- List of sculptures in Central Park
"Sculptures in
New York City 'sCentral Park ."A total of 29 sculptures [With the monuments against the park's walls, the total of sculptures in the care of the Central Park Conservancy is described by the Conservancy as "over fifty".] have appeared over the past century and a half in New York City's convert|843|acre|km2|sing=on Central Park, most of which have been donated by individuals or organizations (and not the city itself). While many early statues are of authors and poets along "Literary Walk" and American figures like
Daniel Webster and "the Pilgrim", other early works were simply picturesque, like "The hunter" and "The Falconer"; other notable statues include sled dogBalto , the so-called "Cleopatra's Needle "— an Egyptianobelisk — Alice of Wonderland, and most recentlyDuke Ellington .Real People
*The
107th Infantry memorial is dedicated to the men who served in the107th New York Infantry Regiment duringWorld War I . The regiment was, as its name implies, stationed in New York, and consisted of males mainly from this region. In 1917, the National Guard's 7th New York Infantry Regiment reformed into 107th New York Infantry Regiment by merging the 7th, with parts of 1st and 12th IR, and smaller detachments from the 10th IR. The regiment was stationed atCamp Wadsworth until May 1918, when they were ordered to deploy toFrance , as part of the 27th (New York) Infantry Division. While in France, they saw heavy action, and at the end of the war in November 1918, of the 3700 men that originally was a part of the regiment, 580 men were killed and 1487 wounded, with four of the regiment's soldiers being awarded the CongressionalMedal of Honor . The memorial depicts 7 men; the one to the far right carrying twoMill bomb s, while supporting the wounded soldier next to him. To his right another infantryman rushes towards the enemy positions, while the helmetless squad leader and another soldier are approaching the enemy with bayonets fixed. To the far left, one soldier is holding a mortally wounded soldier, keeping him on his feet. Thebronze memorial was donated by 7th-107th Memorial Committee, and was designed byKarl Illava , who served in the 107th IR as a sergeant in WWI. The monument was first conceived during around 1920, was made in 1926-1927 and was placed in the park and unveiled in 1927. Can be found by the perimeter wall, atFifth Avenue and 67th Street.*Bronze sculpture of
William Shakespeare , on a stone pedestal, located to the south of the mall, just east of Sheep's Meadow; this sculpture was erected with funds raised from a benefit performance of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar " on November 25, 1864, at The Winter Garden Theatre, in a performance byEdwin Booth ,Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. and their younger brother,John Wilkes Booth .*The bronze bust of naturalist
Alexander von Humboldt by Gustav Blaeser (1813-1874) [Blaeser, who knew Humboldt, was said to have worked in part from Humboldt's death mask.] has stood since 1981 on a granite pedestal at Naturalists' Gate, 77th Street andCentral Park West , opposite the corner of theAmerican Museum of Natural History . The monument, donated by an ad-hoc association of German-Americans, the Humboldt Memorial Association, was dedicated at its original location at 59th Street andFifth Avenue on September 14, 1869. [ [http://www.centralpark2000.com/database/humbolt.html Central Park 2000: Alexander von Humboldt] ; [http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=11943 NYC Dept of Parks & Recreation: Alexander von Humboldt Monument] ] The bronze was cast byGeorg Ferdinand Howaldt , Braunschweig.*The Burnett Memorial Fountain, dedicated to the author
