Eagles (1904)

by Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870 - 1952)

Photo Caption: Photo Alec Rogers © 2014 for the Association for Public Art
  • Title

    Eagles

  • Artist

    Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870 - 1952)

  • Year

    1904; installed 1967

  • Location

    Market Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River

  • Medium

    Stone, Tennessee marble

  • Dimensions

    Height 5' ; width 6'

  • Themes

    The Animal Kingdom

Acquired by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art); gift from the Pennsylvania Railroad

Owned by the City of Philadelphia

At A Glance

  • Originally created as ornamental figures for the Pennsylvania Station in New York City (1904)

  • Using Milford pink granite, Weinman carved a number of eagles for the roof of the station, each weighing 5,500 pounds

  • When the station was demolished in 1963, four of the eagles were given to the Fairmount Park Art Association, which were installed four years later on the Market Street Bridge

Adolph Alexander Weinman was born in Carlsruhe, Germany, in 1870. When he was 10 years old, his widowed mother brought him to New York, where he later apprenticed with a carver of wood and ivory. In the evenings, he studied at Cooper Union and frequented the Art Students League. Weinman was interested in medallic as well as sculptural art and is known for designing the 1916 dime and half-dollar.

Eagles sculpture
Photo Alec Rogers © 2014 for the Association for Public Art

The architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White hired Weinman to design ornamental figures for the Pennsylvania Station Building in New York City (1904). Using Milford pink granite from Massachusetts, he carved 14 eagles for the roof, each weighing 5,500 pounds, and 8 smaller eagles of Knoxville marble. When the station was demolished in 1963, four of the large eagles were given to the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art). They were installed four years later on the Market Street Bridge.

Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).

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