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SCULPTURE OF THE MONTH #9

(Mystery Sculpture #6)

For more on this sculpture, see Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.

Bell Ringers Monument (James Gordon Bennett Memorial)

Artist: Antonin Jean Paul Carles
Dedicated: 1895

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Location, size, medium                                                                        Back to top

Herald Square, intersection of Sixth Ave. and Broadway between 34th and 35th Sts., just east of Macy's Herald Square. Bronze, figure of Athena over life-size, in granite niche. The monument faces south. Like all well maintained bronze statuary, it's best seen when the sky is somewhat overcast, so the reflections and shadows don't make it difficult to study.

About the statue and the subject                                                          Back to top

This group of figures was commissioned for the roof of the New York Herald's two-story headquarters on 35th Street and Sixth Avenue. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., moved the headquarters of the Herald from its original location on Park Row (near "Printer's Square," where the Benjamin Franklin statue now stands) uptown to a Renaissance-palazzo style building designed by Stanford White. In the era before cheap watches, the Herald Tribune's tolling clock was relied upon by the working people in the Herald Square area.

Athena (or Minerva), goddess of wisdom, holds her shield and spear with her left hand as she gestures commandingly at the two men below. On the hour, the men swing back their hammers and strike the bell. Actually, they don't: that would eventually wear down the bell. Instead, the hour is struck by a mechanism tucked behind the bellringers. On top of the bell sits Athena's bird, the owl, whose eyes used to blink green when the Athena and her minions were atop the Herald's headquarters. Two more owls sit on pillars flanking the southern entrance to the small park.

The inscription below the figures notes that this is a memorial to James Gordon Bennett, founder of the New York Herald in 1835, and his son James Gordon Bennett, "through whose vision and enterprise the New York Herald became one of the world's great newspapers."

Nearby sculptures                      Back to top

The sculptures listed in Sculpture of the Month #6 (William Cullen Bryant) are also near the Bellringers' Memorial.

• William Earl Dodge, “the Christian Merchant,” in Bryant Park just south of 42^nd St. and east of Sixth Ave. For more on him, see Forgotten Delights: The Producers or Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the earliest German Romantic writers, in Bryant Park just north of 40^th St. He seems to be looking longingly at the carousel ten feet in front of him.

• Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, Bryant Park facing Sixth Ave., between 41^st and 42^nd Streets. Brazilian statesman and intellectual of the early 19^th c., one of the fathers of Brazilian independence.

• Gertrude Stein, Bryant Park just right (south) of the Bryant monument. She looks thoroughly grumpy, as someone who writes and thinks like that ought to. (Mentioned briefly in my 4/26/03 lecture.)

• Wendell L. Willkie, relief plaque on the 40^th St. (south) wall of the New York Public Library grounds, near Fifth Ave. The inscription reads, “I believe in America because in it we are free – free to choose our government, to speak our minds, to observe our different religions.” Willkie (1892-1944), a vociferous critic of the New Deal, ran as a dark horse Republican candidate for president who ran against FDR in 1940, and made a respectable showing with 45% of the popular vote. I seem to remember than Ayn Rand worked on his campaign (although I don’t see him mentioned in the index to her Letters or Journal – if you know a reference for this, please email comments@forgottendelights.com), and then became disillusioned with him. Two years after his 1940 defeat, Willkie flew around the world in a military bomber visiting dozens of countries in 49 days. He reported on the trip in One World, an argument (according to the American National Biography) against imperialism and colonialism, in which he mentioned that when a Russian woman cooked him a meal in her farmhouse, he felt just like he did back home in Indiana. Sounds like the sub-title should have been, “Let’s get together and feel all right.”

• Garment Worker, Plaza in front of 555 Seventh Ave., between 39^th and 40^th Streets.

• Golda Meir, in Golda Meir Square near Broadway and 39^th St.

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