Frances Hodgson Burnett , was placed in the park in 1936 after being donated by The Children's Garden Building Committee. It was designed and created byBessie Potter Vonnoh between 1926 and 1936, and was placed in theConservatory Garden when it reopened in 1936. When Frances Hodgson Burnett died in 1924, some of her friends wanted to honor her memory, by creating a storytelling area in Central Park. They chose the Conservatory Garden as the site for the memorial, and it is believed that the two figures, a reclining boy playing the flute and the young girl holding the bowl represent Mary and Dickon, the main characters fromThe Secret Garden . The precise location of the memorial is in the Conservatory Garden, south garden, 104th Street and Fifth Avenue.*In 1892, a sculpture of
Christopher Columbus was donated to Central Park by theNew York Genealogical and Biographical Society in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of his arrival in the Americas. The statue replicates one made byJeronimo Suñol in 1892, [The park's sculpture is signed in the bronze "J. SUÑOL"; it bears the foundry mark of Federico Masriera Barcelona 1892.] located at the Plaza de Colon, inMadrid ,Spain . The New York version was placed in the park in 1894, and is today one of two monuments of Columbus found in the park's environs, the other being the statue surmounting the column atColumbus Circle . The sculpture depicts the explorer standing with outstretched arms, looking towards the heavens in gratitude for his successful voyage.*The bronze standing figure of
Daniel Webster by Thomas Ball stands on a high granite plinth at the confluence of two carriage drives near the foot ofStrawberry Fields Memorial , at approximately 72nd Street. Ball had circulated many examples of statuettes of this model. The over-lifesize bronze, cast in Munich, was presented by Gordon W. Burnham in 1876. The plinth bears as a bronze legend Webster's famous phrases LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE. . [ [http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/southend/danielwebster Central Park Conservancy: Daniel Webster] ]*
Fitz-Greene Halleck has been described as the "least known literary figure today on Literary Walk", despite being the only person to have a memorial unveiled by the then-president of the United States ,Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877, ten years after his death in November 1867. The monument was funded by the use of public subscription, and had a long list of prominent guests and speakers at the dedication and unveiling of the monument, amongst them the president's cabinet,General of the Army William T.Sherman, the poetsBayard Taylor ,George Henry Boker andWilliam Cullen Bryant , as well as other notable citizens. The monument is made in bronze byJames Wilson Alexander MacDonald , and is placed near the Literary Walk and The Mall. The monument has been thoroughly refurbished by The Central Park Conservancy, first by hot waxing it in 1983, and then again in 1992, as well as in 1999, when it was dewaxed, pressurewashed and repatinated, and then protected by a coating of a corrosion inhibiting lacquer.*
Hans Christian Andersen , the famous Danish fairy-tale writer, his most notable work being "The Ugly Ducking". His statue features him sitting and reading to a stray duck. The 1956 work by sculptorGeorg J. Lober was constructed with contributions from Danish and American schoolchildren. [ [http://www.centralparknyc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=virtualpark_thegreatlawn_hanschristianandersen Hans Christian Andersen] ,Central Park Conservancy . Accessed October 7, 2008.]*The statue of
Dr James Marion Sims by Thomas Ball was cast in Munich. It is located near Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street.Quote box
quote =KING JAGIELLO
King of PolandGrand Duke of Lithuania
1386-1434
Founder of a Free Union of the
Peoples of East Central Europe
Victor Over the Teutonic
Aggressors at Grunwald
July 15 - 1410 [Polish translation : 'Król Jagiełło, Król Polski, Wielki Książę Litewski, Założyciel Wolnego Związku Ludów Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, Zwycięzca nad Krzyżackimi najeźdźcami pod Grunwaldem, 15 lipca 1410.] .
