Photo of the Day: A Hero and His Bridge, Pittsburgh PA

Forty-seven years ago this coming Tuesday, Roberto Clemente, Hall of Fame outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, died in a plane crash on a mission to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Pittsburgh renamed its Sixth Street Bridge crossing the Allegheny River to honor this stellar player and humanitarian in 1998.

While visiting the city this past October, I photographed this bronze statue of Clemente with the bridge in the background. The statue, by the way, created by sculptor Susan Wagner, stands just outside PNC Park, the Pirates’ home.

Too often, our society boosts its most boastful, selfish and cruel members. It’s worthwhile to remember someone like Clemente who embodied the exact antithesis of that tendency during this season ostensibly devoted to giving.

Photo of the Day: ‘Spirit of American Youth,’ George Westinghouse Memorial, Pittsburgh PA

I have already posted about the lily pond and the plaques at the George Westinghouse Memorial. But this statue, which I saw while being driven around in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park, led me to wonder why it looked so oddly recognizable, even though I had never been to this site nor seen this statue.

As I approached “The Spirit of American Youth” that day two months ago, I saw that it had been created by Daniel Chester French, best known for the nearly godlike seated figure of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. (See this post for my discussion 10 years ago of the creation of that DC landmark.)

After that iconic memorial, almost anything else would appear to be anti-climactic. But nothing by a supreme craftsman, let alone a genius, is without interest, and this work certainly qualifies. 

According to Harold Holzer’s 2019 biography Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French, the sculptor asked the Westinghouse memorial committee about molding a figure of the inventor himself. But the committee requested something more oblique, less in French’s traditional realistic mode: “a ‘modern’ masterpiece.” 

The result was a bronze statue of a schoolboy, dressed in a hooded sweater and standing in the prow of a boat, his hat in one hand and books in the other. He is so astonished by what he has just been reading about Westinghouse that he has absent-mindedly crumple his cap.

On its own terms, the statue was accomplished, as might be expected from one of the nation’s foremost sculptors. Yet not everyone agreed on the appropriateness of the product. 

Although some critics hailed it as a fine portrayal of American boyhood,” others thought it did not rank with French’s other high-profile commissions such as the “Minute Man” of Concord or the “Republic” statue of the 1893 Colombian Exposition of Chicago, let alone the Lincoln Memorial.

It is possible, had he been allowed to move ahead with his original idea, that French would have brought unsurpassed knowledge and feeling to a likeness of Westinghouse (whom he knew from summers in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts). That he didn’t give up entirely on that idea can be seen in the fact that he exhibited his original bust of the inventor in the annual Stockbridge Art Show, near their summer homes.

The Westinghouse statue turned out to be French’s last major project; he died a year later at age 80. Maybe this image of a youth in the grip of inspiration owed something to his own memories of youth, when he was encouraged in his artistic studies by Anna Pratt, the sister of Little Women novelist Louisa May Alcott.

Photo of the Day: Detail, George Westinghouse Memorial, Pittsburgh PA

Earlier this week, I posted this link on the George Westinghouse Memorial in Pittsburgh. The picture accompanying it concentrated on the lovely lily pond on the site, while my text recounted how the memorial was built and, more recently, renovated. But today, I thought I would focus on who is being commemorated here, and why: Westinghouse.

In the detail seen here, Westinghouse appears between a mechanic and an engineer. The latter two figures—created in full relief, enabling the memorial to be viewed on all sides—symbolize those who would translate his vision into reality. Three independent solid bronze panels to the side, sculpted by Paul Fjelde in a semi-circular curve, list Westinghouse’s achievements, including:

*the first substitution of high-voltage electricity for operating a main-line railway;

*steam turbines becoming a basic source of universal electricity;

*Niagara Falls’ water serving as the basis of a great power system;

*The alternating current system, first exhibited at the Chicago Exposition of 1893;

*The air brake, which increased railroad safety and efficiency; and

*Modern signaling systems derived from Westinghouse’s innovations.

In widely contrasting ways, railroads played key roles not only in the business but personal lives of Westinghouse and his great rival, Thomas Edison. “The Wizard of Menlo Park” attributed his deafness to a traumatic accident he suffered as a 12-year-old “news butcher” on the Grand Trunk Railway run between Port Huron and Detroit. Although Edison saw the affliction as “not… a handicap but a help to me,” as it shut him off from distracting small talk, it also encouraged a single-mindedness that led him to neglect food, sleep and family.

Westinghouse’s experience with the railroad was far happier: he met his wife Marguerite while riding the train—and thereafter, even when they were apart, he telegraphed or telephoned her.

Photo of the Day: Lily Pond, George Westinghouse Memorial, Pittsburgh PA

While I was being driven around in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park a few weeks ago, this lily pond practically beckoned me to get out and photograph it. My fascination increased with each step I took, especially when I discovered that a) this was the George Westinghouse Memorial for one of the great figures of America’s Industrial Revolution, and b) that creator of the sculptures here was Daniel Chester French, the genius behind the Lincoln Memorial.

The film The Current War came and went too quickly for me to catch this past fall. When it comes to DVD—especially now that I’ve had a chance to see the George Westinghouse Memorial—I will be sure to see it, for in many ways its subject matter—the struggle between Westinghouse and Thomas Edison over their two competing power systems (alternating and direct current, respectively)—is crucial to understanding the course of American business in the last century and a quarter.

Westinghouse was neither as flamboyant nor eccentric as Edison, but he richly merited this beautiful point of stillness in Schenley Park. In 1930, 16 years after his death, roughly 55,000 employees at his former firms chipped in to raise $200,000 for this memorial—$2.5 million in today’s dollars, an extraordinary amount at a time when the Great Depression was already being felt. (Surely, they were grateful because, in those pre-Social Security days, Westinghouse was among the first industrial magnates to establish a retirement pension system for employees and dependent family members.)

Some 15,000 people came to the ceremony dedicating this memorial, which was designed by architects Henry Hornbostel and Eric Fisher Wood in a modern style but many beaux arts influences. Originally, the pond was supposed to be filled by a natural stream, Phipps Run, but storms forced the pond to be retrofitted as an artificial water feature. Over time, the pond no longer held water.

The firm of Pashek + MTR was commissioned to bring the memorial closer to its original conception. The changes the firm introduced were meant to:

* restore a trail and overlook in the adjacent stream valley of Phipps Run;

* replace the random flagstone paving;

* reconfigure the pond’s mechanical systems;

* converted compacted lawn areas uphill of the pond into meadow rain gardens.

After years of fundraising and restoration, the memorial was rededicated three years ago this past October.

The story of Westinghouse and this memorial merits more details, which I’ll try to provide in the next week with another post or two.

Photo of the Day: Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh PA

A highlight of my week of vacation in Pittsburgh in October was a visit to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. In the past few years, perhaps partly as a result of my growing interest in photography, I have become increasingly taken with botanical gardens. But I must say that I was especially in this one. 

Everywhere I looked at this 125-year-old institution in the city’s Oakland neighborhood, I marveled at another example of beauty in its 14-room glasshouse and 22 gardens. Over the next several weeks, I plan to post a number of photos I took during that visit.

Phipps has impressed many more people than me, however. Increasingly in the last few years, it has become an institutional leader in sustainability through seasonal flower shows, commissioned exhibits, orchid and bonsai collections and more. I think it is one of the jewels of Pittsburgh.