Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide (book)

About the book (back cover blurb)

Stop, look, and discover-the streets and parks of Manhattan are filled with beautiful historic monuments that will entertain, stimulate, and inspire you. Among the 54 monuments in this volume are major figures in American history: Washington, Lincoln, Lafayette, Horace Greeley, and Gertrude Stein; more obscure figures: Daniel Butterfield, J. Marion Sims, and King Jagiello; as well as the icons of New York: Atlas, Prometheus, and the Firemen’s Memorial. The monuments represent the work of some of America’s best sculptors: Augustus Saint Gaudens’ Farragut and Sherman, Daniel Chester French’s Four Continents, and Anna Hyatt Huntington’s Jose Marti and Joan of Arc.

Each monument, illustrated with black-and-white photographs, is located on a map of Manhattan and includes easy-to-follow directions. All the sculptures are considered both as historical mementos and as art. We learn of furious General Sherman court-martialing a civilian journalist, and also of exasperated Saint Gaudens’ proposing a hook-and-spring device for improving his assistants’ artistic acuity as they help model Sherman. We discover how Lincoln dealt with a vociferous Confederate politician from Ohio, and why the Lincoln in Union Square doesn’t rank as a top-notch Lincoln portrait. Sidebars reveal other aspects of the figure or event commemorated, using personal quotes, poems, excerpts from nineteenth-century periodicals (New York Times, Harper’s Weekly), and writers ranging from Aeschylus, Washington Irving, and Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi to Mark Twain and Henryk Sienkiewicz.

As a historical account, Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide is a fascinating look at figures and events that changed New York, the United States and the world. As an aesthetic handbook it provides a compact method for studying sculpture, inspired by Ayn Rand’s writings on art. For residents and tourists, and historians and students, who want to spend more time viewing and appreciating sculpture and New York history, this is the start of a unique voyage of discovery.

Dianne L. Durante is a freelance writer, lecturer, and researcher living in Brooklyn, New York. She is author of Forgotten Delights: The Producers, A Selection of Manhattan’s Outdoor Sculpture.

Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re an avid and insatiably curious reader

Outdoor Monuments aims to entertain, stimulate and inspire. Filled with fascinating but little-known stories, it emphasizes the positive aspects of America, Western civilization and capitalism. The book also provides a method for looking at sculpture with an informed and inquisitive eye – it’s guaranteed to help you understand art better and enjoy it more.

 Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re a tourist

The 54 sculptures in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan are among the most beautiful and least known attractions of New York – and free for the looking, even if you’re awake at 3 a.m. with jet lag. The only book in print to focus on such sculptures, it has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure.” If you need help locating the sculptures, they’re all conveniently marked on this Google map.

 Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re a New Yorker

There are eight million stories in the Naked City, and some of the most fascinating belong to the bronze and marble figures who stand nearly forgotten in our parks. This book recounts their stories as no other book in print does. (Gayle and Cohen’s comprehensive but necessarily terse Art Commission and Municipal Art Society Guide to Manhattan’s Outdoor Sculpture, published in 1988, has been out of print for several years. If you have a copy, hang on to it.)

If you’re a mass-transit maven, you can visit all 54 of the sculptures in Outdoor Monuments in one moderately frantic day – unless you also use the book for its second purpose, as a handbook for learning to look at sculpture with an informed and inquisitive eye. In that case, you’ll have many pleasurable days of discovery ahead of you – and think of all the neighborhoods and restaurants you’ll get to explore on the way! On a day when we’re dripping with some of our 46″ of annual rainfall, you can apply the method in Appendix A (“How to Read a Sculpture”) to works in the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection.

 Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re a historian or history buff

The 54 sculptures covered in Outdoor Monuments include major figures in American history, among them George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Horace Greeley and Gertrude Stein. Numerous fascinating but less familiar figures also make appearances: Daniel Butterfield, J. Marion Sims, Edwin Booth, and King Jagiello, to name a few. Rather than giving a two-paragraph biography of each person’s life, Outdoor Monuments focuses on one revealing or thought-provoking episode, researched in primary sources when possible – for example, Sherman’s court martial of a journalist and the Vallandingham affair that helped inspire Edward Everett Hale’s “The Man Without a Country.” Sidebars in each essay offer a lengthy quote from a contemporary periodical or literary work. For an overview, see this page.

Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re an art lover, art historian, or art critic

The 54 sculptures included in Outdoor Monuments were chosen for artistic merit, for the fascination of their subjects, or both. Among them are works by top-notch sculptors such as Augustus Saint Gaudens, Daniel Chester French, John Quincy Adams Ward, and Anna Hyatt Huntington. Sculpture magazine referred to the book as “a useful tool to those seeking concise yet wide-ranging information on Manhattan’s many historical public works.”

But the book is more than a historical survey of important American sculptors. As a primer for how to look at sculpture (from the significance of a gesture to the purpose of sculpture) with an informed and inquisitive eye, it will increase your ability to understand and enjoy any sculpture. Appendix A, “How to Read a Sculpture,” is a methodical list of stimulating questions to ask of a sculpture, and conveniently refers the reader to specific essays where the questions are considered in more detail.

Outdoor Monuments relies for its esthetic theory on the writings of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged andThe Fountainhead. It is the first book-length analysis of sculpture based on Rand’s esthetics, and even those who disagree with Rand’s theories will find much food for thought in the discussions about the nature and purpose of art.

 Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re a gallery owner or a museum staff member

Visitors and potential buyers are more likely to linger if they can think actively about what they see, rather than struggling to absorb and retain someone else’s interpretation. Outdoor Monuments is a primer for how to look at sculpture with an informed and inquisitive eye, and will increase anyone’s ability to understand and enjoy any sculpture.

 Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re a librarian

Outdoor Monuments is a multi-purpose book. The appeal to tourists is obvious: it has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure.” The book will also be useful for historians and art lovers who may never visit Manhattan. Each of the essays has a section on the sculpture as a historical memento, in which fascinating figures and events are described with infectious enthusiasm. A sidebar offers a lengthy comment on the person or event represented, often from the 19th-c. New York Times, Harper’s Weekly, or a contemporary biography.

The sections dealing with the sculpture as a work of art – inspired by Ayn Rand’s writings on aesthetics – tackle issues that range from specific details of pose, costume and setting to broader questions such as the nature of art and why two viewers might react very differently to a particular work. Appendix A, “How to Read a Sculpture,” outlines a method by which readers can study art on their own, in New York or their home town. Appendix C offers short biographies of dozens of artists, noting their most important works and listing all their works on display outdoors in New York.

Why you need Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan if you’re an Objectivist

This is the first book-length analysis of sculpture based on Ayn Rand’s theories of esthetics. It argues intransigently in favor of representational works over abstract “art,” and “chews” such topics as metaphysical value-judgments and the nature and purpose of art. Aside from the theoretical aspects, fans of Ayn Rand will enjoy the fact that Outdoor Monuments exudes a love of capitalism and Western civilization. Its pages are crowded with inspiring men – among them some of the 19th century’s greatest innovators and businessmen – whose efforts changed New York, the United States and the world.

Reviews and mentions

New York Times, Sunday 1/28/07

Reading New York: “Tales From Mr. Untouchable, and a Stroll Among the Statues,” by Sam Roberts

Nicky Barnes cited the statute of limitations. In “Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide” (NYU Press, $18.95 paperback, $60 cloth), Dianne Durante suggests that there are few limitations to statues.

“They can make you stop, look and think when you’d swear your brain was too tired to function,” she writes. “The achievements and the virtues of the people represented in these statues can help supply the emotional fuel — the psychological energy — that keeps you going.”

