page_title: George Mason University
section_title: George Mason statue
hierarchical_section_title: George Mason University / Campuses / Fairfax / George Mason statue
caption_attribution_description: English: George Mason Statue on the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University
context_page_description: George Mason University is a public research university located in Fairfax County near Fairfax City in Virginia. In 1956, the Commonwealth of Virginia authorized the establishment of a Northern Virginia branch of the University of Virginia and the institution that is now named George Mason University opened in September 1957. It became an independent institution in 1972. It has since grown to become the largest four-year public university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The university is named after the founding father George Mason, a Virginia planter and politician who authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights that later influenced the future Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution. Mason operates four campuses in Virginia, as well as a fifth campus in South Korea.
  The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is particularly well known in the fields of economics and law and economics. Two Mason economics professors have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics: James M. Buchanan in 1986 and Vernon L. Smith in 2002.
context_section_description: The bronze statue of George Mason on campus was created by Wendy M. Ross and dedicated on April 12, 1996. The 7 foot statue shows George Mason presenting his first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights which was later the basis for the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights. Beside Mason is a model of a writing table that is still in the study of Gunston Hall, Mason's Virginia estate. The books on the table—volumes of Hume, Locke and Rousseau—represent influences in his thought.
caption: Statue of George Mason on the Fairfax campus,[d] adorned with balloons
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