Manhattan Sculpture Quiz
18 questions to test your knowledge of
Manhattan's sculptures and the people they represent

Answers -  Scoring - Questions in PDF - Answers in PDF

1. Which of the works below is NOT a memorial to someone who died on the Titanic?

A. Straus Memorial
B. Stead Memorial
C. Brisbane Memorial
D. Titanic Memorial Lighthouse

 2. Which of the following four are represented in Daniel Chester French's sculptures in front of the Customs House at Bowling Green?

A. Africa, America, Australia, Asia
B. Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica
C. Africa, Asia, Europe, England
D. Africa, Asia, Europe, America

 3. Which explorer was being honored city-wide in 1909, the year the Battery Park memorial to Giovanni da Verrazzano was dedicated?

A. Jacques Cartier
B. Christopher Columbus
C. John Cabot
D. Henry Hudson

 4. What allegorical figure stands at the center of the New York Stock Exchange pediment?

A. Integrity
B. Justice
C. Truth
D. Wealth

 5. Who used "The Sidewalks of New York" as a campaign song?

A. John F. Kennedy
B. Theodore Roosevelt
C. Alfred E. Smith
D. Fiorello La Guardia

 6. Who invented flavored gelatin (Jell-o)?

A. Peter Cooper
B. Pietro Delmonico
C. Abram S. Hewitt
D. Thomas Nast

 7. Name the noted New York politician who died of an illness brought on by the Blizzard of 1888, and was eulogized for his "eloquence and learning, his undaunted devotion to truth, his purity and courage, his uncompromising patriotism, his scorn of cant and deception" - but also condemned by his biographer as "one of the harshest, strictest, most narrow-minded of all political bosses. Possibly like Pooh Bah he was born sneering."

A. Roscoe Conkling
B. Fiorello La Guardia
C. Fernando Wood
D. Chester A. Arthur

 8. In "Full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes!", what were the torpedoes?

A. Artillery shells
B. Self-propelled underwater projectiles
C. Floating barrels filled with gunpowder
D. Pipe bombs

 9. Who wrote the poem "Thanatopsis," which begins, "To him who, in the love of Nature, holds / Communion with her visible forms, she speaks / A various language"?

A. William Wadsworth Longfellow
B. William Blake
C. William Cullen Bryant
D. William Shakespeare

 10. Who are the three figures above the clock on the south façade of Grand Central Terminal?

A. Zeus, Athena, Hermes
B. Hercules, Hermes, Athena
C. Poseidon, Hermes, Venus
D. Hercules, Hermes, Hera

 11. Which sculpture was picketed on the grounds that it looked like Benito Mussolini?

A. Prometheus
B. Edwin Booth
C. Fiorello La Guardia
D. Atlas

 12. Which equestrian statue in Manhattan shows a rider in civilian clothes?

A. Jose Marti
B. El Cid Campeador
C. Washington at Union Square
D. Joan of Arc

 13. When did Shakespeare become high-brow entertainment in America?

A. Around the time of the Revolutionary War
B. Around the time of the Civil War
C. Around the time of the Spanish-American War
D. Around the time of World War II

 14. Which two figures are among the four figures represented on the base of the Verdi Monument?

A. Leonora and Falstaff
B. Aida and Violetta
C. Leonora and Macbeth
D. Rigoletto and Otello

 15. Which of the following is one of the four figures that appear above Theodore Roosevelt on the east façade of the American Museum of Natural History?

