New England Cemeteries Offer Some of America's Earliest Public Art

 Falmouth, Massachusetts.  Old Burying Ground.  Gravestone of James Hinkley, 1740 (?).  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2014

   Falmouth, Massachusetts.  Old Burying Ground.  Gravestone of James Hinkley, 1740 (?). An early example image of an angel, or of a soul.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2014

 

 Falmouth, Massachusetts.  Old Burying Ground.  Gravestone of Elizabeth Nye, 1797.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2014

 Falmouth, Massachusetts.  Old Burying Ground.  Gravestone of Elizabeth Nye, 1797. Image of an angel, or of a soul.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2014

   
New England Cemeteries Offer Some of America's Earliest Public Art

The Puritans and their New England descendants are not often - if ever - celebrated in the annals of public art.  After all, these self-righteous religious were only once-removed from 17th-century European iconoclasm in which all sorts of art and monuments were destroyed.  Yet by the late 17th century, American Puritans demonstrated that they were not immune to the power of the monuments with symbols and sometimes, even images.  These can be seen inscribed and carved on the gravestones in early cemeteries across New England.  I love visiting these places, which remain austere and beautiful, and over the years have taken - unsystematically - many pictures.  

The plain shapes of the gravestones, and the plain language of their inscriptions are strikingly modern in their forthright yet laconic forms.  I doubt I can offer anything new to the long and rich study of New England graveyards and their stones, except perhaps to think of them as one of the earliest forms of American public art.  The other day I stopped at the beautiful and peaceful Old Burying Ground in in Falmouth, Massachusetts, which is not even on the local tourist maps, though it was once at the center of the town.

Boston, Massachusetts. Granary Burial Ground.  Gravestone of Elizabeth Cushion, died 1689.  Not surprisingly, the carving on many Boston gravestone is more intricate and finer.  This early Death's Head would feel at home in 17th-century Europe. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2005

West Tisbury (Martha's Vineyard), MA. Death's head image on gravestone of Joseph Cathdart, died 1757.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2012.

Among the earliest funerary symbols is the skull or death's head, usually winged, familiar to us from popular pirate lore, but actually a common symbol in post-Reformation Christian art, including elaborate works of the Baroque period which remind viewers of the passage of time, and the futility of fleshly pleasures and materials things - all the while demonstrating a great pleasure in the emotion and sensuality of art.  By the mid 18th-century, this more depressing image of the death's head was widely replaced with a more benign winged face, interpreted as that of an angel, or perhaps as an effigy of the soul of the deceased.   A few representative examples of this motif can e found in the Old Burial Ground of Falmouth, Massachusetts, and also in Brandon, Vermont.

Brandon, Vermont.  Gravestone of Solomon Hinds, died 1798.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont.  Gravestone of Solomon Hinds, died 1798.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

The Momento Mori aspect of the  funerary images are often emphasized by the inscriptions.  The Brandon gravestone of Solomon Hinds, who died at age 28 in 1798 admonishes us that:

All of you who read with little care

And go away and leave me here

should no forget that you must die

And be intomb.d (sic) as well as I

 Boston, Massachusetts. Granary Burial Ground.  Gravestone of John Cravath, died 1761. Another version of the angel of ascending soul.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2005

By the late 18th century, and through the mid-19th century, other more picturesque motifs are introduced, including the weeping willow and the urn.  These are found in abundance  at Falmouth, as well as the hand with a finger pointing heavenward.  A number of variations on the willow and urn themes co-exist and were seemingly carved by the same workshop, and even perhaps the same artist.  The symbolism of the willow is obvious - it is alive and it is weeping.  The urn's imagery is more complex since it derives from ancient art.  The urn was both the repository of the deceased's ashes, and when shown covered probably represents the grave or tomb.  But urns are also often shown alight, holding a flame, suggesting continued life after death, for the soul if not the body. 

