Along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Bike and Walking Friendly

1.3 miles One Way

Loading map...

The Parkway’s renowned public art collection visually parallels the history of American sculpture. Running from the heart of Center City at City Hall to Fairmount Park at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Parkway has steadily evolved since the early 20th century as the city’s cultural mecca of art museums, educational institutions, and public artworks.

William Penn

(1890, cast 1892)

by Alexander Milne Calder (1846 - 1923)

City Hall Tower, Broad and Market Streets

Over thirty-six feet tall and weighing more than 53,000 pounds, Alexander Milne Calder’s William Penn atop City Hall is one of Philadelphia’s most prominent landmarks.

LOVE

(1976)

by Robert Indiana (1928 - 2018)

15th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard

For the bicentennial celebration in 1976, artist Robert Indiana lent the city a large aluminum sculpture of his “love” image. Indiana first produced this design as a painting in 1964.

Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs

(1964)

by Nathan Rapoport (1911 - 1987)

16th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

This impassioned memorial to the victims of the Holocaust was commissioned by the Association of Jewish New Americans, a group of several hundred families, many of whom had fled Europe in the wake of Hitler’s destruction.

Three Way Piece Number 1: Points

(1964)

by Henry Moore (1898 - 1986)

Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 16th and 17th Streets

“Sculpture,” said Henry Moore, “should always at first sight have some obscurities, and further meanings.”

Three Discs, One Lacking

(1968)

by Alexander "Sandy" Calder (1898 - 1976)

Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 16th and 17th Streets

Edmund Bacon, Director of Philadelphia’s City Planning Commission, purchased this iron alloy painted sculpture for the City in 1968 with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

Rock Form (Porthcurno)

(1964)

by Barbara Hepworth (1903 - 1975)

Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 17th Street

One of the 20th century’s most eminent sculptors, Dame Barbara Hepworth created abstract works influenced by natural shapes.

General Tadeusz Kosciuszko

(1977)

by Marian Konieczny (1930 - 2017)

18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

In honor of the U.S. Bicentennial, the people of Poland donated this bronze sculpture of Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Kosciuszko, who came from Poland to fight in America’s Revolutionary War.

Kopernik

(1972)

by Dudley Talcott (1899 - 1986)

18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

This memorial sculpture was commissioned by a committee of Polish Americans formed to honor Kopernik on the 500th anniversary of his birth.

Jesus Breaking Bread

(1976)

by Walter Erlebacher (1933 - 1991)

Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Logan Square, 18th and Race Streets

Commissioned for the 41st International Eucharistic Congress, which met in Philadelphia in 1976, Walter Erlebacher’s sculpture presents a figure of Jesus holding two pieces of broken bread.

AMOR

(1998)

by Robert Indiana (1928 - 2018)

Sister Cities Park, 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

On the occasion of the World Meeting of Families and Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S., the Philadelphia Museum of Art in partnership with the Association for Public Art presented the installation of Robert Indiana’s AMOR.

Thomas Fitzsimons

(1946)

by Giuseppe Donato (1881 - 1965)

Sister Cities Park, 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

An Irish immigrant, Fitzsimons founded a major trading company that provided supplies and funds to American forces during the Revolutionary War. The statue stands near Don Diego de Gardoqui in Sister Cities Park.

Don Diego de Gardoqui

(1977)

by Luis Antonio Sanguino (b. 1934)

Sister Cities Park, 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Don Diego de Gardoqui served as a financial intermediary during the Revolutionary War, helping bring funds and arms from Spain to America.

Swann Memorial Fountain

(1924)

by Alexander Stirling Calder (1870 - 1945)

Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 19th Street

Three bronze Native Americans that represent Philadelphia’s three main waterways: the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, and Wissahickon Creek.

General Galusha Pennypacker Memorial

(1934)

by Albert Laessle (1877 - 1954)

Logan Square Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 19th Street

Galusha Pennypacker, a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, became at age 22 the youngest general to serve in the Civil War.

Shakespeare Memorial

(1926)

by Alexander Stirling Calder (1870 - 1945)

Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 19th and 20th Streets

Alexander Stirling Calder’s monument to William Shakespeare, which depicts two figures representing Comedy and Tragedy.

