Ellen Phillips Samuel

Ellen Phillips Samuel, c. 1910

Born in 1849,^[1] Ellen Phillips Samuel was a member of a prominent Philadelphia family, with her father being a distinguished member of the local bar association and her uncle, Henry Myer Phillips, being a member of the United States House of Representatives.^[2] As an adult, she was an active member of the Fairmount Park Art Association, a private nonprofit public art organization in the city.^{[1][note 1]} She died in 1913 and bequeathed much of her estate to the art association, specifying that the revenue raised from it be used to erect public sculptures that were "emblematic of the history of America—ranging in time from the earliest settlers of America to the present era".^[4] At the time, the bequeathment was reportedly one of the largest of its kind,^[1] amounting to over $500,000 (equivalent to $14,800,000 in 2022).^{[5][note 2]} In 1969, separate from her will-stipulated memorial, the art association erected a fountain in John F. Kennedy Plaza in her honor.^[8][9]

Initial plans

According to architect Alfred Bendiner, Samuel had been inspired by a statue-lined canal she had visited in Padua and hoped to emulate that with a row of statues along the Schuylkill River, along a 2,000-foot (610 m) stretch of land from Boathouse Row to the Girard Avenue Bridge.^[10][7] As a result, after her death, her widow J. Bunford Samuel commissioned Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson to create a sculpture of Thorfinn Karlsefni, an early European explorer of North America.^[4] The sculpture was erected near the Sedgeley Club along the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park,^[11] in line with Samuel's will, which stipulated the location of the monuments to be in the park along Kelly Drive.^{[note 3]} Bunford hoped for the statue to be the first part of the memorial, which would consist of a series of 20 statues of individuals from American history organized along the left bank of the river in 200-foot (61 m) increments.^[10][4] Bunford was criticized by some in the local art community for his selection of a non-American sculptor for the project, and according to Bendiner, there were efforts to prevent the statue from being erected in the park.^[10] After the statue's erection, Bunford abandoned any plans for commissioning more art, though remained hopeful that the overall idea for a row of statues would eventually be executed.^[10] However, this plan would not come to fruition.^[4]

In 1929, J. Bunford died and the funds became fully available to the art association,^[1] though plans for the memorial were not acted upon until the Great Depression.^[10] Following this, the association created a committee to oversee the erection of these new monuments,^[1] with the members chosen by art association president Eli Kirk Price II.^[12] This committee, consisting predominately of young men,^[12] rejected Bunford's plans for a row of life-like statues and instead opted for more abstract sculptures that highlighted the "expression of the ideas, the motivations, the spiritual forces, and the yearnings that have created America".^[13] The committee hired Paul Philippe Cret,^[14] a professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, created an overall design for the memorial, which would consist of three connected terraces along the Schuylkill River just south of the Girard Avenue Bridge that would house various sculptures.^[15][1] The south terrace would represent the founding of the United States as a democratic republic and the settlement of the east coast, the central terrace would represent westward expansion, the end of slavery, and immigration, and the north terrace would represent the more esoteric values that defined the country.^[15][1] As part of the design, Cret designed much of the overall architecture for the memorial, including exedrae.^[16] In January 1933, the committee met and approved an overall plan for the development of the memorial that would allow for the sculptors to have a large degree of freedom in their interpretation of the themes.^[12] The committee also decided on a series of quotes that would be inscribed on the architecture of the memorial.^[12]

First Sculpture International (1933)

To determine which artists to commission for the memorial, the Fairmount Park Art Association organized several art exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In selecting the sculptors who would create art for the memorial, Samuel had asked the art association to put requests in newspapers around the world, offering to cover any shipping costs.^[15] Seeking to honor her wishes, the committee sent requests to sculptors around the world to submit designs for the memorial and offered to pay for transporting select works.^[15] The art association partnered with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Art Alliance to hold an international art exhibition at the museum called the Sculpture International, which would run from May through September 1933.^[15] The exhibition featured 364 works by 105 artists from the United States, England, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, and Spain.^[15] It was covered by newspapers nationwide, with many calling it one of the largest sculpture exhibitions in the country's history, and the museum saw its attendance double.^[15] According to committee member Robert Sturgis Ingersoll, museum curator Henri Gabriel Marceau was the "sparkplug of the endeavor" who led the organizing efforts for this and all future Sculpture Internationals.^[17]

