The Bronze Doors of the MARINERS’ MUSEUM

The Bronze Doors of THE MARINERS’ MUSEUM

NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA

An explanation of the iconography and a brief history of the monumental narrative Bronze Doors that grace the entrance to The Mariners’ Museum.

Cynthia Katz

Charter Member of The Bronze Door Society The Bronze Doors of The Mariner’s Museum

An explanation of the iconography and a brief history of the monumental narrative Bronze Doors that grace the entrance to The Mariners’ Museum.

Text and illustrations © by The Bronze Door Society of The Mariner’s Museum with the exception of the following: xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act, as amended, or in writing by the Author or The Bronze Door Society.

All correspondence and inquiries should be directed to The Bronze Door Society, The Mariners’ Museum, 100 Museum Drive, Newport News, VA 23606. The Bronze Doors of THE MARINERS’ MUSEUM

The magnificent Bronze Doors at the original entrance to The Mariners’ Museum have protected the collections that are housed inside since 1937. They were commissioned by Museum founder Archer M. Huntington to New York sculptor Herbert C. Adams1 in 1932. They were cast in 1935 and 1936 by The Gorham Company of New York at their bronze foundry in Providence, RI. The doors and the adjacent fixed panels were installed by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in 1936 and 1937.2

Huntington’s global vision for the Museum is given form in the four massive panels and the transom piece. One of the panels displays Huntington’s mission: “This Museum is devoted to the culture of the Seas and its tributaries—its conquest by Man and its influence on Civilization.” Adams illustrated this mandate in high relief in the rest of the panels. He chose historic ship designs, detailed naturalistic sea life, images of Man working on and navigating the sea, and included maps of the continents and the heavens. Mythological figures are juxtaposed with historical watercraft, from an eighth-century Norse longship to a twentieth-century runabout. The ancient gods of the sea from Greek mythology, Poseidon, his wife Amphitrite, and their son Triton, are also featured. All the panels on the doors are framed with innumerable sea creatures—fish, squid, turtles, seaweed—and accurate maritime rope work and knots.

Adams conceived the Museum entrance as a triptych, a Medieval and Renaissance three-panel devotional form associated with the altarpiece. The wide central panel is flanked with two smaller side panels, and the rectangular tympanum, of bronze and glass, contains a triangular composition that caps the central image.

The use of sculpted monumental doors to “tell a story” dates back to at least the first millennium. This wonderful creation at The Mariners’ Museum is as powerful as any of the classic monumental doors in Europe or Asia.3

1 Explanatory notes are included in the Addenda at the end of this paper. For example, Note 1 provides a biography of Adams’ career. Note 2 escribes the fabrication and installation of the Bronze Doors at The Mariners Museum. Note 3 provides an overview of the emergence and evolution of monumental narrative doors on public buildings.

1 The Museum’s entrance architecture is relatively simple and otherwise unadorned, which helps further to set off the elaborate bronze work. The entrance wall of bricks and rough mortar is reminiscent of a rusticated Mediterranean-style of architecture favored by Huntington. It is interesting to note that the archives of The Mariners’ Museum Library contain early sketches of the Museum entrance by Huntington, in which he proposed a neo-classical façade adorned with columns that support a grand temple-like pedimented entrance, not unlike the Library of Congress in Washington or the magnificent St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral in New York for which Adams was also commissioned to create bronze entrance doors. Shipyard President Homer L. Ferguson, who apparently originally proposed the idea for the Museum to Huntington (who in turn tasked him to build and manage it) proposed a much more modern appearance: stainless steel or aluminum, in the manner of the skyscrapers being built in New York City during the period.4 So, in either of the original concepts, Adams’ doors would have been installed in a grander, more elaborate setting. There is no record why neither of these facades was adopted, but cost seems a likely factor since this was all happening during the begin- nings of the Great Depression—and because it appears that both men decided to concen- trate more on the collections inside the building than on the appearance of the outside of the building.

The sculptural technique that Adams applied to the doors was crisp and clear. He made use of strong lines, flowing curves, varying depths and textures, and opposing gestures to create animation and motion. He obviously did an extensive amount of research to enable him to portray in accurate detail every aspect of the triptych’s imagery. For example, a beautifully rendered naturalistic border frames the doors and surrounds each scene. This border is teaming with sea life: flying fish, dolphins, jellyfish, Portuguese man-of-war, snails, turtles, frogs, catfish, seahorses, salamanders, shells, seaweeds, and more. Careful study of engravings and drawings in scientific and nature books and ar- ticles would have provided him with models to create this vibrant decorative motif that playfully conveys an exuberant sense of sea life. Adams also conveyed a sense of energy and motion through his modeling of the waves, the rhythmic and opposing placement of the figures, and flowing drapery to convey blowing winds. This energetic imagery harks back to Renaissance print, drawing, and painting precedents of which Adams would have been fully aware from his early training and continued research.

