This striking monument, featuring sculpture by the prolific American sculptor Daniel Chester French, honors eminent Bostonian and historian Francis Parkman (1823-1893).The memorial is located on the site once occupied by Parkman's summer home, Sunnyside.

For several months after he graduated from Harvard in 1846, Parkman traveled to the American West and lived with the Oglala Sioux people. His best-known book, The Oregon Trail, describes that journey. The book, although featuring language we find offensive and outdated today, provides an invaluable description of life in the American West in that time period. He went on to write many historical works, most focusing on the time of the French & Indian War and detailing the struggle over the new world between France and England, which often included many indigenous groups.

Because of his well-known connection with Native American tribes, the memorial is adorned with the figure of an Iroquois Sachem. Parkman himself is depicted in a small bas-relief panel below. This first image of a Native American erected in Boston dominates the 20-foot-tall structure and is immediately apparent to passersby from across Parkman Drive.