A. Zebulon Pike
B. Sacajawea
C. Daniel Boone
D. Henry Hudson

 16. Which Danish sculptor has a self-portrait in Central Park?

A. Karl Bitter
B. Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen
C. Wilhelm Freddie
D. Claes Oldenburg

 17. In what Manhattan park is there a statue of a bear attacking a faun who cowers in a grotto?

A. Morningside Park
B. Central Park
C. Riverside Park
D. Inwood Hill Park

 18. Who among the following has the most separate portrait sculptures outdoors in Manhattan?

A. Thomas Jefferson
B. Alexander Hamilton
C. Abraham Lincoln
D. Christopher Columbus

Answers

 1. Which of the works below is NOT a memorial to someone who died on the Titanic?

A. Straus Memorial
B. Stead Memorial
C. Brisbane Memorial
D. Titanic Memorial Lighthouse

Answer: C. Arthur Brisbane (d. 1936) was William Randolph Hearst's right-hand man at the New York World, famous for his admonition to reporters: "Never forget that if you don't hit a newspaper reader between the eyes with your first sentence, there is no need of writing a second one." The Straus Memorial (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 46), the Stead Memorial, and the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse (both on the Forgotten Delights site) all honor victims of the Titanic.

2. Which of the four continents are represented in Daniel Chester French's sculptures in front of the Customs House at Bowling Green?

A. Africa, America, Australia, Asia
B. Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica
C. Africa, Asia, Europe, England
D. Africa, Asia, Europe, America

Answer: D. For more details on all four figures, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 4.

3. Which explorer was being honored city-wide in 1909, the year the Battery Park memorial to Giovanni daVerrazzano was dedicated?

A. Jacques Cartier
B. Christopher Columbus
C. John Cabot
D. Henry Hudson

Answer: D. Hudson first sailed up the river that now bears his name in 1609. See Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 3 and Forgotten Delights: The Producers Essay 3.

 

 4. What allegorical figure stands at the center of the New York Stock Exchange pediment?

A. Integrity
B. Justice
C. Truth
D. Wealth

Answer: A. The whole pediment, entitled "Integrity Protecting the Works of Man," is described in a salute on the Forgotten Delights website.

 

 5. Who used "The Sidewalks of New York" as a campaign song?

A. John F. Kennedy
B. Theodore Roosevelt
C. Alfred E. Smith
D. Fiorello La Guardia

Answer: C. Governor Alfred E. Smith's portrait sculpture at Catherine and Cherry Streets is accompanied by a relief illustrating "Sidewalks of New York," an 1890s hit that Smith used in the 1920s as a campaign song. Click here for two versions of the lyrics.

6. Who invented flavored gelatin (Jell-o)?

A. Peter Cooper
B. Pietro Delmonico
C. Abram S. Hewitt
D. Thomas Nast

Answer: A. On Peter Cooper, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 10 and  Forgotten Delights: The Producers Essay 6. Pietro Delmonico and his brother Giovanni opened the famous Delmonico's Restaurant in 1827. Hewitt was a Mayor of New York, an industrialist, and Cooper's son-in-law. Thomas Nast was a political cartoonist.

7. Name the noted New York politician who died of an illness brought on by the Blizzard of 1888, and was eulogized for his "eloquence and learning, his undaunted devotion to truth, his purity and courage, his uncompromising patriotism, his scorn of cant and deception" - but also condemned by his biographer as "one of the harshest, strictest, most narrow-minded of all political bosses. Possibly like Pooh Bah he was born sneering."

A. Roscoe Conkling
B. Fiorello La Guardia
C. Fernando Wood
D. Chester A. Arthur

Answer: A. On Conkling, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 18. La Guardia was mayor of New York City 1933-1945 (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 9). Fernando Wood (d. 1881) was mayor 1855-57 and 1859-61. Chester A. Arthur (d. 1886), whose statue stands at the north end of Madison Square Park, became president of the United States after James A. Garfield was assassinated in 1881.

8. In "Full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes!", what were the torpedoes?

A. Artillery shells
B. Self-propelled underwater projectiles
C. Floating barrels filled with gunpowder
D. Pipe bombs

Answer: C. On Farragut and the torpedoes, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 19.

9. Who wrote the poem "Thanatopsis," which begins, "To him who, in the love of Nature, holds / Communion with her visible forms, she speaks / A various language"?

