"Astronomer's Monument"
New Deal Agencies: Public Works of Art Project (PWAP)
Completed: 1934
Artists: Arnold Forester, Djey el Djey, George Stanley, Gordon Newell, L. Archibald Garner, Roger Noble Burnham
Designers: L. Archibald Garner
Quality of Information: Very Good
Status: Marked
Site Survival: Extant
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Description
The Astronomer’s Monument is one of L. Archibald Garner’s well-known public works. It was completed in 1934 with PWAP support. It pays homage to six great astronomers: Hipparchus, Nicolas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, and William Herschel. Although the monument was Garner’s design, he worked with 5 other sculptors to sculpt and cast it. Each artist was responsible for sculpting one astronomer. (One of the artists- George Stanley- was also the creator of the famous “Oscar” statuette).
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Griffith Park Astronomers' Monument
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Astronomers' Monument PWAP Stamp
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"'Astronomer's Monument'"
Source notes
Project originally submitted by Terry (Garner) Stafford on May 19, 2010.
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Who did what here?
What sculptor created which astronomer?
Can anyone help out with this information?
Hipparchus (about 125 B.C.) – Archibald Garner
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) – Djey el Djey
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) – Gordon Newell
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) – Arnold Foerster
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) – George Stanley (also created the Oscar)
John Herschel (1738-1822) – Roger Noble Burnham
Mr. Marlowe is not entirely correct on the artists and their astronomers:
Garner sculpted Copernicus, Newell sculpted Kepler. He is correct about Burnham / Herschel, and Stanley / Newton. The other two combinations I cannot confirm, having never found, in my research on the monument, any documents to identify with any certainty who did which of these two. I suspect, based on style, that Djey did Hipparchus, but I don’t know this.
Also, it’s the Astronomers Monument, not Astronomer’s…
The Herschel commemorated is not John, but William (originally Wilhelm). John Herschel was William’s son and also an astronomer, particularly of objects visible from the southern hemisphere.