The Public Ledger of Philadelphia held a reader straw poll, with voters selecting the works of Walker Hancock, Carl Milles, Harry Rosin, Alexander Stirling Calder, William Zorach, and Albert Laessle as the best.^[18] However, the committee instead selected John Bernard Flannagan, Wallace Kelly, Hélène Sardeau, and Heinz Warneke to create limestone sculptures, while Robert Laurent and Gaston Lachaise (later replaced by Maurice Sterne) would design bronze sculptures.^{[19][note 4]} These sculptures would be installed in the central terrace.^[1] Other notable sculptors who participated in the 1933 Sculpture International include Alexander Archipenko, Jacques Lipchitz, Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, and Isamu Noguchi.^[19]

Second Sculpture International (1940)

In mid-1940, the committee held another Sculpture International, though the recent outbreak of the Second World War prevented many foreign artists from attending.^[19] Instead, many of the works of foreign artists on display at the exhibition were on loan from other American museums and private collectors, while many of the American sculptures were on loan from either the Whitney Museum of American Art or from the federal government of the United States.^[19] At the time, the government had several New Deal agencies that directly employed artists, including the United States Department of the Treasury's Section of Fine Arts and the Federal Art Project of the Work Projects Administration (WPA).^[19] The exhibition opened on May 18 with 431 works on display and 90 WPA tour guides conducting visitors around the exhibition.^[19][23]

In contrast to the 1933 exhibition, the art featured in this Sculpture International displayed a great deal of diversity in material, composition, and style.^[19] Due to both material shortages and financial difficulties from the war, as well as new approaches to sculpture such as direct carving, materials featured in the exhibition's sculptures included aluminum, cast iron, cement, fieldstone, stainless steel, and wood, among others.^[19] The exhibition also featured a number of pieces of kinetic art, including two large mobiles by Calder and a rotating sculpture by Constantin Brâncuși displayed near the museum entrance.^[19] Art critics questioned the classification of several of the works as art, and there was a debate amongst the artists present over the value of abstract art over more realistic depictions.^[19] In the end, the committee selected Erwin Frey, Henry Kreis, Rosin, and Wheeler Williams to create works for the south terrace.^[19] These six were awarded commissions of $10,000 each,^[23] and in total, the sculptors selected from these two Sculpture Internationals were awarded $94,000 in commissions.^[24]

Third Sculpture International (1949)

With the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941, work on the memorial largely ceased for the next several years.^[25][26] However, following the conclusion of World War II in 1945, another Sculpture International was held in 1949.^[25] The exhibition featured 252 displays and was attended by over a quarter of a million people.^[25] Life magazine called the exhibition "the world's biggest sculpture show" and published a famous image of 70 of the sculptors whose works were on display.^[25] According to sculptor Jo Davidson, who was in attendance, "Never had so many sculptors been scrubbed and assembled in one place before".^[25] This was the first of the Sculpture Internationals where sculptures were for sale, and the art association purchased several other works that they would later install around the city.^[25] From this exhibition, the committee selected Ahron Ben-Shmuel, Jose de Creeft, Koren der Harootian, and Waldemar Raemisch to design stone works for the north terrace, while Lipchitz and Jacob Epstein were selected to craft bronze sculptures.^{[25][note 5]} Almost all of the selected artists were either born or living outside of the United States, prompting committee member Ingersoll to call the group "an artistic League of Nations".^[25]

Dedication and later history

In 1986, The Spirit of Enterprise was moved from the North Terrace to its current location in the Central Terrace.

In 1960, Lipchitz's bronze work was placed at the north terrace, marking the final piece installed at the memorial.^[17] The following year, the memorial was formally dedicated.^[1] A commemorative plaque affixed to the memorial for the memorial reads:^[27]

Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial 1957
Sculptors, architects, and trustees of the Fairmount Park Art Association, under whose direction joined in the creation of 'The Emblematic History of the United States'.

