Category Archives: Monuments and Statuary

Thank the Great Depression…

08 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, Washington, D.C.

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Geddes’ Mothers’ Memorial

The one good thing that came out of the Crash of ’29 was that it put the kibosh on John Geddes’s Mothers’ Memorial, a proposed monument to moms everywhere that thankfully never reached completion. The Mothers’ Memorial is just one of the many monuments, bridges, and other structures that were under serious consideration but never built in the District of Columbia. It gets worse. Here is what John Russell Pope had in mind for the Lincoln Memorial

Pope’s Lincoln Memorial

Also on exhibit is a London Toweresque bridge honoring Ulysses S. Grant put to consideration two years after the general’s death. The National Building Museum has these and other monuments to bad taste on display through May 28, 2012.

(Images/top, Library of Congress; bottom, National Archives)

My Civil War neighborhood

02 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, New York City

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Hey everybody, I was running to a function in the city this morning. Cutting through Madison Square Park on my way to my destination I stopped to take a few photos on my cellphone.

This is the William Seward monument, which was dedicated in the Centennial year of 1876. That same year the arm of the Statue of Liberty was also placed in Madison Square Park, as a fund raising effort to procure proceeds for the completion of the statue that now stands in New York Harbor. The rumor on the street is that this is the head of Seward soldered onto the body of Lincoln. The reasoning is that, there being so many sculptors working on Lincoln figures in the decade after the sixteenth president’s assassination, it was quicker and less expensive to build the Seward statue in this manner. I have no idea if this is true but the gangly nature of the subject’s pose makes it seem plausible, doesn’t it?

This is Admiral David G. Farragut of “Damn the torpedoes” fame. Farragut was a Southerner but remained loyal to the Union. Next spring when I visit Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx I will make sure to see his final resting place. David McCullough wrote about this Augustus Saint-Gaudens piece in the Wall Street Journal in May. The more time passes the more fascinated I am with public art, especially monuments and statuary. Each tells a fascinating if obscure story to those wiling to listen.

I always get a kick out of the professional dog walkers. This one “only” had five.

The Empire State Building from Madison Square Park. It was a beautiful late autumn day in the city, crisp with blue skies and sunshine.

Around the corner is the 69th Regiment Armory. I blogged about this not long ago.

The building dates to 1904 but you can see from the inscriptions below that the famous regiment of course goes back to the Civil War.

It is hard to make out, but the first entry for battles engaged in by the 69th is Bull Run. Better blog photos are a 2012 resolution, pun intended. I was so happy to see the restored painting at the New-York Historical Society last week.

Finally I was off to my program, where I took this during the lunch break.

Enjoy your weekend.

Cemetery robbery

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, Uncategorized

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Visiting cemeteries has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember.  One of my favorite afternoons ever was exploring Pere Lachaise one spring day a few years ago.  A few weeks back I was in one of the small cemeteries that dot Manhattan and can be found if one looks hard enough.  I struck up a conversation with one of the security personnel who told me that the theft of bronze, copper, and other metals has become an increasing problem in the past few years.  The metals are worth a great deal as scrap and apparently the economy is forcing individuals to desperate measures.  The Wall Street Journal corroborates that this is, sadly, a national phenomenon.  Civil War cemeteries would seem to be particular vulnerable to such crime, with their statuary and other ornamentation.  Hopefully officials are aware of this trend and will increase their vigilance.

Art on the Mall

01 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Dwight D. Eisenhower, Monuments and Statuary, Washington, D.C.

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I have not seen the new Martin Luther King Jr. monument on the National Mall yet and am withholding judgement until I do. Based on what I have seen in the media however, artist Lei Yixin’s design seems a curious choice both for the subject and the location.  The statue is inspired more by the Socialist Realism one would expect to see in Red or Tiananmen Squares than by the man who asked us to judge people individually by the content of their character. Indeed, the sculptor’s resume includes monolithic renderings of Chairman Mao in the brutalist style.  Reviews have been mixed.  Again, without having seen it I am withholding judgement.

Preliminary model of MLK Jr. statue

Another artist, the architect Frank Gehry, is currently desiging a monument on the Mall for Dwight Eisenhower.  I wrote my masters thesis on Eisenhower and feel I know something about the man.  I admire Gehry’s architecture, but his vision for the Eisenhower memorial gives me pause.  His ideas include massive metal tapestries designed to look like the silos on the small Kansas farm where Eisenhower and his brothers grew up.  These would in turn be held up by massive steel columns. In mid October Gehry answered questions at a gathering at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington. Eisenhower’s family has reservations, and others have expressed concern as well.  Eisenhower was a more modern man than he is generally given credit for and he would not necessarily be against a contemporary interpretation of his legacy.  One hopes, however, that Gehry fully articulates his vision before the project continues.

(Image/C-SPAN)

A Bronx Tale

07 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, Museums, New York City, Uncategorized

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Last Saturday a friend and I ventured to the Bronx.  After Staten Island this is the borough I know the least.  My friend and I made a pact to visit the borough more often this fall.

When one thinks of Colonial America, New York City does not spring to mind.  That is because so little of Gotham’s Colonial past remains.  The Valentine-Varian house lies on the Boston Post Road.

The Valentines were the original owners.  They tried to stay neutral during the Revolutionary War but still lost their fortune. After the war the Valentines began to struggle financially and the estate eventually fell into the hands of the Varians.  When it comes to New York City real estate, the more things change the more they stay the same.

