The sculpture was commissioned in 1890 by The Washington Post founder Stilson Hutchins, who wanted it placed in London but subsequently backed out of the deal. Elwell, a sculptor based in New York City, completed the work anyway and had it cast by the Bureau Brothers Foundry in Philadelphia,Annual report, Issue 42, Fairmount Park Art Association, 1908. The foundry appears to have been located at 21st Street and Allegheny Avenue, according to an 1892 advertisement. where it won a gold medal from the Art Club of Philadelphia in 1891. The next year, he shipped it to London and put it on display in hopes of finding a buyer, but was unsuccessful, largely because Dickens's will forbade any "monument, memorial or testimonial, whatever. I rest my claims to remembrance on my published works and to the remembrance of my friends upon their experiences of me."
