"Pomona the Fountain of Abundance", by Karl Bitter atop the Pulitzer Fountain next to the Plaza Hotel at Grand Army Plaza (Fifth Avenue and 59th St). Bitter was hit by a car and died before the sculpture could be completed.
Pulitzer Fountain Description from the Central Park Conservancy.
NY Newsday description of the fountain.
Pulitzer Fountain - From the NYC Public Art Curriculum.
Audrey Munson died in 1996. She was 105 years old. She had been committed to the Ogdensburg Psychiatric Institution in 1931 for what now are largely treatable diseases of depression and schizophrenia. Her parents divorced when Audrey was very young. After her parents died (Edgar is her father) she had no visitors for several decades before being rediscovered by a niece. Audrey Munson is buried in an unmarked grave in her father's plot in the New Haven, NY cemetery.
Although virtually forgotten today, Audrey Munson was a popular artist's model, muse, silent film actress, and newspaper columnist in the early 20th century. Munson and I come from the same hometown, Mexico, NY.
"American Venus: The Extraordinary Life of Audrey Munson Model and Muse" by Diane Rozas and Anita Bourne Gottehrer was published in 1999. The book describes Munson's long and tragic life and includes many vintage and contemporary photographs. Unfortunately the book also contains many factual and typographical errors.
I live in New York City, where there are many sculptures and statues for which Munson posed. On this website I hope to present some of my, admittedly amateur, photographs of her statues as well as any factual information I dig up about her.
Detail of "Memory" the Straus Memorial sculpture in Straus Park, 107th and Broadway. Augustus Lukeman (1871-1935) was the sculptor.
Looking south at "Memory" October 2003.
Tile artwork on the uptown side of the 86th St. station of the IRT. There's a series of tile works made by local students in the 1980s in this station. I need to go back and get details.
Ida and Isodor Straus were passengers on the Titanic on its maiden voyage. They died when Ida refused to board a lifeboat without her husband. At the time Mr. Straus was the owner of Macy's.
Thousands mourn at Straus memorial - article from the May 12, 1912 New York Times describing the memorial services for the Straus's.
Straus Park is Dedicated - article from the April 15, 1915 Evening Sun newspaper reporting on the memorial's dedication ceremony
Friends of Straus Park
Recent Comments