- State:
- WASHINGTON-DC
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Sculptures
- New Deal Agencies:
- Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA), Arts Programs
- Completed:
- 1938
- Artist:
- Erwin Springweiler
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Erwin Springweiler’s bronze statue, “Great Anteater,” was mounted at the National Zoo in 1938. It stands in front of the Small Mammal House.
Springweiler was able to work from a live anteater at the zoo and from skeletons and furs at the American Museum of Natural History. The statue is six feet long and three feet high. It was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.
The anteater statue was unveiled at the zoo on March 25, 1938, with a formal presentation to Dr. William M. Mann, director of the Zoo, and a speech by T. Edward Rowan, superintendent of painting and sculpture at the Section of Fine Arts .
In the months preceding its unveiling at the Zoo, Springweiler’s anteater sculpture won the $300 Speyer Memorial Prize at a National Academy exhibit in New York City.
Another casting was placed at the Brookgreen Zoo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 1949.
Source notes
Originally posted in the New Deal Art Registry
“Statue to be Given.” The Evening Star, March 24, 1938, p. A-2.
“Two Baby ‘Chimps’ Trumps Off New Drawing Cards at Zoo.” The Washington Post, March 26, 1938, p. X13.
Salmon, Robin R. Sculpture of Brookgreen Gardens. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2009. P. 36.
Site originally submitted by Kent Boese on July 22, 2013.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.
At this Location:
- National Zoo: Elephant House - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Small Mammal House - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Mortellito Murals (Lost) - Washington DC
- National Zoo: New Exhibit Areas - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Harvard Street Entrance - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Mane Cafe - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Machine and Carpentry Shops Building - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Additions and Improvements - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Bird House Addition - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Knight Bas-Reliefs - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Mortellito Bas Reliefs - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Warneke Sculpture - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Fulda/Mortellito Bas-Reliefs - Washington DC
- National Zoo: Springweiler Bas-Reliefs - Washington DC
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