Her guidebook is a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure (honoring, among others, the “father of gynecology” and the general who had an unremarkable military and business career but composed taps, the bugle call).

While the tone is sometimes preachy and pedantic (the book concludes with a tutorial on how to read a sculpture), Ms. Durante winsomely places 54 monuments in historical and artistic perspective.

We learn that a trumpet is an allegory for announcing fame, that the monument to Admiral Farragut in Madison Square Park altered the course of American sculpture, that the figure with the winged hat atop Grand Central Terminal is Mercury and that the statue of Atlas at Rockefeller Center was reviled when it was unveiled in 1937 because it supposedly resembled Mussolini.

Let’s hope Ms. Durante follows up in the other four boroughs.

Sculpture Magazine

Anyone whose curiosity has ever been piqued by the peculiar mixture of historical statues that ornament the grounds of Central Park will find Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide by Dianne Durante a satisfying read. Encompassing the entire borough, Durante begins her tour with the Statue of Liberty and works her way north to El Sid [sic] Campeador at West 155th St. A map in the front of the book displays each work’s location in order of what would be a lengthy walking tour.

 Each of the 54 entries has a black and white image for reference and basic information on the sculptor, date, medium, dimensions, location, and directions to reaching the site by subway. Durante places the monuments in context by providing a brief literary or historical quotation relating to each subject before detailing the history surrounding the work’s conception and realization. Readers are encouraged to observe closely the significance of details that may be missed in a passing glance or even to the naked eye. The entries provide background on each work’s origin, explaining, for example, how a statue of the medieval Polish king Jagiello came to be in New York alongside more predictable allegorical and American patriotic figures. A brief history of the subject is also provided, including enough lively anecdotes and obscure facts to entice all readers. The appendices include a formulaic – though potentially instructive – guide for viewing sculpture, a list of the works in chronological order, and brief biographies of the artists.

 This collection of facts, though somewhat elementary in tone, provides a useful tool to those seeking concise yet wide-ranging information on Manhattan’s many historical public works. In a city whose focus is ever forward, it is worthwhile to pause occasionally to consider its history. “For residents and tourists and historians and students who want to spend more time viewing and appreciating sculpture and New York history, Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan is the start of a unique voyage of discovery.”

 Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide by Dianne Durante is scheduled for release on February 1, 2007. Published by NYU Press. $18.95 softcover, $60.00 hardcover.

Note: Sculpture Magazine is published by the International Sculpture Center.  According to their website: “Sculpture is the premier publication in the field of contemporary sculpture. Sculpture offers exceptional editorial coverage, striking pictorial layouts …” Circulation is 22,000, but because many libraries subscribe, estimated readership is over 55,000. The Insider section, where this review appeared, is a 12-page supplement bound into members’ copies of Sculpture. The review of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan was featured prominently on the Insider’s first page, under the heading “Resource publication.”

Art Book, by Victoria Keller, Feb. 2008

American Individualist blog, by Joseph Kellard, 8/29/07 (read it on line)

Diane Durante’s “Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan” (OMOM) is a rarity: a book that evaluates art from Ayn Rand’s philosophy of aesthetics — the principles of which she peppers throughout — that highlights Manhattan’s relatively unexplored outdoor sculptures-statues, and that illustrates why they are worthy of such study. … At its best, OMOM allows readers to observe an Objectivist’s evaluative and theme-capturing thinking methods of many handsome, overlooked works of art. If you seek to develop your ability to objectively evaluate, understand and appreciate art, this book is a must buy.

