Burnside Fountain

Infobox Sculpture


title = Burnside Fountain A.K.A. Turtle Boy
artist = Charles Y. Harvey
year = 1912
type = Bronze
height =
inch =
city = Worcester, Massachusetts
museum = The Burnside Fountain, affectionatly called Turtle Boy or The Turtle-Boy Love Statue, is a bronze statue of a boy riding a hawksbill sea turtle by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey that stands on a pedestal by architect Henry Bacon (who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC) in Worcester Common in Worcester, Massachusetts. The fountain was given to the city in 1912 by Harriet Pamela Foster Burnside.

History

Harriett P.F. Burnside gave $5,000 to the city of Worcester in 1905. This money was to create a sculpture and fountain for the public and their horses in memory of Burnside's father. [http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!295663!0#focus Burnside Fountain, (sculpture) ] ]

Daniel Chester French was the artist chosen for the Burnside Fountain. He supervised Charles Harvey, who actually designed and sculpted it. Sherry Fry completed the sculpture after the death of Harvey. [ [http://www.ci.worcester.ma.us/dpw/parks_rec/city_parks/common/monuments.htm DPW Parks, Recreation & Cemetery - City Hall Common Monuments ] ]

The Fountain was originally located at Central Square, then moved across the street to its current location in 1969. Since then it has been stolen on one occasion. Several other attempts to purloin the sculpture were foiled. [ [http://www.worcestermag.com/archives/2004/06-03-04/current/city_desk.shtml City Desk ] ]

The designation "fountain" is puzzling because there is no water in the basins of the fountain today. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a philanthropic movement centered around the difficult lives of the many horses that provided transportation in cities. Philanthropists wishing to ease the lives of these animals provided public watering troughs. Some were simple, but others were works of art featuring handsome sculpture, of which the Burnside Fountain is a fine example. The sea turtle was an appropriate element for a watering trough. Originally, water poured from the turtle's mouth into a series of four drinking basins for horses. There is also a lower trough for dogs to drink from at the rear of the pedestal.

"Turtle Boy" in Culture

Turtle Boy has become a kind of mascot for the city, in the way the The Little Mermaid (statue) is in Copenhagen or the Manneken Pis is in Brussels. [http://www.telegram.com/article/20070603/COLUMN21/706030528/0/OPINION Worcester Telegram & Gazette Albert B. Southwick ] ] A local music contest is called "The Turtle Boy Music Award," [ [http://www.worcestermagazine.com/content/view/1301/ Worcester Magazine - Play it again, Turtle Boy ] ] and at least one children's story has been written about the statue.

External links

* http://turtleboy.claudiasnell.com/tb/
* http://www.ci.worcester.ma.us/dpw/parks_rec/city_parks/common/monuments.htm

References