source="-Inscription on theplinth "
align = left
*King’s Jagiello Grunwald Monument in New York City is an equestrian monument of kingWładysław II Jagiełło of Poland, holding over his head two crossed swords, is the biggest and most impressive of tens of sculptures located in theCentral Park . The monument commemorates the medievalBattle of Grunwald , also know as the First Battle ofTannenberg , where Polish knights supported by Lithuanian, Ruthenian, Czech and Tatar knights defeated theTeutonic Order which had the support of elite German, Dutch and English knights.On both sides of the plinth POLAND is inscribed and in the front lower right hand corner the name of the sculptor:Stanislaw K. Ostrowski (1879-1947), who created this bronze monument for the Polish1939 New York World's Fair pavilion, is engraved. As a result of the outbreak of theSecond World War , the monument stayed in New York; in July 1945 it was presented to the City of New York by theKing Jagiello Monument Committee and permanently placed in Central Park with the cooperation of the last pre-communist consul of Poland in New YorkKazimierz Krasicki . The King Jagiełło monument is situated on the east side of the Turtle Pond, across fromBelvedere Castle hill and just south-east from the Great Lawn. [ [http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/thegreatlawn/kingjagiello Central Park Conservancy: King Jagiello Monument] ]*
Sir Walter Scott andRobert Burns are sculpted in bronze by SirJohn Steell , the eminent Victorian sculptor. It was unveiled in Central Park, New York in 1880. It was intended to be a companion statue to one of Sir Walter Scott by the same sculptor, erected some eight years previously. It was the first statue of Robert Burns to be erected outside Scotland and was a gift to the City of New York from Saint Andrew’s Society of the State of New York and the Scottish-American community. For this sculpture Steell closely followed the portrait of Robert Burns painted by Alexander Nasmyth in 1787. Seated on a tree stump with a quill pen in one hand, Burns looks up to heaven. He is thinking of his true love Mary Campbell, who died at an early age. It was to her that he had written the poem “Highland Mary” inscribed on the scroll at his feet. It therefore conformed closely to the popularly held image of the poet's likeness and was greatly admired, with casts being commissioned for statues in Dundee, London and Dunedin, New Zealand. The Dundee statue was unveiled only two weeks after the one in New York in 1880 and the third cast was erected in the Thames Embankment Gardens in London in 1884. The Dunedin statue was unveiled in 1887.*The
equestrian sculpture ofSimon Bolivar was originally sited on the rock outcropping between 82nd and 83rd Streets overlookingCentral Park West , where the Bolivar Hotel once facing it commemorates its location. After Sixth Avenue was renamedAvenue of the Americas in 1945, the sculpture was relocated in the 1950s, to be paired with that of San Martín at the head of the avenue.*The standing sculpture of
Alexander Hamilton standing in a grove of apple trees and crabapples west of the East Drive behind theMetropolitan Museum of Art was "presented by John C. Hamilton 1880" according to the inscriprtion on its granite base. The donor was a descendant of Hamilton.Fictional Characters
*One large sculpture depicts Alice, from Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . The statue is located on East 74th street on the north side of Central Park's Conservatory Water. Alice is pictured sitting on a giant mushroom, reaching toward a pocket watch held by the March Hare, host of the book's tea party. Peering over her shoulder is the Cheshire cat, flanked on one side by the dormouse, and on the other byMad Hatter , who in contrast to the calm Alice looks ready to laugh out loud at any moment. Publisher and philanthropistGeorge T. Delacorte Jr. ordered the sculpture fromJosé de Creeft , in honor of Delacorte's late wife, Margarita, and to the enjoyment of the children of New York. Unveiled in 1959, de Creeft's sculpture tries to follow John Tenniel's whimsical Victorian illustrations from the first edition of the book. According to various sources, Alice is said to look like de Creeft's daughter Donna. The Alice in Wonderland project's architects and designers were Hideo Sasaki and Fernando Texidor, who inserted some plaques with inscriptions from the book in the terrace around the sculpture. Margarita's favorite poem, "The Jabberwocky" is also included; chiseled in a granite circle surrounding the sculpture:"
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe
"The design of the sculpture attracts many children who want to climb its many levels, resulting in the bronze's glowing patina, polished by thousands of tiny hands over the years since the sculpture was unveiled.
