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September 11, 2008 by Betsy Bird

Sculpture Fun (Part Three or So)

September 11, 2008 by Betsy Bird   7 comments

Originally I had a brilliant idea for today’s post. When I walked by Saks Fifth Avenue recently I saw that they had created this bizarre Wizard of Oz window display. The idea was that I’d take a bunch of pictures, post them lickety split and voila! Instant 10-minute posting. Slap your hands together, you are done. Well I moseyed on by Saks yesterday and lo and behold they’d changed their windows. Doggone people. Don’t they know there are lazy librarian bloggers out there just itching for the chance to fill space? Fortunately I had a back-up plan. Do you remember my previous Sculpture Fun postings?  There was the first one (which, since the appearance of the blogroll, requires you to scroll down to the bottom of the screen to see the images) featuring Lentil, ducklings, Ramona, Eeyore, Alice, Peter Pan, and Ribsy.  A second post on the topic rustled up the likes of Pollyanna, Paddington, Robin Hood, Peter, Pinocchio, and Dinosaur Bob. And long ago I had a fun link to Strange Statues Around the World.

Well, now it’s time for Part III.  Thanks to the quick eyes of my readers, here’s a new crop of literary statues you may not have known about before.  Beats fancy schmanzy window displays any day of the week, if you ask me.

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Last time I wrote an article of this sort Chicago resident Elizabeth Fama wrote this in the comment section: "Oz Park in Chicago has four sculptures: the tin man, the scarecrow, the cowardly lion, and Dorothy with Toto."

How right she is too:





Oz and Ends reported back in April
that someone actually stole the plaques from a lot of these characters.  It doesn’t get much lower than that.

Wendie O mentioned some statues she was familiar with.  If you know the White Marsh branch of the Baltimore County Public Library system then you may be aware of their fairly fabulous Red Queen.



You can read the artist’s view of the Red Queen here.  I was particularly fascinated by the sentence, "Metaphorically, Alice and The Red Queen epitomizes the relationship between student and teacher."  If the student/teacher relationship requires the teacher to bodily pull the student along behind through the air then I’m all for that message.

Fans of Philip Pullman know that the man is head over heels in love with Norman Lindsey’s book The Magic Pudding.  The New York Review of Books reprinted the title with his introduction not too long ago, just in case you’re hankering for a copy.  In lieu of that, enjoy this sculpture based on the book.  I got it from Carol Reid’s posting on Typo of the Day for Librarians.



Carol was also the one to show me the posting on the Tom and Huck statue found in Hannibal, Missouri.



AND Carol even managed to scrounge up (and I have no idea where she even found this) a Miffy statue from Utrecht, the Netherlands.



And they said it couldn’t be done.

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Wilson Swain directed me to this next pic and the accompanying links as well.  You could technically point out that Bullwinkle doesn’t constitute children’s literature.  To that I point out to you the Fractured Fairy Tale portion of the show, and say that furthermore half of the fractured fairy tales we find on our shelves today owe much of their existence to that program.  I was at first a little unclear on where you could find this statue.  It is listed as being on Sunset, Boulevard.  Further information from Seven Deadly Arts, however, had this to say: "In 1961, cartoonist Jay Ward unveiled a statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle in front of his Sunset Blvd. studio, directly across the street from the Chateau Marmont. (The studio is gone, as is Ward’s neighboring gift shop, The Dudley Do-Right Emporium, which operated from 1971 to 2005, but the statue remains a Hollywood fixture to this day.)"  In any case, it was restored recently to mixed reviews.  Here is the before and after with thanks to Cartoon Brew.



Thanks Wilson!

Author Candice Ransom also wrote me this little note with the accompanying picture:

"It’s Greyfriars Bobby, a real dog who visited his master’s grave every night decades after the man died.  It was a children’s book by Eleanor Atkinson and later a Disney movie.  I read the book and bawled and saw the movie and bawled and when I was 40, got to go to Edinburgh for the first time.  My husband and I crawled out of Waverly train station and I galloped up this mile-long Everest-steep hill to see the statue before we even checked into our hotel.  My  husband is used to such antics and didn’t even mind my bawling in the street over the statue."



Aw….

I also heard that there was a Dr. Seuss statue hidden away somewhere.  Possibly in Springfield, Mass.  So I plugged in "Dr. Seuss" and "statue" into the old Google search box and before I knew it I was coming up with a veritable plethora of items!

First and foremost, there is indeed a Dr. Seuss National Memorial at The Quadrangle in Springfield, Massachusetts.



I love this statue they made of the man himself.  Doesn’t he look relaxed?  If they were to make a statue out of you, wouldn’t you like to look as easy going an happy as Mr. T.G. does here?



And then here are the others:





(I think the Lorax is puckering up for a smooch)


Field trip, anyone?

Whew!  So much for an easy post.  But if you’ve any I’ve missed, let me know.  I’m always willing to gather more together.

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. janeyolen says

    September 11, 2008 at 5:53 am

    Beverly Clearly statues in Portland, OR, Make Way for Ducklings in Boston. I have been trying to gift my small town (pop 3000) with an OWL MOON memorial garden by the school but it’s been two years and they are resistant though other schools in the area would love to have it.

    Jane

  2. Jennie says

    September 11, 2008 at 9:16 am

    Not necessarily lit, but Univ of Maryland has a statue of Jim Henson on a bench, talking to Kermit the Frog right outside the Student Union. It’s my favorite part of campus.

    I’d post a link but SLJ claims that would be spam.

  3. Brooke says

    September 11, 2008 at 9:50 am

    Similar to Greyfriar’s Bobby, Japan has a lovely statue of the dog Hachiko, who was famous for coming to the train station to meet his owner for years after the owner died. This is recounted in Pamela S. Turner’s lovely “Hachiko: the true story of a loyal dog.” But the question remains: does it count as a kidlit statue if the statue came before the book? Should I mention how beloved Hachiko is by Japanese children? Hmmm.

  4. Lee Wind says

    September 11, 2008 at 10:42 am

    There’s something magical about the “forever” feel of a character from a children’s story being cast as a bronze sculpture. (Okay, nothing against the painted ones…) There’s an amazing look of “wow – really?” my daughter got when we read “The Library Lion” and then I showed her pictures of the lion sculptures outside the NY Public Library. Now, everytime we read it with someone else around, she’s so excited to tell them and show them the photos of the real world sculptures – just like in the book! Thanks for such a fun post thread!
    Lee

  5. PB says

    September 11, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    I don’t mean to nitpick, but I am pretty sure Greyfriar’s Bobby did not visit his master’s grave for decades, owing to the fact that dogs don’t live for that long.

    14 years is the official story.

  6. Fuse #8 says

    September 11, 2008 at 6:22 pm

    Regarding the Cleary and duckling statues, I’ve covered them already in my first statue posting. So weird about the Owl Moon resistance. Hachiko’s a good idea too.

  7. laurasalas says

    September 12, 2008 at 5:56 am

    Glad I’m not the only nitpicker:>) We went on a tour in Edinburgh that included the cemetery where Greyfriar’s Bobby was buried (I’d never even heard of him!), and the tour guide said most of the legend was exaggerated and that Bobby’s visits had to do more with other cemetery smells than missing his owner.

    Hmm…sometimes it’s a little more fun not knowing the real story. Then again, the real story can be disgustingly fun, too!

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