 Falmouth, Massachusetts. Old Burying Ground. Three gravestones of the Dimmick Family from the 1830s-1840s. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014

Falmouth, Massachusetts. Old Burying Ground. Gravestones of Captain Prince and Mercy Dimmick and their son Prince L., from the 1830s-1840s. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014

Falmouth, Massachusetts. Old Burying Ground. Gravestone of  Mercy Dimmick, died 1827, age 65.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014

 Falmouth, Massachusetts. Old Burying Ground. Gravestone of Capt. Prince Dimmick, died 1841, age 78.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014

 Falmouth, Massachusetts. Old Burying Ground. Gravestone of Prince L. Dimmick, who died 1830 in San Francisco, age 21.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014

In Falmouth, the image of the hand with the finger pointing upward is occurs more and more by mid-century.  These look like the work of one artist - but they may represent a more positive or hopeful view of death.  the disembodied hand recalls a long tradition in religious art.  In Jewish art, and sometimes in Christian art, God or his representative is represented by an outstretched arm or hand - either open or pointing.

Falmouth, Massachusetts. Old Burying Ground. Gravestone of Moses Fisher, died 1848.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014.

These these hands in Falmouth have the clarity of modern day exit sign - pointing the way out and up.  Moses Fisher, who died in 1848 at age 39, is remembered with this optimistic couplet:

Rest in peace, gentle spirit / throne above / 

Souls like thine with Christ inherit / life and love

For more information see: Stephen P. Broker, Death and Dying in Puritan New England: A Study Based on Early Gravestones, Vital Records, and other Primary Sources Relating to Cape Cod, Massachusetts

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Katherine Lee Bates in Falmouth, Massachusetts

Falmouth, Massachusetts.  Statue of poet and professor Katherine Lee Bates, Lloyd Lillie, Sculptor (1986).  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014.

Falmouth, Massachusetts.  Statue of poet and professor Katherine Lee Bates, Lloyd Lillie, Sculptor (1986).  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014.

 

Katherine Lee Bates, trying to look stern.  photo: Wikipedia

 
Katherine Anne Bates in Falmouth, Massachusetts
by Samuel D. Gruber

A favorite sub-category of public monuments previously mentioned is that of poet-philosopher-sage-scholar, exemplified by Andrew Dickson White's seated statue at Cornell.  A potential sub-sub-category is that of college professor.  How many of them (us) are commemorated in stone and bronze, and how and why?

Well, the Cape Cod town of Falmouth, Massachusetts makes a big deal out of Wellesley College English Professor Katherine Lee Bates (1859 – 1929), who was born here, had a hard early life, before eventually gaining success as a teacher and everlasting fame as author of the words to the anthem "America the Beautiful." The house where Bates was  born is an historic site, and there is a statue of her prominently placed in the public park in from of the Memorial Library on Main Street, a park that also serves to honor the town's military dead.

Falmouth, Massachusetts.  Statue of poet and professor Katherine Lee Bates, Lloyd Lillie, Sculptor (1986).  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2014.

 

The life-size bronze statue by sculptor Lloyd Lillie, was inaugurated in 1986.   Bates is shown (if indeed she looked like this) as the inspired young poet, gazing from the summit of Pike's Peak in Colorado in 1893.  Bates originally wrote the words as a poem, Pikes Peak, first published in the July 4, 1895 issue of The Congregationalist, where it was titled America. Amended versions were published in 1904 and 1913.  Check out the original and amended versions.

The sculptor, like many before him, strives to give dramatic form to the life of the mind. 

Bates's life in Falmouth was not an easy one.  She was the daughter of Congregational pastor William Bates and his wife, Cornelia Frances Lee.  Her father died the year after being named to Falmouth's First Congregational Church, shortly after Katherine's birth.  The "widow Bates" and her four children were impoverished and moved five times during the next twelve years before leaving Falmouth for good, moving to Wellesley Hills. 

 Falmouth, Massachusetts. 16 West Main St.  Birthplace of Katherine Lee Bates.

Bates graduated in Wellesley College's second class, and returned to teach there for 40 years. A college dormitory is named in her honor.  Unfortunately, its banal design is not nearly as inspired as her famous poem.  She found success as a writer and teacher in Wellesley, where she rose to the position of full professor, and as a prolific writer and editor, published more than 40 books of poetry, travel literature, and criticism (for a list of these see the well-presented Wikipedia entry)

In Falmouth, where Bates returned to visit every year, and where she is buried, plaques inside Falmouth's Memorial Library, and at the statue commemorate her authorship of "America the Beautiful," her best known work.  But neither plaque mentions her long (presumed lesbian) 'Boston marriage" relationship with Wellesley College historian and economic professor  Katharine Coman with whom she lived for 25 years, until Conan's death in 1915.  