A reminder that for a good portion of America’s history slavery was not confined to the South.

The Bronx River Soldier has a long history.  The Civil War statue was built in the 1890s and was in various locations and states of condition before finding a permanent home at the historical society.  At one point, during New York City’s Dark Years, the statue had even literally fallen into the Bronx River and been left due to scarce financial resources and indifference. Thankfully it was eventually rescued and now serves as a reminder of the sacrifice made by the men of the area.

I am sorry the location names are illegible.  A better camera is in my near future, I promise.  At least one can see from the title that Civil War memory was important to the area in the post war years.  As I always say, history is all around us if we just stop to look.  This particular book covers Brooklyn, not the Bronx, but here is one of my favorite titles.

William Saward was a member of the 9th New York, Hawkins Zouaves.  The 9th New York served under Ambrose Burnside. Saward died in April 1862.

Yes, that is the General Warren statue on Little Round Top.  The Saward family visited Gettysburg in the late 1890s.  I love the lady holding the parasol on the far right.

As elsewhere, the Grand Army of the Republic was a powerful presence in the Bronx.

This is a Decoration Day, 1911.

…and Memorial Day circa 1950.  Note the cars to the right.  In that decade before the Centennial there were still many people throughout the country with a living connection, through their parents or grandparents, to the war.


We walked ten or so blocks to the Edgar Allen Poe house on the Grand Concourse.  The house is closed for renovation but at least we saw it from the outside.  Poe rented the cottage from the Varians.

When Poe lived here the Bronx was rural and remote.  As the photo shows, it now lies in the heart of this vibrant community.

The afternoon made me realize that the Bronx is more than just getting on the subway and going to a baseball game.  I look forward to exploring the only borough that lies within the contiguous U.S. in greater depth.  When I do, I will bring that new camera.

Ulysses Grant Dietz

11 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, Museums, Ulysses S. Grant (General and President)

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The USA Today has a short interview with General Grant’s great-great grandson.  Dietz is an author, senior curator, and curator of decorative arts at the Newark Museum in New Jersey.  I have been to the Newark Museum several times over the years and can attest that it is one of the finest museums in the nation.  Sadly many don’t visit because of the location.  The best way to experience the Newark Museum is to visit the site and then have dinner in the Ironbound District.  Both are within walking distance of Newark Penn Station.

An added bonus is the nearby Gutzon Borglum statue of Lincoln.  An audience in the thousands watched Theodore Roosevelt dedicate Borglum’s statue on May 30, 1911.

(Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

(Thanksgiving Friday, 2009)

See you at the sites,

Keith

 

Stanley Bleifeld, 1924-2011

29 Tuesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Baseball, Monuments and Statuary, Those we remember

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(Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

Brooklyn-born sculptor Stanley Bleifeld has died.  When we were in D.C. earlier this month we saw his “Lone Sailor” at the U.S. Navy Memorial near the National Archives.  If you believe you have seen this elsewhere, you may be correct; copies stand in nearly a dozen cities across the country.  The World War II navy veteran was equally renowned for “The Homecoming,” his tribute to the always emotional return of a sailor to port and family.  A lifelong Brooklyn Dodger fan, Bleifeld executed “Pitcher” and “Catcher” at the Baseball Hall of Fame in the late 90s.  This work depicts southpaw Johnny Podres throwing to Roy Campanella in game seven of the 1955 World Series.

(Podres to Campanella, Courtesy: Find Free Graphics)

Bleifeld was active up to the end.  Satchel Paige’s daughter Linda Paige Shelby unveiled Bleifeld’s homage to her father at the Hall of Fame in 2006.  Just three years ago the octogenarian completed “It Seemed Like Reaching for the Moon.”  This eighteen-piece tribute to the Civil Rights Movement in Richmond, Virginia was a fitting culmination to a varied and prolific career.

The other Grand Army Plaza

21 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, National Park Service, New York City

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Ask most Brooklynites where Grand Army Plaza is and they will give you an answer, even if they have no notion of what Grand Army the plaza commemorates.  It is the area just before the entrance to Prospect Park, where Flatbush and Eastern Parkway divide.  One passes it all the time on the way to the greenmarket, the central library, the museum, or the botanical garden.  The other day I was in Manhattan on some non-Civil War related business when I came across the “other” Grand Army Plaza, the one virtually no New Yorker, however proud, would be able to identify as such.  I intend to do a more systematic series of posts on Civil War statuary in New York this spring and summer but couldn’t resist sharing a few snaps I took on the last day of winter 2011.


The plaza is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South.

It was a crisp, bright day and there was a sizable crowd watching some street performers.  In the background is the General Sherman statue.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens designed the statue.  Charles McKim, a frequent collaborator, built the pedestal.

Most famously the two worked together on the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial which sits in Boston Common.  When I was in Washington two weeks ago I saw the plaster mold that the National Park Service has loaned longterm to the National Gallery of Art.  One can see the similarities.

Whatever the season this area just outside Central Park is always a happening spot.

That’s the Plaza Hotel in the background.  One reason the statue works so well is because it fits proportionally into its surroundings.  Saint-Gaudens and McKim hoped to put the work just outside Grant’s Tomb, but Sherman’s family disapproved.  The tomb and this statue are both representative of the City Beautiful movement.  Saint-Gaudens’ final masterpiece was dedicated in 1903, six years after Grant’s mausoleum.

I often wonder if the men and women of the Civil War era could have imagined the multicultural twenty-first century America they helped bequeath to us.

Thanks for checking in.