The Miner (1938)

by John B. Flannagan (1895 - 1942)

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

    The Miner

  • Artist

    John B. Flannagan (1895 - 1942)

  • Year

    1938

  • Location

    Central Terrace of Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial (north of Boathouse Row on Kelly Drive)

  • Medium

    Limestone, on limestone base

  • Dimensions

    Height 5′, width 3'3", depth 3'8" (base height 5’6″, width 3'11", depth 3'11")

Commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art), bequest of Ellen Phillips Samuel

Owned by the City of Philadelphia


Museum Without Walls Audio

0:00/ 0:00

Download Museum Without Walls audio file

At A Glance

  • Commissioned for the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial

  • Located opposite The Ploughman in the Central Terrace of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial

  • The Miner commemorates the thousands of Americans who traveled west in search of instant wealth

  • Artist John Flannagan was one of America’s preeminent stone carvers

Opposite The Ploughman in the Central Terrace of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial, John Flannagan’s The Miner commemorates the thousands of Americans who traveled west in search of instant (and generally illusory) wealth. Commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art), Flannagan was born in North Dakota and was one of America’s preeminent stone carvers. “My aim,” he once wrote, “is to produce a sculpture feeling as direct and swift as a drawing, a sculpture with such ease, freedom and simplicity that it hardly feels carved.”

Central Terrace of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial on Kelly Drive
The Central Terrace of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial. Photo Caitlin Martin © 2010 for the Association for Public Art.

The Central Terrace of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial

Construction of the Samuel Memorial began with the Central Terrace. Six sculptors were commissioned to create two large bronze monuments and four complementary figures in limestone. These works express the twin themes of America’s westward expansion and the new nation’s welcome to immigrants from other lands.

Sculptures in the Central Terrace:

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

Voices heard in the Museum Without Walls: AUDIO program: Penny Balkin Bach is the former Executive Director & Chief Curator of the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association) and the author of many books and articles about Philadelphia’s public art. Kathleen A. Foster is Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Senior Curator of American Art and Director of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Michael Taylor is the former Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the author of Jacques Lipchitz and Philadelphia. | Segment Producer: Amanda Aronczyk and Ave Carrillo

Museum Without Walls: AUDIO is the Association for Public Art’s award-winning audio program for Philadelphia’s outdoor sculpture. Available for free by phone, mobile app, or online, the program features more than 150 voices from all walks of life – artists, educators, civic leaders, historians, and those with personal connections to the artworks.

 

RESOURCES:

Loading map...

More artworks