Today, this aspect of her personal life sometime outshines her professional accomplishments.  In 2012 Bates was named one of the 31 LGBT history "icons" by the organizers of LGBT History Month.  The women's relationship is explored by Judith Schwarz, in "Yellow Clover: Katharine Lee Bates and Katharine Coman," Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 4:1 (Spring 1979), 59–67.  I wonder how many American right-wingers know one of their favorite songs was penned by a lesbian.  But why not?  And don't forget the equally patriotic, but much less poetic "God Bless America" was written in 1918 by Irving Berlin - a Jewish immigrant.

Public Sculpture: Andrew Dickson White at Home on Cornell Quad

Ithaca, NY. Andrew Dickson White statue on Cornell University quad. Karl Bitter, sculptor, 1915. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2012.

Public Sculpture: Andrew Dickson White at Home on Cornell Quad
by Samuel D. Gruber

I recently wrote about the monument to Syracuse fireman and philanthropist Hamilton S. White.  Now I'd like to turn to a statue of his cousin, Andrew Dickson White (1832 – 1918), who is sitting pretty on Cornell University's historic quad, in Ithaca, New York.  Andrew White was an educator, diplomat, historian, and bibliophile. 

White was also co-founder with Ezra Cornell of Cornell University, where today he sits in bronze, very much at home in front of the classical style Goodwin Smith Hall.   The statue, by noted American Renaissance sculptor Karl Theodore Francis Bitter (1867-1915), was installed almost a century ago, in 1915.    Austrian-born Bitter was a leading sculptor of memorials and architectural sculpture.

Bitter and White chose the seated position for the commemorative statue. He had previously used the pose for a statue to Dr. William Pepper, placed on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, and in 1914 and 1915, about the time he was working on the Andrew White representation, on statues of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. 

 

Philadelphia, Pa. Statue of Dr. William Pepper, University of Pennsylvania. Karl Bitter, sculptor 1896.  Photo from Schevill, Ferdinand, Karl Bitter: A Biography (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1917).

This posture has a long tradition; in Greek and Roman sculpture philosophers, poets (and some gods) were often depicted seated, and Roman emperors were also sometimes shown seated.  Statues of enthroned leaders - emperors, kings and popes - have been common since the Middle Ages.  For men of ideas and culture the seated posture came with age and implied sagacity, and this format was especially revived by sculptors of the American Renaissance movement as an alternative to the ever-popular standing and equestrian figure formats.   There are many early 20th-century examples of seated figures, and in my recent travels I seem to be quite attuned to them.   For example, a seated figure of Benjamin Franklin by sculptor John J. Boyle was installed in 1899 in front of Philadelphia's Main Post Office, at 9th and Chestnut Streets (it is now on the University of Pennsylvania campus), and a copy was placed in Paris in 1905. 

Paris, France. Benjamin Franklin monument at Square de Yorktown, 1899 / 1905.  John J. Boyle, sculptor. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2013)

In 1910,  John Quincy Adams Ward created a bronze statue of financier August Belmont, originally for the Belmont burial plot, but is now in front of the the Preservation Society of Newport County at the corner of Bellevue and Narragansett avenues in Newport.
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Newport, Rhode Island.  August Belmont statue, John Quincy Adams Ward, sculptor, 1910.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008).

Andrew White was Cornell's first president and served as a professor in the Department of History. He was intensely interested in architecture, and he donated 4,000 architecture books to Cornell to help teach architecture (as well as the remainder of his 30,000 book collection) and this became the basis of the Cornell Library's esteemed architecture collection. White commissioned Cornell's first architecture student William Henry Miller to build his impressive house on the Cornell campus. 

Architecturally, the Andrew White statute serves an important purpose.  It humanizes the vast Cornell quad, one of the largest formal spaces on any American campus.  The relaxed pose is a softer counterpoint to the formal classical columns of Goldwin Smith hall, erected in 1904 afters designs by Carrére and Hastings.  The presence of the seated, relaxed Andrew D. White makes the big space seem smaller; more like a living room or salon than a military assembly ground.

