Description
The monumental figure who confronts the visitor just inside the Grand Avenue entrance to Tower Grove Park is Christopher Columbus, in one of the very few bearded depictions of that explorer. Although dated 1884 on the tall red granite pedestal designed by George I. Barnett, the statue was not actually unveiled until 12 October 1886.
Inscription(s)
The front panel dedicates the monument:
To the
Discoverer
of a
New World.
The back panel states
The XIX
Centurÿ to
Christopher Columbus
1884.
Annotation
The statue was commissioned by Henry Shaw from the Munich sculptor Ferdinand von Müller. His sculpture of Columbus for Tower Grove Park was the first bronze sculpture of the explorer in the U.S. One of the two reliefs on the side of the pedestal shows La Salle arriving at Cahokia on 12 February 1682; the other shows the arrival of Columbus on 12 October 1492 (see below).
Also believed to be the only statue in the US of a bearded Columbus, a feature added at the insistence of the donor. A rumor has it that objecting, the sculptor carved on the statue: "I knew he didn't have a beard."
This monument on postcards
Sources & Information
- Large photo taken by Greg McIntosh with Peter van der Krogt's digital camera (that's Peter, in front of the statue!). Side panel photos: Peter van der Krogt, September 1999, during the conference of the Society for the History of Discoveries.
- Postcard is a color chromolitho mailing card done by Rafael Tuck & Sons. Author's collection. Sent to me by Jane R. Pepper, of St. Louis, Mo. (click on their logo for their web page).
- Christopher Columbus Surveys Tower Grove Park
- Tributes to Christopher Columbus in the United States.
- Néstor Ponce de León, The Columbus Gallery (New York, 1893), p. 128.
- J.M. Dickey, Christopher Columbus and his Monument Columbia (1892), pp. 279-280.
Index of:
Location (N 38°36'18" - W 90°14'34")
Item Code: usmo02
Added: 1 September 1999
© Website: René & Peter van der Krogt