*Bethesda Fountain was in the original "Greensward Plan", developed byFrederick Law Olmsted andCalvert Vaux , the architectural middle of the park was called "The Water Terrace," for its placement beside The Lake, but the area became known as Bethesda Terrace after the fountain was unveiled in 1873. At the unveiling ceremony, the artist's brochure quoted a Biblical verse from the Gospel of St. John: "Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called… Bethesda…whoever then first after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." The fountain was designed and created byEmma Stebbins , who became the first woman to receive a sculptural commission in New York City when she was commissioned to create this fountain. It was designed and created in 1868, but wasn't unveiled until 1873, when the park was officially completed. In 1988 theCentral Park Conservancy cleaned, repatinated, and sealed the fountain with a protective coating, and it's washed and waxed annually in order to preserve it. The fountain can be found in the middle of the park, on the north side of 72nd Street.*
Balto was dedicated to the sled dogs that led several dogsled teams through a snow-storm in the winter of 1925 in order to deliver medicines that would stop adiphtheria epidemic inNome ,Alaska . The sculpture is slightly larger than the real-life dog, and is placed on a rock outcropping on the main path leading north from the Tisch Children's Zoo. The sculpture was created byFrederick George Richard Roth , and placed in the park in 1925. Like so many other monuments in the park, it's made ofbronze , and it was donated to the park by the Balto Monument Committee to the City of New York. Under the sculpture, a small plaque can be found, containing the following inscription:
"Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxins convert|660|mi|km over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925."*The
Indian Hunter (1866) byJohn Quincy Adams Ward [Signed in the bronze "J.Q.A. WARD Sculptor N.Y. 1866"; it was also inscribed by the bronze-founder, L.A. Amouroux, New York] was shown at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867 and made the sculptor's reputation. It was the first sculpture by an American sculptor to be sited in Central Park, in 1869; it stands on the pathway west of The Mall, between the Mall and Sheep Meadow, at approximately 66th Street. [ [http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/southend/indianhunter Central Park Conservancy: Indian Hunter] ]*
Eagles and Prey , designed and created byChristophe Fratin , is the oldest known sculpture in any New York City park. It is made of bronze, and was cast inParis ,France in 1850 and was placed in the park in 1863. The sculpture was donated byGordon Webster Burnham , who also donated the statue ofDaniel Webster , as well as other statues in other cities. The monument depicts a goat, wedged accidentally between two rocks, which is about to be devoured by twoEagle s. Their talons are sunk into the back of the goat as they flap their wings in victory.*
Still Hunt by sculptorEdward Kemeys (1843-1907) was placed in Park in 1883. This bronze sculpture of a crouching panther waiting to pounce, was created by Edward Kemeys, the famous American sculptor who also created the famous Hudson Bay wolves at the Philadelphia Zoo, and lions at the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Situated on a rock outcrop on the west side of the East Drive at the edge of the Ramble, the crouching animal has scared many joggers as they approach this life-size and realistic representation. Unlike the traditional sculptures of other animals in the Park that sit on a base or pedestal, Kemeys situated his animal directly atop the ledge of the rock. Kemeys was so interested in depicting his animals in a realistic mode that he traveled to the western states to see them in their native habitat.*The
Untermyer Fountain inConservatory Garden was donated by the family of Samuel Untermyer in 1947. The bronze figures, "Three Dancing Maidens" by Walter Schott (1861-1938), were executed in Germany about 1910. [ [http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/northend/untermyer The Untermyer Fountain] ]Other Sculptures
*Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
*José Martí
*Lehman Gates
*Ludwig von Beethoven
*Maine Monument
*Mother Goose
*Obelisk/Cleopatra's Needle
*Romeo and Juliet
*Sherman Monument
*Sophie Irene Loeb Drinking Fountain
*The Falconer
*Tigress and Cubs
*William Shakespeare
*José de San MartinNotes
References
* [http://www.oryansroughnecks.org/history.html O Ryan's Roughnecks - History of the 7th Regiment, National Guard New York]
* [http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/photogalleries/sculpturetour The Central Park Conservancy - Virtual sculpture tour]
* [http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=11991 NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation - Eagles and Prey statue]
* [http://www.forgottendelights.com/NYCsculpture/OutdoorMonumentsOfManhattan.htm Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide] Essays on the Sherman Monument, Simon Bolivar, Jose Marti, Maine Monument, Columbus Monument, Columbus by Sunol, Shakespeare, Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, King Jagiello, Alexander Hamilton
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