The Hewer - Cairo, IL - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

County of art: Alexander County
location of art: Washington Ave. & Poplar St., Halliday Park, Cairo
Artist: George Grey Barnard, 1863-1938, sculptor
Founder: Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company

Text on Monument:
(Top plaque on front of base): THE HEWER
(Bottom plaque on front of base):

ERECTED IN MEMORY OF
WILLIAM PARKER HALLIDAY
PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF
CAIRO ILLINOIS IN 1906
IN TOKEN OF HIS UNSWERVING FAITH
IN HER DESTINY

Proper Description: "A nude male figure, crouching, holding a stick in his proper left arm before him. His proper right arm is raised upward, holding an implement, and poised to strike down on the stick." ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum

Comments: "An unidentified flyer "Cairo's Art Treasure" which says that the Hewer was presented to the City in 1906 by Mrs. W. P. Halliday and children in memory of Capt. W. P. Halliday. It was a bronze casting of a marble Hewer Barnard had done for the World's Fair in St. Louis, commissioned in 1901 by the artist's friend Miss Mary Halliday, a Cairo artist. The flyer quotes a letter to Miss Adlaide Rendleman from Barnard on May 8, 1937, saying "My Hewer was created (strangely but true) from a vision of men laboring on the shore of a flood hewing and dragging wood to save the people from death and destruction." ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum

THE HEWER, between 9th and 10th Sts., a heroic bronze nude by George Grey Barnard, was presented to Cairo in 1906 by Miss Mary H. Halliday and her family, in memory of her father, William Parker Halliday, who died in 1889. Prior to its unveiling at Cairo, The Hewer had been exhibited at the St. Louis, World's Fair. In 1910 Lorado Taft declared The Hewer to be one of the two best nudes in America.- Illinois, a Descriptive and Historical Guide, 1939 , Cairo section, pg. 174.

TITLE: The Hewer ARTIST(S): George Grey Barnard DATE: Cast 1903.; Installed 1906 MEDIUM: Bronze on concrete base CONTROL NUMBER: IAS 75004399 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: In small traffic triangle called Halliday Park between: Washington Ave., and Poplar St. Cairo, IL DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: None that I could see

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Date Logged Log   07/16/2018 Go Boilers! visited it