White was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany (1879–1881), and first president of the American Historical Association (1884–1886). Upstate New York Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to nominate him for governor in 1876 and for congress in 1886. Following his resignation as Cornell's President in 1885, White served as Minister to Russia (1892–1894), President of the American delegation to The Hague Peace Conference (1899), and again as Ambassador to Germany (1897–1902)

Ithaca, NY. Andrew Dickson White statue on Cornell University quad. Karl Bitter, sculptor, 1915. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2012.

Ithaca, NY. Andrew Dickson White statue on Cornell University quad. Karl Bitter, sculptor, 1915. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2012.

Fayette Park's Other Firefighter: The Philip Eckel Monument

Cross posted from My Central New York

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument in original location at North Salina, State and Butternut Street intersection. From Views of Syracuse, N.Y. (Portland, Maine: Lyman H. Nelson Co. n.d.)

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008.

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008. For a portrait of photo portrait of Eckel click here.

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008.

Fayette Park's Other Firefighter: The Philip Eckel Monument
by Samuel D. Gruber

Continuing the theme of Syracuse Firefighters, begun with the recent posts about Engine House Number 10 and the Hamilton White Monument, it is time to give some consideration to the Philip Eckel Monument, also now situated in Fayette Firefighters Memorial Park, but once proudly displayed at an important intersection on the city's Northside, in the heart of what was once a strong German immigrant neighborhood, where it was dedicated in 1900.  

The history of the Eckel monument is a good lesson on the history of local fame, immigrant pride, city traffic, and public taste.  What was one of the most visible public monuments in Syracuse is now hidden away among the foliage of Fayette Park.  

Read the entire blog entry here

Gail Sherman Corbett's Hamilton White Monument, Syracuse

One of the finest public monuments in Syracuse is the Hamilton White Memorial installed in Fayette Park (now Fayette Firefighters Park) more than a century ago.  Here is a post about the monument, its talented sculptor Gail Sherman, and the subject of the commemoration, firefighter Hamilton White.

Cross posted from My Central New York , Saturday, July 6, 2013

Gail Sherman Corbett's Hamilton White Monument at Fayette Park

Syracuse, NY. Fayette (or Firefighter's) Park. Hamilton White Monument, Gail Sherman Corbett, sculptor. Postcard.

Syracuse, NY. Fayette (or Firefighter's) Park. Hamilton White Monument, Gail Sherman Corbett, sculptor.. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008)

Gail Sherman Corbett's Hamilton White Monument at Fayette Park
by Samuel D. Gruber

When I started this blog, one of my intentions was to report on the most important, interesting and beautiful (yes, I still use that term occasionally) public monuments in Central New York. A few years ago (!) I wrote about the restoration of the Kirkpatrick Monument at Washington Square, and mentioned the earlier monument to Hamilton Salisbury White created by the same artistic team - Gail Sherman and Harvey Wiley Corbett, (who married in 1905) and restored by the same women, Sharon BuMann. The monument is situated on the west side of Fayette Park (now Fayette Firefighters Memorial Park) and provides a well-designed architectural and yet intimate introduction to the park from Downtown.

Syracuse, NY. Fayette (or Firefighter's) Park. Hamilton White Monument, dlt. Gail Sherman Corbett, sculptor.. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008).

Because my most recent post was about a turn-of-the-20^th century Engine House Number 10, I'd like to now write more about the Hamilton White monument since it received a lot of attention when it was made, and it celebrates one of Syracuse's most colorful characters, and the founder and patron saint of our Fire Department. 

"The monument was erected by popular subscription as an evidence of respect to the memory of Hamilton Salisbury White, a wealthy and prominent citizen of Syracuse who took a keen interest in the improvement of the fire department, devoting much time and money to the discovery and utilization of the latest and best methods of fighting fire, and who met his death a little over six years ago while personally helping to extinguish a serious fire that threatened the business part of the city.” [from full article in The Craftsman, quoted at length below]

Read the entire blog post here.

Paris: Walter Spitzer Bronze Monument to the Deportation to the Velodrome d'Hiver Victms

Cross posted from Samuel Gruber's Jewish Art & Monument

Monday, July 1, 2013

Paris: Monuments to the Deportation to the Velodrome d'Hiver Victims

Paris, France.  Monument to the Victims of the Deportation to the Velodrome d'Hiver by Walter Spitzer, dedicated 1994. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2012.