In 1985, Stone Age in America, a statue by John J. Boyle, was relocated from the Sweetbriar mansion to a location just south of the memorial where, according to the Association for Public Art (aPA), "it expands on the Memorial's sculptural evocation of American history".^[1] The next year, Jacques Lipchitz bronze work, The Spirit of Enterprise, was relocated from the memorial's North Terrace to the Central Terrace to increase its visibility to the public.^[1] In 2018, the statue of Thorfinn Karlsefni was removed from its pedestal by protestors who pushed the monument into the Schuylkill River.^[28] This came during a period of time when the Keystone State Skinheads had been using the statue as a meeting place.^[28] The statue was later recovered by the aPA, and as of 2023, it is in storage.^[28] In 2023, the aPA announced the installation of a temporary, exhibition, Steel Bodies, by sculptor Maren Hassinger, that would be on display from June 12 to November 12.^[29] The exhibition, consisting of ten steel sculptures, is the first contemporary art exhibition held at the memorial and, according to the aPA, is part of the association's "commitment to reanimate, reimagine and reinterpret the historic site within a contemporary context".^[29]

Central Terrace

Name sculptor	Image	Year(s)	Material	Notes	References
Spanning the Continent Robert Laurent		1937; installed 1938	Bronze, on granite base	The first sculpture installed in the memorial, this sculpture depicts the spirit of rugged individualism and western expansion, with a man and a woman marching across the continent, holding a wheel and an axe.	[30][31]
Welcoming to Freedom Maurice Sterne		1939	Bronze, on granite base	This sculpture, featuring two male figures, one seated and one standing, symbolizes the welcoming of oppressed people from around the world to the United States.	[32][33]
The Ploughman J. Wallace Kelly		1938	Limestone, on limestone base	This sculpture depicts a kneeling man, symbolizing the pioneers who settled the western frontier of the United States in search of new land and resources.	[34][31]
The Miner John Bernard Flannagan		1938	Limestone, on limestone base	This sculpture, depicting a kneeling man with a pickaxe by his side, symbolizes the many Americans who settled the western frontier in search of mineral wealth through mining.	[35][31]
The Slave Hélène Sardeau		1940	Limestone, on limestone base	This sculpture, depicting a kneeling man with opened shackles, symbolizes the liberation of enslaved people in the United States.	[36][33]
The Immigrant Heinz Warneke		1940	Limestone, on limestone base	This sculpture, depicting a kneeling man with a wooden staff and a bundle of cloth, symbolizes the struggle of immigrants to the United States.	[37][33]
The Spirit of Enterprise Jacques Lipchitz		1958; installed 1960; relocated 1986	Bronze, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a muscular pioneer moving forward, with a caduceus in one hand, alongside an eagle with outstretched wings. The sculpture consists of 20 separately-cast parts and has been compared to another work by Lipchitz, Prometheus Strangling the Vulture, installed outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At the time of the commission, the work was originally to be entitled Constructive Enterprise. Originally installed in the North Terrace, it was relocated in 1986.	[38][33][17]

South Terrace

Name sculptor	Image	Year(s)	Material	Notes	References
Settling of the Seaboard Wheeler Williams		1942	Limestone, on granite base	This sculpture is a relief, depicting a standing young man, a standing young woman gesturing outwards and holding a baby in her arm, and a Native American man sitting by her side. The work symbolizes the earliest settlers of what is today the United States and is the only work in the memorial to depict a Native American.	[39][40]
The Birth of a Nation Henry Kreis		1942	Limestone, on a granite base	This sculpture is a relief depicting three men of varying ages and a cannon. It symbolizes the agreement among the people of the United States to create an independent, self-governing republic that would be free from outside influence.	[41][40][42]
The Puritan Harry Rosin		1942	Limestone, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a standing Puritan man holding a gun and, alongside its companion piece The Quaker, is intended to display the role of religion in the founding of the United States.	[43][40]
The Quaker Harry Rosin		1942	Limestone, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a standing Quaker man and, alongside its companion piece The Puritan, is intended to display the role of religion in the founding of the United States.	[44][40]
The Revolutionary Soldier Erwin Frey		1942	Limestone, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a standing soldier in the Continental Army, representing the strength of the United States Armed Forces.	[45][40]
The Statesman Erwin Frey		1942	Limestone, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a politician of the early American republic, symbolizing the political intelligence of the United States.	[46][40]

