Dewey Arch

Last updated
Dewey Triumphal Arch and Colonnade
Dewey Arch, New York.jpg
(1900)
Dewey Arch
Location Manhattan, New York
Coordinates 40°44′33″N73°59′20″W / 40.74250°N 73.98889°W / 40.74250; -73.98889
Designer Charles R. Lamb
Type Triumphal arch
Material Staff [1]
Length70 ft (21 m)
Width30 ft (9.1 m)
Height85 ft (26 m)
Opening dateSeptember 1899
Dedicated to George Dewey
Dismantled date1900
Dewey Arch 1900 Color.jpg
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg The Dewey Arch, American Mutoscope and Biograph Co., 1899. Available through the National Screening Room at the Library of Congress.

The Dewey Arch was a triumphal arch that stood from 1899 to 1900 at Madison Square in Manhattan, New York City, United States. [2] [3] [4] It was erected for a parade in honor of Admiral George Dewey celebrating his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines in 1898. [5]

Contents

History

Planning for the parade, scheduled for September 1899, began early that year. The architect Charles R. Lamb built support for a triumphal arch among his fellow members of the National Sculpture Society. [6] A committee of society members, including Lamb, Karl Bitter, Frederick W. Ruckstull, John Quincy Adams Ward and John De Witt Warner, [7] submitted a proposal for an arch to the City of New York, which approved the plan in July 1899.

With only two months remaining before the parade, the committee decided to build the arch and its colonnade out of staff, a plaster-based material used previously for temporary buildings at several World's Fairs. Modeled after the Arch of Titus in Rome, [5] [7] the Dewey Arch was decorated with the works of twenty-eight sculptors and topped by a large quadriga (modeled by Ward) [7] depicting four horses drawing a ship. The arch was illuminated at night with electric light bulbs. [8]

After the parade on September 30, 1899, the arch began to deteriorate. An attempt to raise money to rebuild it in stone (as had been done for the arch in Washington Square Park) failed, owing to the growing unpopularity of the Philippine War. The arch was demolished in 1900, [4] and the larger sculptures sent to Charleston, South Carolina, for an exhibit, after which they were either destroyed or lost. [5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Brody, David (2010). Visualizing American Empire: Orientalism and Imperialism in the Philippines. University of Chicago Press. p. 133. ISBN   978-0-226-07534-1.
  2. ↑ "The Dewey Arch". Architects' and Builders' Magazine. Vol. 32. W.T. Comstock. 1900. p. 1. ISSN   0749-3088. OCLC   8754926 . Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  3. ↑ Cusack, Andrew (January 19, 2005). "The Dewey Arch". andrewcusack.com. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Art and Artists – Destruction of Dewey Arch" (PDF). The New York Times. December 30, 1900. p. 16. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 Gray, Christopher (May 10, 1992). "Streetscapes: Monumental Parallels; The Arch and the Bandshell". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  6. ↑ Lamb, Charles Rollinson (2020). "Charles R. Lamb scrapbook on the Dewey Arch, 1899–1901". Smithsonian. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 Sharp, Lewis I (1985). John Quincey Adams Ward: Dean of American Sculpture. University of Delaware Press. p. 52f. ISBN   978-0-87413-253-3.
  8. ↑ Nye, David E. (1992). Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880–1940. MIT Press. p. 51. ISBN   978-0-262-64030-5.
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