Lady Columbia - Salt Lake City, Utah
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Lord Mot
N 40° 45.531 W 111° 53.129
12T E 425258 N 4512364
After the World Wars, the personification of Columbia fell out of use, and she has largely been replaced by Lady Liberty as a feminine allegory of the United States.
Waymark Code: WMBEWP
Location: Utah, United States
Date Posted: 05/12/2011
Views: 22
This Statue of Columbia:
The Salt Lake City and County Building's central clock tower is topped with a statue of Columbia and rises 256 feet (78 m) from the ground. The building's primary axis runs north-south, and large entrances mark each cardinal direction. On the south wing (over the Mayor's office) is a bronze statue of the goddess Justice. Originally, the building had statues depicting Commerce, Liberty, Justice, and Columbia, but the others were removed following a 1934 earthquake. Columbia and the other missing statues were replaced on top of the building when it was renovated in 1989.
(from the Autobiography of Gordon Lewis Newby)
This is an 8 foot statue of our Lady of Commerce. The statue is in copper which was formed over wooden frames carved to form the statue. I designed the statue and made all the wood forms over which the metal was shaped. Rudy Chagney did the metal work and put all the pieces together to form the final statue. This was the first of the statues made for the restoration of the City and County Building. The statue was considered an individual project but was included in the roof repair. The other four statues were let as contracts to artists and they got credit for their work when the City and County Building was completely refurbished. I never got any credit for my work. I got paid and so that was some satisfaction."
About Columbia:
Columbia is a poetic name for the Americas and the feminine personification of the United States of America. It has inspired the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.
in the 19th century, Columbia would be visualized as a goddess-like female national personification of the United States, comparable to the British Britannia, the Italian Italia Turrita and the French Marianne, often seen in political cartoons of the 19th-early 20th century. This personification was sometimes called "Lady Columbia" or "Miss Columbia".
The image of the personified Columbia was never fixed, but she was most often presented as a woman between youth and middle age, wearing classically draped garments decorated with the stars and stripes; a popular version gave her a red-and-white striped dress and a blue blouse, shawl, or sash spangled with white stars. Her headdress varied; sometimes it included feathers reminiscent of a Native American headdress, sometimes it was a laurel wreath, but most often it was a cap of liberty..
Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Lady Columbia
Figure Type: Human
Artist Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Gordon Lewis Newby
Date created or placed or use 'Unknown' if not known: 1894
Materials used: Copper
Location: Atop the Salt Lake City and County Building
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