A single strand of rope acts as an inner frame for each scene. Accurately rendered maritime knots are used as accents throughout the border. Tiny knots placed in the center of larger knots are decorative features that also serve a more functional purpose: conceal- ing screws used in the construction and installation of the panels.

Each segment of Adams’ door composition can be interpreted individually, but when read as a whole, the composition becomes greater than the sum of its parts. The iconography of the central doors is meant to be read like a book page: left-to-right, top-to- bottom.

The doors are divided into five horizontal registers. The first register contains beautifully sculpted and detailed reliefs of oar and sail powered watercraft from early maritime history. Adams included a Greek or Phoenician bireme, a Viking longship, a Mediterranean sailing vessel from the 18th or 19th century, another Greek ship, a Native American canoe, and a 15th or 16th century Spanish or Portuguese caravel. All of these images symbolize man’s early ventures onto the oceans and waterways of the world.

2 In the second and largest register, Adams focused on ancient Greek maritime mythology. Two young nude female figures known as sea nymphs begin and end this register, riding waves above swimming fish. The larger semi-draped female figure emerging from the rough seas, carrying a trident, is the Goddess of the Sea, Amphitrite, daughter of the sea deities Nereus and Doris, and wife of Poseidon, God of the Sea. The trident that she carries is an attribute of Poseidon, whom she faces. Between Amphitrite and Poseidon are two panels that show youthful male nudes, one riding the surf on a fish, and the other, seen from the back, fishes with a spear.

Poseidon, the large muscular bearded male figure, turns toward his wife, Amphitrite, as he blows a conch shell trumpet, the attribute of their son, Triton. Poseidon also controls a tiller with the hand at his side, a reference to navigation and divine control of the seas.

Triton appears further down the doors as a youthful human male figure from the waist up, with the tail of a dolphin or other fish for his torso. He uses the conch shell trumpet, with which he can both call up turbulent seas or calm them.

In the third register, Adams combined the decorative nature of ship style with two additional images from ancient mythology. Three ships’ sterns represent late 18th and early 19th century European Men-of-War and ships of exploration. The fourth stern, adorned with an eagle, is an American ship, circa 1880, possibly the iconic frigate USS Constitu- tion. These relief sterns seem to burst from their small frames, adding to the registers sense of decorative energy.

The first rectangular scene in register three is probably Aurora, Roman goddess of Dawn, riding on a wave. The second is a flexible sea nymph riding on a muscular hippocampus, a sea monster with the head and forequarters of a horse and the tail of a dolphin. The nymph’s outstretched arm, twisted torso, and bent knees echo the arched muscular stallion’s head, neck, and fore legs. The tightly braided mane accents the curve of his neck which counter-balances the powerful curve of his tail. Adams modified this image in 1935 while finishing the doors and created a large, freestanding marble sculpture entitled SeaScape for the Huntington’s estate at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.

In the fourth register, Adams introduced mortal man into his mythical sea world along with the ships that man created to move about on the sea. Two vigorous tritons and two mermaids with dolphins frame two contemporary male figures. A windblown shirtless youth works the tiller of a boat with both hands, echoing Poseidon, diagonally above. An older man in a full Sou’wester faces inclement weather and rough seas on the deck of a sailing ship, with his hands on the ship’s wheel. He and Amphitrite, above, form another diagonal. The compositional “X” formed by these diagonals unites ancient mythology with modern sea lore. Nature was defined and controlled by the Gods; man is at Nature’s (and thus God’s) mercy as he struggles to harness and use this power.

Finally, the fifth register compliments the first in both form and content. Four powerful ships’ bows are shown: a mid 19th century side wheel steamer, with transitional sail and steam power; a turn-of-the-century steam-powered passenger liner; a more modern cargo ship; and an early 20th century car ferry (such as those used extensively at the time in New York harbor, where Adams’ studio was located, and locally here in the Tidewater areas of Virginia). The bows of these ships seem to crowd their small frames. Larger pro-

3 file images are of a 1920’s racing hydroplane with an airplane in the sky above it (a nod to the future) and an early 20th century tugboat. It has been speculated that the tugboat might be Dorothy, Newport News Shipbuilding’s hull number 1, which would have been a subtle way for Adams to acknowledge another of Huntington’s major interests.

Thus, Adams’ central doors, when viewed as a one-page book, speak to ancient mythology, fishing, commerce, exploration, transportation, leisure travel, and military might—the very things that The Mariners’ Museum was created to illuminate.

