Carl Sundberg and the Bicentennial Plate: Art, History, and the Washington Elm

Carl Bernie Sundberg, born in Torrington, Connecticut, was a Korean War Army veteran and a longtime resident of Wilbraham. He attended the University of Bridgeport, where he studied Industrial Design, and went on to build a distinguished career as a designer and master model maker for International Silver Company. He later served as Art Director at U.S. Envelope and owned and operated several successful ventures, including Sun Associates, Sundberg Castings, and Marketing Design Consultants. Carl was an award-winning sculptor, designer, inventor, and painter whose artwork and sculptures were widely displayed and admired. I came to know Carl modestly through my own professional career, and he always struck me as an exceptionally talented and interesting individual with a remarkable range of artistic skills. He passed away on November 11, 2015, at the age of eighty-six, and is buried in Adams Cemetery.

One of Carl Sundberg’s most meaningful and historically significant works was his original sculptural design for a pewter plate created in 1976 to commemorate the bicentennial of the United States. This plate stands as both a work of fine art and a tribute to America’s Revolutionary past. Sundberg’s design depicts George Washington standing beneath the famous Washington Elm in Palmer, Massachusetts, a tree long associated with Washington’s wartime and postwar travels through the region. The elm once stood on the south side of Old Bay Road, near an old tavern owned by Daniel Graves and his son Aaron, before the Boston Post Road was later realigned to its present location.

The 1976 Commemorative Bicentennial Plate (front) dfb

The 1976 Commemorative Bicentennial Plate (back) dfb 

The imagery chosen by Sundberg reflects the enduring symbolism of leadership, sacrifice, and the nation’s founding ideals. Tradition holds that Washington visited the Palmer Washington Elm on two occasions. The first, an undocumented visit on June 30, 1775, places Washington, accompanied by his staff, General Charles Lee, and a deputation from Cambridge, resting and dining beneath the tree while ordering “milk and other necessaries” from the nearby Graves tavern. While this visit remains rooted in local tradition, the second visit, between October 15 and 22, 1789, is well documented in the Mount Vernon papers. During that later visit, Washington is known to have addressed the citizens of Palmer beneath the elm.

A tombstone-style marker stood beside the tree, commemorating these visits and bearing an inscription noting Washington’s passage on June 30, 1775, and again on October 22, 1789. The marker itself reflects some historical ambiguity, as Josiah Howard Temple’s History of the Town of Palmer records Washington addressing the townspeople in 1789, while the Palmer Historical Society’s 1805 marker attributes that address to 1775. Regardless of the discrepancy, the site and Sundberg’s artistic interpretation of it capture a powerful moment in local and national memory.

The Washington Elm in Palmer, MA. Digital Commonwealth

Through this bicentennial pewter plate, Carl Sundberg fused historical scholarship, local tradition, and master craftsmanship. The plate stands as a lasting reminder of America’s founding era and as a testament to Sundberg’s ability to translate history into enduring art.