Chief Justice John Marshall Statue (1959 - 2012) - Philadelphia, PA
N 39° 57.972 W 075° 10.908
18S E 484473 N 4424021
A bronze, seated statue of Chief Justice John Marshall can be found at the west end of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, located in the middle of a parking/driving area.
Waymark Code: WMDTXV
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 02/24/2012
Views: 4
In 1959, someone went around this area with a camera and documented all of the existing statues and other works of art. They stood to the right of this statue and the front of other ones and snapped away. 
I stumbled upon a huge cache of thousands of pictures of Philadelphia, beginning with the invention of the camera and still even more pictures taken in the next decade when cameras became more commonplace. This then photo was found HERE. The 1959 photo was taken on March 31, 1959. I snapped my photo on Sunday, February 5, 2012 @ approximately 1:48 PM, facing northeast to the right side (proper left) of the statue, the art museum to my left side. I used a new camera, Canon PowerShot SX210IS 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 14x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD. A total duration of 52 years, 10 months, 6 days including the end date. I went to this SITE to calculate the age difference of the pictures. The immediate area has remained unchanged over the last 53 years.
The statue is made of bronze with a granite base and celebrates the legacy of Chief Justice John Marshall. John Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States (1801–1835) whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches. Previously, Marshall had been a leader of the Federalist Party in Virginia and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1799 to 1800. He was Secretary of State under President John Adams from 1800 to 1801. SOURCE
SIRIS describes the statue as portrait of John Marshall dressed in long judicial robes seated in an arm chair. His proper right arm rests on the arm of the chair, palm open and facing upward. His proper right leg is crossed over his proper left leg. Marshall is depicted with short curly hair and he looks down slightly. The sculpture rests on a rectangular granite base. SOURCE The statues dimensions are: Sculpture: approx. 75 x 51 x 77 1/2 in.; Base: approx. 60 x 60 x 21 1/2. The statue was sculpted by William Wetmore Story (1819-1895) and the founder was the J. Arthur Limerick Company.
The inscription reads:
JOHN MARSHALL
CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES
1801-1835
AS SOLDIER HE FOUGHT THAT THE
NATION MIGHT COME INTO BEING
AS EXPOUNDER OF THE CONSTITUTION
HE GAVE IT LENGTH OF DAYS
[on the other side]
PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
BY JAMES M. BUCK 1931
Of particular note, SIRIS mentions this statue is an exact replica of the original which is located in Washington, D.C. The original sculpture of Chief Justice John Marshall by Joseph Story is located in Washington, D.C. at the United States Supreme Court. In the early 1920s, the Vice President of the Fairmount Park Art Association, James Beck, commissioned a plaster replica of the Washington sculpture so that a bronze cast could be made. Philadelphia sculptor, Louis Milione was chosen to evaluate the quality of the plaster and to oversee the casting of the bronze. The granite base was given by the Fairmount Park Art Association. Another recast of the original in located in Washington, D.C. at C Street & 3rd Street, N.W.