Statue of Chief Seattle

Last updated
Statue of Chief Seattle
NoahSealth.jpg
The statue in 2006
ArtistJames Wehn
Year1912 (1912)
TypeSculpture
MediumCopper
Subject Chief Seattle
Location Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Seattle, Chief of the Suquamish, Statue
Coordinates 47°37′06″N122°20′51″W / 47.618286°N 122.347433°W / 47.618286; -122.347433 Coordinates: 47°37′06″N122°20′51″W / 47.618286°N 122.347433°W / 47.618286; -122.347433
Built1912
NRHP reference No. 84003502
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 19, 1984
Designated SEATLMay 6, 1985 [1]

An outdoor life-size sculpture of Chief Seattle by local artist James Wehn is installed in Tilikum Place in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Description

The copper [4] statue, which weighs between 300 and 400 lbs. (136–181 kg), [5] shows Seattle with his right hand extended as if in greeting. [4] [5] The statue stands atop a stone base that was designed to serve as a fountain, although the fountain has been turned off and on over the years. [5]

History

The statue overlooking Tilikum Place in 2012 Tilikum Place.jpg
The statue overlooking Tilikum Place in 2012

Commissioned in 1907, Wehn's design suffered from multiple poor castings and was finally sent to New York for casting. [5] The statue was formally unveiled in Tilikum Place by Myrtle Loughery, a great-great-granddaughter of Chief Seattle, on November 13, 1912. [4] [5] The statue was the first commissioned in Seattle [3] [5] and only the city's second piece of public art in all. [3]

After unsuccessful proposals to move the statue to locations such as Duwamish Head, Denny Park, and Pioneer Square, the statue was removed for cleaning in anticipation of the Century 21 Exposition of 1962. Wehn objected to a proposal to turn the statue around so it would face the then-new Seattle Center Monorail. [6] After its cleaning, the statue was returned to its original location and orientation, [5] facing Elliott Bay. [3]

The statue was rededicated on December 8, 1975. [5] By 1980, the statue had turned green. A local taxi driver attempted to clean it himself, scratching it and exposing its original bronze color. A subsequent restoration revealed that the statue originally had been gilded (covered in gold leaf). [3] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 19, 1984, and named a city landmark on May 6, 1985. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navy Pier</span> United States historic place

Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot-long (1,010 m) pier on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Navy Pier encompasses over 50 acres (20 ha) of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants, family attractions and exhibition facilities and is one of the top destinations in the Midwestern United States, drawing over nine million visitors annually. It is one of the most visited attractions in the entire Midwest and is Chicago's second-most visited tourist attraction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Fountain</span> Fountain with sculptures in Hyde Park, Sydney

The Archibald Fountain, properly called the J. F. Archibald Memorial Fountain is located in Hyde Park, in central Sydney. It is named after J. F. Archibald, owner and editor of The Bulletin magazine, who bequeathed funds to have it built. Archibald specified that it must be designed by a French artist, both because of his great love of French culture and to commemorate the association of Australia and France in World War I. He wished Sydney to aspire to Parisian civic design and ornamentation. The artist chosen was François-Léon Sicard, who completed it in Paris in 1926 but never saw the sculpture be placed in Sydney, where it was unveiled on 14 March 1932 by the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Samuel Walder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forest Park (St. Louis)</span> Large city park in St. Louis, Missouri

Forest Park is a public park in western St. Louis, Missouri. It is a prominent civic center and covers 1,326 acres (5.37 km2). Opened in 1876, more than a decade after its proposal, the park has hosted several significant events, including the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 and the 1904 Summer Olympics. Bounded by Washington University in St. Louis, Skinker Boulevard, Lindell Boulevard, Kingshighway Boulevard, and Oakland Avenue, it is known as the "Heart of St. Louis" and features a variety of attractions, including the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, and the St. Louis Science Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volunteer Park (Seattle)</span> Park in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Volunteer Park is a 48.3-acre (19.5 ha) park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seattle Center Monorail</span> Monorail line in Seattle, Washington, US

The Seattle Center Monorail is an elevated straddle-beam monorail line in Seattle, Washington, United States. The 0.9-mile (1.4 km) monorail runs along 5th Avenue between Seattle Center and Westlake Center in Downtown Seattle, making no intermediate stops. The monorail is a major tourist attraction but also operates as a regular public transit service with trains every ten minutes running for up to 16 hours per day. It was constructed in eight months at a cost of $4.2 million for the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, a world's fair hosted at Seattle Center. The monorail underwent major renovations in 1988 after the southern terminal was moved from its location over Pine Street to inside the Westlake Center shopping mall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Park (Dubuque, Iowa)</span> Small public urban park in Downtown Dubuque, Iowa, USA

Washington Park is a small public, urban park located in Downtown Dubuque, Iowa, United States. The park encompasses an entire city block, bordered on the north by West 7th Street, on the west by Bluff Street, on the south by West 6th Street, and on the east by Locust Street. The park is located between the city's post office and the Dubuque Museum of Art.

<i>Pobednik</i> Monumental sculpture in Belgrade, Serbia

Pobednik is a monument in the Upper Town of the Belgrade Fortress, built to commemorate Serbia's victory over the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires during the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Cast in 1913, erected in 1928, and standing at 14 metres (46 ft) high, it is one of the most famous works of Ivan Meštrović. It is also one of the most visited tourist attractions in Belgrade and one of its most recognizable landmarks.