Paris, France.  Monument to the Victims of the Deportation to the Velodrome d'Hiver by Walter Spitzer, dedicated 1994. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2012.

Paris: Monuments to the Deportation to the Velodrome d'Hiver
by Samuel S. Gruber

Paris is a city of monuments - some better known than others.  In 1993, a monument was created to commemorate the round-up of 14,000 Jews in Paris and their detainment in the Vélodrome d'Hiver an indoor velodrome (cycle track) at the corner of the boulevard de Grenelle and the rue Nélaton in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower.  The deportees, many of whom were women and children, were held in the velodrome for several days before their deportation to transit camps, leading in turn to their removal to Auschwitz, and their deaths.

The deportation of Paris's Jews was one of many callous acts of French collaboration in Nazi aims, which have gradually received more attention in France and abroad.  Émile Hennequin, director of the Paris police, ordered on July 12, 1942 that "the operations must be effected with the maximum speed, without pointless speaking and without comment."  Local police reports document that beginning at 4:00 a.m. on 16 July 1942, 13,152 Jews were arrested, of which 5,802 (44%) were women and 4,051 (31%) were children.  Some people were warned by the French Resistance or hidden and escaped being rounded up.  The arrested had to leave their homes quickly - they could take only a few items; blanket, sweater, shoes and two shirts.  Conditions in the velodrome were horrendous, with little food and water, few toilets, and no other amenities.  The deportation was remembered in Marcel Ophuls now classic documentary The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) and more recently an attempt to visually recreate the internment was made in the film Sarah's Key, released in 2010, based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Tatiana de Rosnay.  The book and film stirred intentional interest in the history of the round-up and the fate of French Jews, and I suppose led to my own visit to the memorials last when in Paris December.

Read the full blogpost here.

  
See more photos of the markers and monuments here.

Brandon Vermont Civil War Monument: Solitary Soldier Stands Guard

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon Vermont Civil War Monument: Solitary Soldier Stands Guard 

by Samuel D. Gruber

I've posted several examples (from Detroit & Troy) of a the big "wedding cake" type Civil War monuments popular in cities in the late 19th century.  More common, of course, are the many smaller monuments to found in almost every town in new England and Upstate New York - and throughout, I am sure, all of the Union states.

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

These monuments are memorials to the fallen as much a celebrations of any victory.  For the most part they were erected a generation after the war, when many of the soldiers who fought had reached maturity, and now occupied leading positions in government and business.  During the sometime disillusioning decades of Reconstruction, these monuments affirmed the value of sacrifice.  A good recent article by Nancy Price Graff discusses the ubiquity and similarity of Civil War monuments in Vermont - where one sixth of all Vermonter who fought in the conflict died on the battlefield or of wounds and disease.

The monuments tend to be sober and often somber.  The monument of Brandon, Vermont (where I recently visited friends) is a good example.  An an important intersection in the town a single uniformed, mustachioed, Union soldier stands on sentinel duty - guarding the town so to speak - and perpetuating the memory of his fallen comrades, the 54 men of Brandon how died in the war.  (This type of memorial is timeless, and recalls to me especially (albeit dressed) the steady repeated pose of Greek kouroi, possibly set up - at least sometimes - as funerary monuments.

The Brandon monument was inaugurated in 1886.  It is made by the White Bros. of Barre, Vermont granite. The sculptor is unknown, but this particular model of Civil War soldier is frequently found on monuments across the country.   

The memory of the Civil War lasted long after the fighting stopped.  In fact, the war remained a vivid part of family and civic culture for decades, really until the generation that experienced the fighting and loss was gone.  Though the country's last union soldier (Albert Woolsen) did not die until 1956,  the major generational passing took place after fifty years, just in time for a new set of memories - those of World War I - to take center stage in public life (and monuments).

 You can see pictures of many other Vermont Civil war monuments here.

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Like its contemporaries in Detroit and Troy, the smaller Brandon monument plays an important role in the townscape.  It is immediately visible upon entry to the town from the south (Route 7 from Rutland), and stands of the junction of several important roads and streets, especially Park Street, with its many fines houses four the 1830s and following.  Like similar monuments, it is hub around which this part of town revolves.

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Names of the dead. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013