New York Times City Room blog, 7/12/07: “Christopher Columbus Gets a Facelift,” by Sewell Chan (read it online)

Quick trivia question: How many memorials of Christopher Columbus are in the New York City parks system? (The answer is below.) One of the memorials — a marble bust at D’Auria-Murphy Triangle in the Belmont section of the Bronx — received a makeover this morning. …

The answer to the trivia question above: Five. According to Dianne L. Durante, author of “Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide” (New York University Press, 2007), the others are the marble statue at Columbus Circle, by Gaetano Russo; the bronze statue on Central Park’s Literary Walk, by Jeronimo Suñol; the statue at Court and Montague Streets, near Brooklyn Borough Hall, by Emma Stebbins (who sculpted the “Angel of the Waters” at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park); and a statue by A. Racioppi at Astoria Boulevard and 32nd Street, near the Queens entrance to the Triborough Bridge.

Avid Columbus fans may want to consult Peter van der Krogt’s Columbus monuments Web site, Ms. Durante suggests.

Midwest Book Review, 5/7/07

Manhattan’s streets and parks are packed with historic monuments, and some fifty of them are included in OUTDOOR MONUMENTS OF MANHATTAN: A HISTORICAL GUIDE, which offers up background history, surveys of American sculptors, and analysis of each sculpture, its influences, and its history. A ‘must’ for any Manhattan resident or library seeking background information on the area’s best outdoor monuments to use as either a take-along travel tote or a study.

New York Sun review by Francis Morrone, Friday 4/20/07, Arts & Letters / Books (read it in the Sun)

“The Great Monuments of New York”

A primer on getting to know our city’s monuments. … Ms. Durante’s entries are much longer than those of [“The Art Commission and the Municipal Art Society Guide to Manhattan’s Outdoor Sculpture”]. More important, each entry has a uniform structure. It contains a photo, vital stats (year dedicated, size, materials), an “About the Sculpture” section, and an “About the Subject” section, as well as a carefully chosen boxed quotation culled from an old book or newspaper that pertains to the subject.

For example, the entry on the William Cullen Bryant Memorial in Bryant Park includes Bryant’s fine poem “My Autumn Walk” (1864) and some sprightly lines about Bryant’s monumental career as editor and poet: “Some consider Bryant long-winded; but then, some consider Bill Clinton eloquent. Depends on your style preferences and your breath control.” Lines like that recur throughout and leaven a book that at first blush appears dauntingly didactic. In addition to the entries, the book includes “Appendix A: How to Read a Sculpture,” in which Ms. Durante outlines how we might analyze a given monument: “Pose: If you came home to find your Significant Other waiting for you in this pose (arms crossed, chest thrust out) how do you think he or she was feeling?” Her tips aren’t bad, and may be helpful to some readers — though the hows and whys of looking at sculpture are likelier to impress the reader in the monument entries themselves. …

“Outdoor Monuments” is well written, well researched, well thought-out, funny, and often refreshingly original, and will help any interested New Yorker know about the wondrous monuments that dot the city.

ArtTimes mention by Rudolph Steiner (click here to see the page)

A guide book, a primer on looking at sculpture, and a brief historical overview of New York City’s monuments, Dianne L. Durante’s Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan offers up a wealth of information for both resident and tourist in search of sites along New York’s Streets and Avenues. Includes photos and information on some fifty-four sculptural monuments. **** [of a possible 5 stars]

New York Sun 11/3/06, in “An Icon of the City Gets an Opening” by Francis Morrone

From a review of an exhibition on Paul Manship:

After the Statue of Liberty, perhaps the most famous public sculpture in New York is Rockefeller Center’s Prometheus, who adorns the Lower Plaza. Prometheus, bearer of fire from gods to man, fell afoul of Zeus and was condemned to an eternity of having his liver plucked at by birds. The sculpture has also received some plucks.

As Dianne Durante wisely notes in her new book, “Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan,” it’s really, really hard to do a statue of a man flying — especially when he doesn’t have wings. Consequently, Prometheus looks rather as though he is doing the sidestroke. Or, as he apparently struck some observers in the 1930s, when the sculpture was installed, as though he is not so much flying as falling — perhaps from high in the RCA Building. Did New Yorkers really used to call him “Leaping Louie”? Even the sculptor, Paul Manship, was none too pleased with his own handiwork. …