Spirit of ’61 (1911)
Artist: Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (1857-1935)Location: Union League of Philadelphia, 140 South Broad StreetA successor to the Gray Reserves, which originated in 1822, the First Regiment was the first to be called to action following the attack on Fort Sumter. The Spirit of ’61 shows a First Regiment soldier marching in full uniform, a unique rendering at the time of its execution. The statue was commissioned for the 50th anniversary celebration of the regiment in 1911. It was installed on Broad Street in front of the Union League of Philadelphia, supposedly until an appropriate location could be found in Fairmount Park. A site was never selected, however, and the work was formally deeded to the Union League on the regiment’s centennial anniversary. The artist, Bush-Brown, executed a number of equestrian sculptures throughout the United States, including Major General George Gordon Meade (1896) at Gettysburg.Source website: Spirit of ’61 (1911)
Washington Grays Monument (Base 1872, Figure c. 1907)
Artist: J. Wilson (1825-)Location: Union League of Philadelphia, 140 South Broad StreetThe Washington Grays Militia Unit was organized in Philadelphia in 1822 and soon became one of the city’s most popular military outfits. Later named the Artillery Corps, Washington Grays, the unit served with distinction in the Civil War and remained in existence until 1879, when it merged with the First Regiment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania.The Washington Grays Monument was initiated in 1871 by Edward N. Benson, who donated $2,000 for the erection of “a granite monument in a proper place to the memory of the gallant comrades who fell in the war for the union.” Artist J. Wilson first built the monument’s base, which was unveiled at Broad and Girard Streets in 1872 and relocated to Washington Square in 1898. In 1906, a committee of the Old Guard was appointed to procure a bronze figure to place on the top of the monument, which was dedicated in 1908 in Washington Square. The monument was moved to Lemon Hill in East Fairmount Park in 1954, and then relocated to its current site in front of the Union League of Philadelphia in 1991. The plaques around the monument’s granite base list the unit’s Civil War record with the added inscription: “To our fallen comrades 1861-1865.”Source website at: Washington Grays Monument (Base 1872, Figure c. 1907)
General George McClellan (1891)
Artist: Henry Jackson Ellicott (1847-1901)Location: City Hall, North Plaza, Broad and Market StreetsGeorge McClellan was born in Philadelphia in 1826. He left the University of Pennsylvania in 1842 to continue his education at West Point Academy, where he graduated second in his class. Though trained as an engineer, McClellan was best known for his military activities during the Civil War. He had the reputation of being a brilliant but sometimes overly cautious general: one who inspired loyalty and confidence in his men. The memorial to the general was commissioned by the Grand Army of the Republic and given as a gift to the city of Philadelphia. The artist, Henry Jackson Ellicott, completed a number of equestrian statues and memorials for cities throughout the country.Click here to the listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for General George McLellanSource website at: General George McClellan (1891)
Major General John Fulton Reynolds (1884)
Artist: John Rogers (1829-1904)Location: City Hall, North Plaza, Broad and Market StreetsOver eighteen years after Major General John Fulton Reynolds was killed by a sharpshooter’s bullet in Gettysburg in 1863, Joseph Temple of Philadelphia offered $25,000 toward a sculpture to commemorate the fallen Pennsylvanian and the state’s participation in the Civil War. The artist chosen was John Rogers, who was known for his parlor sculptures, popularly known as “convention groupings.” Rogers had never produced a sculpture of this scale before, and initially hesitated. He ultimately took on the project, and began studying the anatomy of horses and collecting information about the general. He aimed to “represent General Reynolds in front of the battlefield as he was on the first day of Gettysburg. The horse is startled and shying away from the noise and danger in the direction he is looking, while the General is pointing to the same spot and giving the direction to his aides at his side.”Click here to the listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for Major General John Fulton ReynoldsSource website at: Major General John Fulton Reynolds (1884)
General Galusha Pennypacker Memorial(1934)