A. William Wadsworth Longfellow
B. William Blake
C. William Cullen Bryant
D. William Shakespeare

Answer: C. On William Cullen Bryant's literary and journalistic activities, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 22. On the Central Park statue of Shakespeare, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 37. By the way, you shouldn't eliminate answers in this quiz based on nationality: in the late 19th c., there was a rush by immigrants to honor prominent figures in the countries of their birth. Hence we have, among others, sculptures of Scotland's Robert Burns, Germany's Goethe, and Italy's Verdi (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 41).

10. Who are the three figures above the clock on the south façade of Grand Central Terminal?

A. Zeus, Athena, Hermes
B. Hercules, Hermes, Athena
C. Poseidon, Hermes, Venus
D. Hercules, Hermes, Hera

Answer: B. Hermes (a.k.a. Mercury) is at the center, Hercules at left, Athena (a.k.a. Minerva) at right. Read more on the details that identify the figures and their significance as a group in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 26.

11. Which Manhattan sculpture was picketed on the grounds that it looked like Benito Mussolini?

A. Prometheus
B. Edwin Booth
C. Fiorello La Guardia
D. Atlas

Answer: D. On the Atlas at Rockefeller Center, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 29. On Prometheus, Edwin Booth and La Guardia, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essays 28, 17, and 9.

12. Which equestrian statue in Manhattan shows a rider in civilian clothes?

A. Jose Marti
B. El Cid Campeador
C. Washington at Union Square
D. Joan of Arc

Answer: A. On why civilian clothes were appropriate for Marti, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 33. On El Cid Campeador, Washington at Union Square, and Joan of Arc, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan  Essays 54, 13, and 44.

13. When did Shakespeare become high-brow entertainment in America?

A. Around the time of the Revolutionary War
B. Around the time of the Civil War
C. Around the time of the Spanish-American War
D. Around the time of World War II

Answer: B. See Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 37.

14. Which two are among the four figures represented on the base of the Verdi Monument?

A. Leonora and Falstaff
B. Aida and Violetta
C. Leonora and Macbeth
D. Rigoletto and Otello

Answer: A. The other two figures are Aida and Otello. On why these four were chosen rather than some of Verdi's more famous characters, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 41.

15. Which of the following is one of the four figures that appear above Theodore Roosevelt on the east façade of the American Museum of Natural History?

A. Zebulon Pike
B. Sacajawea
C. Daniel Boone
D. Henry Hudson

Answer: C. The other figures (all involved with the exploration of North America after the Revolutionary War) are John James Audubon, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark. See Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 42.

16. Which Danish sculptor has a self-portrait in Central Park?

A. Karl Bitter
B. Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen
C. Wilhelm Freddie
D. Claes Oldenburg

Answer: B. Thorvaldsen was a famous 19th-c. sculptor in the Neoclassical style.

17. In what Manhattan park is there a statue of a bear attacking a faun who cowers in a grotto?

A. Morningside Park
B. Central Park
C. Riverside Park
D. Inwood Hill Park

Answer: A. The Bear and Faun Fountain, a.k.a. the Seligman Fountain, is in Morningside Park, 114th St. and Morningside Ave., at the foot of the stairway leading down from the Schurz Memorial. On Schurz, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 51.

18. Who among the following has the most separate portrait sculptures outdoors in Manhattan?

A. Thomas Jefferson
B. Alexander Hamilton
C. Abraham Lincoln
D. Christopher Columbus

Answer: B. Hamilton has four: see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essays 43, 48, 50, and 53. Lincoln and Columbus come in second with two each (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essays 15, 35, 36), and Jefferson has only one (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 50). I decided not to make Washington one of the choices because his statues are tricky to count: one at Broad and Wall Streets (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 6), the equestrian statue at Union Square (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 13), one with the Marquis de Lafayette near Morningside Park, and the Washington Arch, which includes 2 full-size figures of Washington (Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan Essay 12).

Scoring

0-5 miniature knowledge

6-12 life-size familiarity

13-18 monumentally good

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