Abe Goes To The Fair II: Insult and Injury

Louis Slobodkin's statue of the young Lincoln, known variously as The Rail Joiner and Unity, was the runner-up in a government sponsored competition for a sculpture to grace the grounds of the Federal Building at The Fair. By his own account, Slobodkin spent a year creating the 15-foot-high steel-and-plaster statue, which cost the federal government somewhere in the neighborhood of $4000.

Slobodkin at work on The Fair statue

On or shortly before opening day of The Fair, however, understandably proud of and eager to show his wife his accomplishment, Slobodkin searched the grounds in vain: much to his chagrin and displeasure, his Lincoln was nowhere to be found.

Subsequent inquiry revealed that the statue had been not only removed from its location, but smashed! Smashed by order of Theodore T. Hayes, executive assistant to the United States Commissioner for The Fair, apparently acting on the suggestion of a female luncheon companion (left nameless, but pointedly identified as a blonde by several contemporary news sources) who thought the statue in poor taste. Oddly enough, Hayes's boss, Edward J. Flynn, had reportedly sat on the jury that had selected the winning submissions in the first place! (Conflicting reports place the blame for the statue's fate directly with Flynn himself.)

Though The New York Times reported that Fair officials were under no obligation to exhibit works of art for which they had paid (and which they therefore owned), the government, after a considerable amount of bad press regarding the incident, settled the matter by returning Slobodkin's original, smaller-scale maquette and commissioning from him another copy of the statue, this time to the tune of $1600.

A seven-and-a-half-foot cast (half the size of the one intended for The Fair) was quickly produced and placed...in an out-of-the-way basement courtyard of the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, DC. On view since August 1939, the statue can still be seen today. But it certainly deserves better.

Above, the Slobodkin statue in its current location at the US Deaprtment of the Interior Buidilng

Another copy of the statue was cast and placed in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2000.

The Eagle Has Landed

High atop two flagpoles flanking what is now Industry Pond (their original location in the park is a bit of a mystery) in Flushing Meadows Corona Park sit two stylized art deco eagles, retained form the 1939 Fair. Though said at various times to have been "gifts" from Nazi Germany, this myth is, thankfully, almost wholly discredited today.

Documentary evidence in the New York Public Library and elsewhere shows the eagles to be the work of sculptor Robert Foster. Indeed, the eagles are perfectly in keeping with Foster's demonstrated style; compare them with his Mercury sculpture, which adorned the Ford Pavilion, for instance.

Assertions of this alleged Nazi connection are rendered even more silly when one remembers that the eagle is the national bird of the United States...its presence in the park would be wholly expected and thoroughly unremarkable.

Abe Goes To The Fair

Though not created for The Fair, Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Abraham Lincoln: The Man (aka Standing Lincoln) was displayed at The Fair as part of the Illinois exhibit. Not surprisingly, the Saint-Gaudens Lincoln was one of a number of sculptures (I know of at least 4) depicting the 16th president, both at the Illinois exhibit and throughout The Fair.

The Fair statue was an artist-authorized reduction (one of only sixteen known to exist, and one of the first two produced) of the original, created for Chicago’s Lincoln Park in 1887. I am quite certain that the cast exhibited at The Fair is now on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

According to the Met's press release, the bronze, acquired from a private collector, was originally owned by Clara Stone Hay, the widow of Lincoln’s onetime private assistant secretary, John M. Hay. The note on the back of the photo of the statue in the New York Public Library's Fair collection (below) indicates that it was lent by the children of John and Clara Hay. So, unless the Hays had several casts of the statue (which is unlikely), the Met statue is the one exhibited at The Fair.

The Open Road Leads to...Bear Mountain

Jo Davidson was one of just a handful of prominent sculptors given he honor and distinction of having more than one work exhibited at The Fair. Davidson's larger-than-lifesize Walt Whitman was moved to Bear Mountain State Park in upstate New York shortly after The Fair. It is unique in that it is one of but a few Fair pieces cast permanently in bronze rather than in temporary, disposable plaster. Visiting the statue today offers a rare opportunity to experience an actual piece of Fair history. (There's another cast of Davidson's Whitman in Philadelphia, but the Bear Mountain statue is the Real Deal.)

Well, this was inevitable: the author and Walt, May, 2010

Peg-Leg Pete

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Peter Stuyvesant was exhibited at The Fair outside the Netherlands pavilion (Stuyvesant was Dutch, of course). Another Fair original, this statue, which depicts Peter Stuyvesant with his famous peg-leg, now stands--interestingly enough--in Stuyvesant Square (17th Street and 2nd Avenue) in Manhattan. 

Jagiello: Poland's Ex-Pat King

The equestrian statue of Poland's King Jagiello is one of Central Park's most imposing monuments.

The first Fair relic I became aware of was the statue of Poland's King Jagiello by Stanislaw Kazimierz Ostrowski which now stands in New York's Central Park. Jagiello, along with dozens of his countrymen and women, became a refugee in 1939 after Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II. Interesting is the fact that the park pedestal (not original to The Fair) was designed by Aymar Embury II, architect of the Fair's New York City Building.

Next Stop, Iceland

The statue of Leif Erikson (or Leifr Eiriksson in the modern, more "authentic" spelling) from the Iceland Exhibit at The Fair now stands at the entrance to the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Iceland was one of a number of smaller countries that did not have their own pavilions at The Fair; rather, these were allotted space in The Hall of Nations, which bordered The Court of Peace in front of the (U.S.) Federal Building.

The Fair statue is a larger copy of an original that stands in Reykjavik. Sculpted by Alexander Stirling Calder, the Reykjavik statue was a gift from the U.S. to the people of Iceland in 1930.

Leif Erikson in situ at The Fair

My view of approximately the same angle

We didn't see the inside the museum, because it is closed on Tuesdays. By the way, there's an excellent chronology of Erikson statues, including the Calders, here. (Who'd've thought there'd be so many?)

Signing off from Williamsburg, Virginia.

If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium

So right now we're packing up the car and getting ready to leave for a week's vacation: Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens (we're history buffs, and coaster enthusiasts--it's perfect).

We're going to stop en route in Richmond to see the Belgian Pavilion from The Fair. The pavilion, as many of you probably already know, was dismantled after The Fair and re-assembled on the campus of Virginia Union University. The original plan was to send it all back to Belgium, but the War interfered with that!

Left: the current configuration of the Belgium Building; Right: the original layout (model photo from the New York Public Library

I can't tell you how excited I am to be finally able to see the pavilion! Some time ago I actually met the architect that was heading up a renovation of the building. He offered to give me a private hard-hat tour, but, alas, I was not able to take him up on that.

While we're down there, we're also planning to zip on over to Newport News to see the Alexander Stirling Calder statue of Leif Erikson that stood outside the Iceland exhibit at The Fair. It's a genuine Fair survivor, a larger copy of an original (1930) still standing in Reykjavik.

Of course, I'll be sure to post new photos as soon as I can!