Artist: Albert Laessle (1877–1954), initial concept by Charles GraflyLocation: 19th Street and Benjamin Franklin ParkwayGalusha Pennypacker, a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, became at age 22 the youngest general to serve in the Civil War. After the Civil War he served in the South and on the western frontier before retiring to Philadelphia. The General Pennypacker Memorial Committee sponsored this monument in collaboration with the State Art Commission. The basic concept was developed by Charles Grafly, an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine art who had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In addition to his sculptures for the Smith Memorial, he had created a massive statue of General Meade for Washington D.C. But Grafly died before the Pennypacker Memorial could be completed. The project was taken over by his student Albert Laessle, who was already known in Philadelphia for his Billy in Rittenhouse Square and hisPenguins at the Zoo. In keeping with the Beaux-Arts tradition, the monument portrays the youthful general in classical costume. With energetic determination the figure strides forward on top of gun carriage flanked by two tigers.Click here to the listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for General Galusha Pennypacker MemorialSource website at: General Galusha Pennypacker Memorial(1934)
All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors (c. 1934)
Artist: J. Otto Schweizer (1863–1955)Location: Aviator Park, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 20th StreetThe Honorable Samuel Beecher Hart, a Pennsylvania legislator and captain of the Gray Invincibles, the last “colored” unit in the Pennsylvania Militia, proposed a memorial to the state’s African American military men who served the U.S. in wartime. Funds were appropriated in 1927 to construct the memorial, and after much dispute about placing the sculpture on the Parkway, officials agreed on a site in West Fairmount Park. Schweizer placed a “torch of life” surrounded by four American eagles on the top of the sculpture; an allegorical figure of Justice holding symbols of Honor and Reward at the front; groups of African American soldiers and sailors – both officers and enlisted men – to the right and left of the figure of Justice; and at the back side of the sculpture, allegorical figures representing the principles for which American wars have been fought. In 1994, the city relocated All Wars Memorial to a much more visible site on the Parkway as originally proposed – an extraordinary and long overdue event.Click here to listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and SailorsSource website at: All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors (c. 1934)
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial(1927)
Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866–1947)Location: Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 20th StreetEven while the nation was engaged in World War I, Philadelphia decided to commemorate the Civil War. The city appropriated funds for a memorial, and artist Hermon Atkins MacNeil was selected for the commission. These two pylons, one depicting sailors, the other soldiers, were intended to stand as gates to the “Parkway Gardens.” They were moved to accommodate the construction of the Vine Street Expressway, but still mark the entry to Fairmount Park from the city. One of the inscriptions reads: “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.”Click here to listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for Civil War Soldiers and Sailors MemorialSource website at: Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial(1927)
Abraham Lincoln (1871)
Artist: Randolph Rogers (1825–1892)Location: Kelly and Sedgely DrivesPhiladelphia was one of the first cities in the nation to erect a monument to Lincoln after he was assassinated on April 14, 1865. The Lincoln Monument Association, chaired by Mayor Alexander Henry, was formed on May 22, 1865, and in a little over a year raised $22,000. Sculptor Randolph Rogers was awarded the commission for the memorial. Rogers rendered Lincoln in the naturalistic style that was prevalent in mid-nineteenth-century portraits. Seated, with quill in hand, Lincoln is shown just having signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The work was enthusiastically received by 50,000 people at its unveiling on September 22, 1871. In 2001 the monument was moved from its location on an island in the midst of Kelly Drive to a more pedestrian-oriented site just east of the roadway.Click here to listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for Abraham LincolnSource website at: Abraham Lincoln (1871)
General Ulysses S. Grant (1897)