<i>Columbus Fountain</i> Public artwork in Washington, DC

Columbus Fountain also known as the Columbus Memorial is a public artwork by American sculptor Lorado Taft, located at Union Station in Washington, D.C., United States. A centerpiece of Columbus Circle, Columbus Fountain serves as a tribute to the explorer Christopher Columbus. The unveiling in 1912 was celebrated all over Washington, DC over the course of three days with parades, concerts and fireworks gathering tens of thousands of people from all over the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnside Fountain</span> Drinking fountain with statue in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

The Burnside Fountain is a non-functioning drinking fountain at the southeast corner of Worcester Common in Worcester, Massachusetts. It consists of two parts, a pink granite basin, and a bronze statue of a young boy riding a sea turtle. The basin was designed by architect Henry Bacon, who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the figure was created by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey. Harvey died by suicide before finishing the sculpture, and Sherry Fry completed the bronze. The Burnside Fountain was commissioned in 1905 by the city of Worcester after Harriet F. Burnside bequeathed US $5,000 to create a fountain to provide fresh water for people, horses and dogs, in the memory of her father, a prominent lawyer. The fountain was installed in 1912 in Central Square, then moved in 1969 to its current location on Worcester Common. In 1970 the statue was stolen, and was re-installed two years later. An attempted theft occurred in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilikum Place</span> Plaza in Belltown, Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Tilikum Place is a small plaza in the Belltown neighborhood of downtown Seattle, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schiller Monument (Berlin)</span> Sculpture in Berlin, Germany

The Schiller Monument is located in central Berlin (Berlin-Mitte) on Gendarmenmarkt, in front of the flight of steps leading up to the former royal theater, today a concert hall. It honors the poet, philosopher and historian Friedrich Schiller, who is also regarded as one of the most significant dramatists and lyricists of the German language. The set of statues was executed by Reinhold Begas a prominent 19th-century German sculptor. It is a registered historic monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LuEsther T. Mertz Library</span> New York Botanical Garden library

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library is located at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in the Bronx, New York City. Founded in 1899 and renamed in the 1990s for LuEsther Mertz, it is the United States' largest botanical research library, and the first library whose collection focused exclusively on botany.

<i>Thompson Elk Fountain</i> Sculpture in Portland, Oregon

Thompson Elk Fountain, also known as the David P. Thompson Fountain, David P. Thompson Monument, Elk Fountain, the Thompson Elk, or simply Elk, is a historic fountain and bronze sculpture by American artist Roland Hinton Perry. The fountain with its statue was donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1900 for display in Downtown Portland's Plaza Blocks. It is owned by the City of Portland.

<i>William Tecumseh Sherman</i> (Saint-Gaudens) Sculpture group by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Manhattan, New York, U.S.

William Tecumseh Sherman, also known as the Sherman Memorial or Sherman Monument, is a sculpture group honoring William Tecumseh Sherman, created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and located at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan, New York. Cast in 1902 and dedicated on May 30, 1903, the gilded-bronze monument consists of an equestrian statue of Sherman and an accompanying statue, Victory, an allegorical female figure of the Greek goddess Nike. The statues are set on a Stony Creek granite pedestal designed by the architect Charles Follen McKim.

<i>Chiming Fountain</i> Fountain and sculpture in Portland, Oregon

The Chiming Fountain, also known as Cupid's Fountain, the John Staehli Fountain, Portland's City Park Fountain and Washington Park Fountain, is an outdoor cast iron fountain and sculpture built in 1891 by John "Hans" Staehli. It is installed in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, United States. The fountain's name derives from the sound made when water drips from the upper basin. Staehli designed the fountain to serve as a watering trough for horses pulling carriages into the park. Based on a Renaissance fountain, it was originally painted white and included a statuette of a boy, possibly depicting Cupid, though the figure was damaged and permanently removed from the sculpture before or during the 1940s.

<i>Chief of the Suquamish – Chief Seattle</i> Sculpture in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Chief of the Suquamish – Chief Seattle, also known as Bust of Chief Seattle and Chief Seattle Fountain, is a bust depicting Chief Seattle by artist James A. Wehn. It was commissioned by the Seattle Park Board to accommodate the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, and initially sat on a fountain for men, dogs and horses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Plaza (San Francisco)</span> Plaza in San Franciscos Civic Center

United Nations Plaza is a 2.6-acre (1.1 ha) plaza located on the former alignments of Fulton and Leavenworth Streets—in the block bounded by Market, Hyde, McAllister, and 7th Street—in the Civic Center of San Francisco, California. It is located 14 mi (0.40 km) east of City Hall and is connected to it by the Fulton Mall and Civic Center Plaza. Public transit access is provided by the BART and Muni Metro stops at the Civic Center/UN Plaza station, which has a station entrance within the plaza itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prefontaine Fountain</span> Fountain in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Prefontaine Fountain is a fountain by Carl Frelinghuysen Gould, installed at Prefontaine Place, a small park in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, Washington, near the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Yesler Way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian statue of George Washington (Newark)</span> Statue by J. Massey Rhind in Newark, New Jersey

George Washington is an outdoor equestrian statue by the Scottish-American sculptor J. Massey Rhind located in Washington Park in Newark, New Jersey. It depicts General George Washington saying farewell to the troops of the Continental Army on November 2, 1783, and was dedicated on the anniversary of that event in 1912.

References

  1. 1 2 Seattle City Council (May 16, 1985). "City of Seattle Ordinance 112273" (PDF). City of Seattle Legislative Information Service. Office of the Seattle City Clerk. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  2. "Chief Seattle, (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution . Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Murakami, Kerry (December 8, 2008). "No Parking Anytime: Chief Seattle statue is no longer in the dark". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Morgan, Brandt. Enjoying Seattle's Parks. Cited in Tilikum Place. Seattle Parks and Recreation. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Sherwood, Donald. Tilikum Place. Sherwood Park History Files. Seattle Parks and Recreation. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  6. "Problem: Should Chief Seattle Watch Monorail Instead of Bay?". The Seattle Times. February 1, 1962. p. 27.