward the Sacred Cod". New York Times. September 21, 1930. p. BR3.

[tour-17] "House of Representatives". State House Tours. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved April 8, 2009.

[clews-18] "'Clews' to Spare, but No Codfish". Boston Globe. April 28, 1933.

[Canny_Crimson-19] "Canny Crimson Captive Claimed From Crass Commercialized Comic Cut-ups". The Harvard Crimson. April 27, 1933.

[NYT2-20] "Sacred Cod Theft Laid to Lampoon—Prank Angers Officials—They Warn That Miscreant Will Be Persecuted—Return Promised in Call Twitting Curley". The New York Times. April 28, 1933. p. 19.

[NYT5-22] "Massachusetts Sacred Cod Vanishes From State House". New York Times. April 27, 1933. p. 1.

[23] "Sacrilege in Boston". The New York Times. April 30, 1933. p. 4.

[NYT3-24] Cite error: The named reference NYT3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[get_purloiners-25] "State Police Says They'll Get Purloiners of Cod". Daily Boston Globe. April 29, 1933. p. A22.

[26] Montague, James J. (May 16, 1933). "The Pilfered Cod". Los Angeles Times. p. A4.

[globe01-28] Fripp, William (November 16, 1968). "Sacred Cod Gone from House Perch". Boston Globe.

[29] "Our Opinion: Sacred Cod and not so Sacred Students". Mass Media. Boston. November 19, 1968. p. 2.

[greyhound-30] "Proposes Racing Dog Replace Sacred Cod". Daily Boston Globe. June 5, 1937. p. 13.

[loiterer-31] Henderson, Helen W. (1919). A Loiterer in New England. p. 360. See also photograph following page 354.

[32] "Sacred Cod Escapes Defense Melting Pot". The Evening Independent. 16 July 1941. p. 9. Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 7 June 2023.

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v t e Cod, haddock and pollock
True cod	Gadus Atlantic cod Pacific cod Greenland cod Alaska pollock Norway pollock
Cod-like	Arctic cod East Siberian cod Eucla cod Blue ling Common ling Pelagic cod Polar cod Poor cod Rock cod Saffron cod Small-headed cod
Other cod	Blue cod Eastern freshwater cod Mary River cod Murray cod Potato cod Sleepy cod Trout cod Nototheniidae Antarctic cod Black cod Maori cod
True pollock	Pollachius Atlantic pollock Saithe (pollock)
Fisheries	Bottom trawling Cod boat Cod fisheries Cod fishing in Newfoundland Cod Wars Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery Fishing stage The Cod Fisheries: The History of an International Economy
Food	Cod as food Ackee and saltfish Arbroath smokie Bacalaíto Boknafisk Cabbie claw Cod liver oil Crappit heid Cullen skink Dried and salted cod Finnan haddie Fish and brewis Fish and chips Fish ball Fishcake Fish finger Fish fry Fish pie Fried fish Lutefisk Pescado frito Scrod Stockfish Taramasalata Traditional Grimsby smoked fish
Other topics	Banks dory Cajón de rumba Cod worm Fish flake Isinglass Sacred Cod Whitefish Whiting