Artists: Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) & Edward C. Potter (1857–1923)Location: Kelly Drive and Fountain Green DriveJust four days after the death of General Grant in 1885, the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) formed a committee to create a fund for erecting an appropriate memorial. By January of the following year, almost $13,000 had been collected for the Grant Memorial Fund. Daniel Chester French was awarded the commission for the monument and requested that a former student, Edward C. Potter, work with him. Potter had previously collaborated with French and was particularly interested in the modeling of horses. French depicted Grant “surveying a battlefield from an eminence and . . . intent upon the observation of the forces before him. The horse is obedient . . . to the will of his rider. We endeavored in the figure of Grant to give something of the latent force of the man, manifesting itself through perfect passivity.” The model was completed in 1893 and then enlarged to one and a half times life size in Potter’s studio in Enfield, Massachusetts. Casting at the Bureau Brothers Foundry began in 1896. The sculpture was dedicated on April 27, 1899, a date selected to coincide with the 77th anniversary of Grant’s birth.Click here to listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for General Ulysses S. GrantSource website at: General Ulysses S. Grant (1897)
Major General George Gordon Meade (1887)
Artist: Alexander Milne Calder (1846–1923)Location: Lansdowne Drive north of Memorial Hall, West Fairmount ParkGeneral Meade commanded the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, and is best known for defeating General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Meade also served as military governor for the Georgia district during Reconstruction, and a commissioner of Fairmount Park. He is responsible for designing many of Fairmount Park’s drives, walks, and bridle paths. Following Meade’s death, the Fairmount Park Association (now the Association for Public Art) initiated a campaign to finance an appropriate memorial. Though fundraising was slowed by Jay Cooke’s September panic of 1873 and competition from the Centennial, the Meade Memorial Women’s Auxiliary Committee finally raised the balance and a competition to select an artist began. The artist chosen was Alexander Milne Calder (sculptor of William Penn atop Philadelphia’s City Hall), and he based his rendering of Meade on his own memory, photographs, and the recollections of family members and friends. In 1887, over thirty thousand people watched Meade’s grandsons unveil the Meade statue, which was Calder’s first large-scale bronze and the first major commission project of the Fairmount Park Art Association. General Meade and his horse “Baldy” continue to gaze out across the park landscape in the direction of Laurel Hill Cemetery where Meade was buried.Click here to the listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for Major General George Gordon MeadeIn honor of the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Major General George Gordon Meade recently received special restoration treatment through the Association for Public Art’s annual Conservation Maintenance Program. Unique to this restoration was the installation of several re-fabricated elements, including the reins for Meade’s horse, “Baldy.”Click here to learn more about the restorationSource website at: Major General George Gordon Meade (1887)
Smith Memorial Arch (1897-1912)
Various ArtistsLocation: North Concourse Drive, West Fairmount ParkThe Smith Memorial Arch was initiated by Richard Smith, a wealthy Philadelphian who bequeathed a half million dollars to build a monument to Pennsylvania’s naval and military heroes of the Civil War. Smith had left the design and construction of the memorial to architect James H. Windrim, and the selection and supervision of artists to the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art). The Art Association’s 1897 call to artists attracted 59 entries, of which 13 of the most distinguished sculptors of the time were chosen. The loss of some of these artists along the way for various reasons delayed the memorial’s progress, and the project would ultimately take 15 years to to finish. The Smith Memorial Arch was finally completed in 1912 without fanfare – no doubt because public enthusiasm had waned over the years – but the artwork is one of the most ambitious monuments of its period and remains today as a gateway to Fairmount Park.The memorial is comprised of nine busts, three figures and two equestrians, created by various artists including Charles Grafly, Alexander Stirling Calder, Daniel Chester French, Edward C. Potter, John Massey Rhind and John Quincy Adams Ward. Notably, the two figures standing atop the arches are Major General George Gordon Meade by Daniel Chester French (left) and Major General John Fulton Reynolds by Charles Grafly (right); the two equestrians situated just below these generals are Major General George B. McClellan by Edward C. Potter (left), and Major General Winfield Scott Hancock by John Quincy Adams Ward (right).Click here to listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for the Smith Memorial Arch (Part 1 of 2)Click here to listen to the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program for the Smith Memorial Arch (Part 2 of 2)Source website at:Smith Memorial Arch (1897-1912)