North Terrace

Name sculptor	Image	Year(s)	Material	Notes	References
The Preacher Waldemar Raemisch		1952; installed 1958	Granite, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a man speaking, with his hands cupped to his cheeks, symbolizing the religious leaders throughout American history.	[47][48]
The Poet Jose de Creeft		1954; installed 1959	Granite, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a poet holding his writings against his chest, symbolizing the authors who have influenced American culture and history through their works. It was de Creeft's first major commission in the United States.	[49][48][50]
The Scientist Koren der Harootian		1955; installed 1958	Granite, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a standing man holding a cup next to a post and symbolizes the work of scientists in fueling the United States' technological growth and development.	[51][48]
The Laborer Ahron Ben-Shmuel		1958	Granite, on granite base	This sculpture depicts a standing man wearing gloves and a helmet, symbolizing the contributions of working people in helping to build the United States.	[52][48]
Titles Unknown: Eye and Hand J. Wallace Kelly		1959	Limestone, on granite base	These two sculptures are reliefs, depicting an eye and a hand in abstract, that mark the entrances to the North Terrace.	[53][48]

Related sculptures

Name sculptor	Image	Year(s)	Material	Notes	Reference
Social Consciousness Jacob Epstein		1954; installed 1955; relocated 2019	Bronze, on granite base	This sculpture is organized into three statuary groups. To the viewers' left is a standing woman, an allegorical depiction of Compassion, reaching down to assist a sick young man at her feet. In the middle is the Eternal Mother, kneeling with outstretched arms. To the right, Succor (or Death) is standing and holding a young man from behind. The work had originally been commissioned for the North Terrace, but the committee determined that it was too large to be placed in the same area as The Spirit of Enterprise, the terrace's other major bronze work. It was instead installed outside the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it remained until 2019, when it was relocated to the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, near the Van Pelt Library.	[54][55]
Stone Age in America John J. Boyle		1887; installed 1888; relocated 1985	Bronze, on granite base	This sculpture, depicting a standing Native American woman with two children, one in her arms and another by her feet, was commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association in the 1880s. It was originally installed near the Sweetbriar mansion, but was relocated in 1985 to its current location just south of the memorial as part of a conscientious effort to place it near other works symbolizing American history.	[56][57]
Thorfinn Karlsefni Einar Jónsson		1918; installed 1920; removed 2018	Bronze, on granite base	This sculpture, depicting Icelandic explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni, was commissioned by Samuel's widow as part of his plans for the memorial to consist of a series of statues of famous historical figures along the bank of the Schuylkill River. The statue was thrown down and damaged by vandals in 2018 and, as of 2023, is in storage.	[28][58][11]

Critical reception

Among art critics, the memorial has received mostly mixed to negative reviews. Dorothy Grafly, daughter of sculptor Charles Grafly, was highly critical of the memorial,^[23] calling the relationship between the architecture and sculpture flawed and saying, "[the memorial] may claim the doubtful honor of having perpetrated one of America's leading contemporary art atrocities".^[24] In a 1974 book, Ingersoll gave a mixed review of the memorial, saying, "[c]ertain of the pieces are true masterpieces, and there are few mediocrities",^[17] though he cricized the memorial's selection of artists for the South Terrace, calling their works "markedly static and serious, perhaps too serious, lacking any romantic touch".^[62] In a 1976 book, Bendiner said Cret's overall design for the memorial was "mentally sound" and something that "could have been lovely", but called the overall choice of sculpture "a most irritating collection of uninteresting examples of the work of outstanding men and women, most of whom have done much better elsewhere".^[63] In a 1992 book, Bach stated that by the time the memorial was dedicated it was "as much a monument to the confusion about what constituted modern public art as a tribute to Mrs. Samuel's unprecedented generosity".^[4] Bach stated that the site's overall architectural design limited the sculptors' ability to create pieces for the memorial and called the overall choice of sculpture "unsettling".^[64] However, she also praised The Spirit of Enterprise, calling it the "most powerful and successful work" in the memorial.^[60]