Last summer, I visited Prospect Park in Brooklyn for the first time in decades, photographing the zoo's animals and walking through neighboring areas: Grand Army Plaza and Park Slope. I also stopped by the Brooklyn Museum of Art to finally see a pair of statues flanking its entrance: Manhattan and Brooklyn, by my favorite American sculptor, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931). Photographing these allegorical female figures had long been on my bucket list.
French designed the 12-foot, 20-ton granite sculptures for the Brooklyn entrance to the Manhattan Bridge, where they were installed on pylons in 1916 as part of New York City's City Beautiful Movement. But in 1963, urban planner Robert Moses proposed reconstructing the bridge's Brooklyn entrance and deemed French's statues as distractions that needed to be removed and destroyed, along with other architectural and artistic works. But preservationists intervened, arranging for the sculptures to be relocated to the Brooklyn Museum, where they have flanked the front entrance ever since.
French, who later famously designed the Abraham Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, received the commission to create Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1913. He designed the seated figures, which proved to be the last architectural commission of his illustrious career, with features highlighting each borough's defining characteristics.
Manhattan's expression and posture are imperious—she looks proudly onto Eastern Parkway with raised chin, her half-closed hand resting on her lap with elbow pointed outward. She wears a tiara and an aegis, a breastplate associated with Athena, the Greek goddess of knowledge and war. Several features allude to Manhattan's role as a financial center: she holds a winged globe symbolizing international commerce, while a lockbox at her foot alludes to cash. French also included ship prows referencing New York Harbor and trade, which replaced his original concept of a skyscraper. A peacock beside her serves as an emblem of pride, luxury and immortality, while a marble torso sculpture represents the city's art museums.
Brooklyn's figure embodies a more relaxed demeanor, with her chin tilted slightly downward and forearm placed on her chair's backrest. She sports a laurel wreath and holds a tablet engraved with the Dutch phrase meaning "Unity Makes Strength"—a reference to New York's Dutch colonial history and the 1898 unification of the five boroughs. By her side sits a boy reading a book, a garland and lyre, collectively evoking education and culture. There is also a leaf branch and church steeple, nodding to Brooklyn's nicknames as both the "Borough of Trees" and the "Borough of Churches and Homes."
When the Brooklyn Museum was renovated from 2001 to 2003, the facade, front entrance and plaza were redesigned, and the statuary, more than 30 pieces that included Manhattan and Brooklyn, were cleaned and repairs were made. The two statues were installed in new, more elevated locations on either side of the front entrance, Brooklyn to the left, Manhattan on the right. The museum was reopened in 2004.
Endnotes:
Michael Richman, Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor, Michael Richman. (National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, 1976).
Harold Holzer, Monument Man (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2019).
Daniel Chester French Granite Sculptures (Evergreene Architectural Arts)
Brooklyn Museum: sculptures on facade (Dianne Durante)
Manhattan Bridge: Almost 99 Years Old (Dianne Durante)
Miss Manhattan and Miss Brooklyn are back! (Brooklyn Public Library)