Joseph Leidy

(1907)

by Samuel Murray (1870 - 1941)

Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

A leading figure at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Joseph Leidy (1823-1891) is known as the “father of American vertebrate paleontology,” and is recognized as the foremost American anatomist of his time.

Deinonychus

(1987)

by Kent Ullberg (b. 1945)

The Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

This sculpture is the first full-size reconstruction of the 100-million-year-old dinosaur, Deinonychus

All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors

(1934)

by J. Otto Schweizer (1863 - 1955)

Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 20th Street

The Honorable Samuel Beecher Hart, a Pennsylvania legislator and captain of the Gray Invincibles, proposed a memorial to the state’s African American military men who had served the United States in wartime.

Aero Memorial

(1948)

by Paul Manship (1885 – 1966)

Aviator Park, Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 20th Street

Located opposite the main entrance of the Franklin Institute, the bronze sphere is dedicated to the aviators who died in World War I.

Francisco de Miranda

(1977)

by Lorenzo Gonzalez (1877 - 1948)

20th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Even on a windless day, the cape swirls around this hero of three revolutionary wars.

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial

(1921)

by Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866 - 1947)

Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 20th Street

These two Tennessee marble pylons on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway commemorate Civil War soldiers and sailors.

The Thinker

(1902-04, cast 1919)

by Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917)

Rodin Museum entrance and walk, Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 21st and 22nd Streets

Philadelphia’s version of this iconic artwork is a cast of the 1902–1904 sculpture. It was installed for the opening of the Rodin Museum in 1929, in front of a façade that replicates the one at Meudon where artist Auguste Rodin’s grave is located.

The Gates of Hell

(1880-1917)

by Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917)

Rodin Museum entrance, Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 21st and 22nd Streets

The theme for Rodin’s Gates of Hell derives from Dante’s Inferno, but Rodin incorporated dozens of figures that have no strict parallel in the poem.

Iroquois

(1983 – 1999)

by Mark di Suvero (b. 1933)

Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval and Spring Garden Street (Iroquois Park)

Mark di Suvero’s monumental Iroquois has a robust energy and physical presence. The abstract sculpture is formed from painted steel I-beams, which are emblematic of the artist’s use of industrial materials.

Symbiosis

(2011)

by Roxy Paine (b. 1966)

Benjamin Franklin Parkway, 24th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue (Iroquois Park)

Hand-fabricated from thousands of pieces of stainless steel pipe, plate, and rods, Symbiosis is part of Roxy Paine’s “Dendroid” series.

Washington Monument

(1897)

by Rudolf Siemering (1835 - 1905)

Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval

On Independence Day in 1810, the Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania resolved to create a memorial to General George Washington, who had served as president of the organization from its founding until his death in 1799.

Rocky

(1980)

by A. Thomas Schomberg (b. 1943)

Entrance to Philadelphia Museum of Art; Kelly Drive and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

In the movie “Rocky III” (1982), a massive statue of Philadelphia fighter Rocky Balboa, arms raised in triumph, is unveiled in the courtyard of the Museum of Art. In real life, actor Sylvester Stallone presented the statue to the City of Philadelphia.

The Lion Fighter

(1858, cast 1892)

by Albert Wolff (1814 - 1892)

Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

The original Lion Fighter sits as a companion piece to August Kiss’s Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther on the steps of the Altes Museum in Berlin. Philadelphia’s cast was moved to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1929, where – as in Berlin – it accompanies a bronze cast of the Amazon.

The Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther

(1839, cast 1929)

by August Kiss (1802 - 1865)

Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

The Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther was the work of German sculptor August Kiss. Caught in the midst of the attack, the figures convey the violence and emotional tension of the moment.

Maja

(1942)

by Gerhard Marcks (1889-1981)

Maja Park, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 22nd Street (south side)

After years in storage, Gerhard Marcks’ bronze Maja recently returned to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in a new public park, “Maja Park”. The sculpture once stood on the East Terrace of the nearby Philadelphia Museum of Art for decades.