In the tympanum, over the central doors, Adams pays tribute to America’s naval power. The United States Navy is symbolized by three dreadnaught-class battleships, the backbone of the Navy in the 1930’s when the composition was created. There is an aircraft carrier emerging in the background; naval aviation had not yet come to the fore as it would in the struggle to control the seas during World War II a few short years later. Adams’ display of (then) modern naval power is also a tribute to Hun- tington’s nearby Newport News shipyard, which helped to create it.

The fixed side panels that were installed in 1937 complete the iconography of Adams’ triptych with a straightforward tribute to navigation. The right panel includes the “dipper” constellations (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) which have been used for centuries by seamen to navigate the northern waters of the world. The Western Hemisphere, showing North and South America, is followed by Huntington’s mission statement: “This Museum is devoted to the culture of the Seas and its tributaries—its conquest by Man and its influence on Civilization.” The lower sections include a ship’s wheel, representing man’s ability to navigate the seas, and a rolling, ever-restless sea.

The opposite fixed panel, on the left side, depicts the heavens again, this time featuring the Southern Cross constellation which has been used by sailors to navigate in southern waters. The Eastern Hemi- sphere is illustrated, showing Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The lower sections illustrate a compass rose, one of the sailor’s key navigation tools, and again a vivid reminder of the ever-restless sea.

The Bronze Doors are an extraordinary artistic triumph and their story of Man’s maritime heritage is as relevant today as it was when Adams created them.

4 Left Door of The Bronze Doors Size: 10’-2” tall by 4’-2 ½” wide

Viking Longship

Mediterranean sail- th Greek or Phoenician ing ship, c. 18 or th bireme 19 century

Nude male riding the waves on the Sea nymph riding back of a fish the waves on the back of a fish

Amphitrite, Greek goddess of the sea; daughter of Nereus and Doris; wife of Poseidon, god of the Stern of a European sea; holding Poseidon’s man-of-war, c.18th trident ot 19th century Stern of a European man-of-war, c. 18th or 19th century Probably Aurora, Roman goddess of the Mermaid Dawn, riding on a wave Winablown, shirtless human youth, steering an unseen boat with Merman; possibly Triton, tiller son of Poseidon and Amphitrite; he controls the roaring of the sea by blowing through the shell Steam-powered in his hand steel passenger ship, c. early 20th century

Paddlewheel steamer, Racing hydroplane, c. 19th century c. early 20th century

5 Right Door of The Bronze Doors Size: 10’-2” tall by 4’-2 ½” wide

Native American canoe

Spanish or Portuguese Greek sailing ship caravel

Sea nymph riding the waves on the back of a fish Nude male riding the waves on the back of a fish

Poseidon, Greek god of the sea; controlling the sea with a tiller in his left hand; calling his son Tri- Stern of a European ton with the shell in his man-of-war, c.18th right hand ot 19th century

Stern of an American sailing ship, c. 1880, possibly the frigate USS Consititution Sea nymph riding on a hippocampus Merman; possibly Triton, Mermaid son of Poseidon and Amphitrite; he controls the roaring of the sea by Older human sailor in blowing through the shell full foul-weather gear, at in his hand the helm of a sailing ship Motor-powered mo- bile ferry, c. early 20th century

Steam-powered steel Tugboat, c. early 20th cargo ship, c. 20th century; possibly Dorothy. century Newport News Shipbuild- ing hull number 1

6 Left Fixed Panel of The Bronze Doors Size: 10’-2” tall by 4’-2 ½” wide

Night sky constellation of the Southern Cross, used by sailors to navigate the seas of the Southern Hemisphere.

Eastern hemisphere, showing Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica

Original Museum operating hours

Mariner’s compass rose, key to man’s ability to navigate at seas

The ever-restless sea

7 Right Fixed Panel of The Bronze Doors Size: 10’-2” tall by 4’-2 ½” wide

Night sky constellation of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the “dipper” constellations, used by sailors to navigate the seas of the Northern Hemisphere

Western hemisphere, showing North and South America

Huntington’s mission statement for The Mariners’ Museum

Ship’s wheel, representing man’s ability to navigate the seas

The ever-restless sea

8 Addenda:

1. Sculptor Herbert C. Adams (1858-1945) created the signature Bronze Doors for The Mariners’ Museum in 1935 for friend and patron Archer Huntington and his wife, fellow-sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington. Adams was a popular turn-of-the-century sculptor who was classi- cally trained in the academic Beaux-arts tradition.

Adams was born in Concord, Vermont, grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and studied at the Worcester Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Normal School of Art. Little else is known about his background until he went to Paris in 1885, where be became a pupil of re- nowned French sculptor and painter, Maruis-Jean Antonin Mercié,5 who taught at the Ecole de Beaux Arts. It is in Paris that Adams developed much of his distinctive personal style.

Just three years after arriving in Paris, in 1888, Adams had his own studio. He was an early experimenter with polychrome busts and tinted marbles and looked to Florence of the fifteenth century for inspiration. His delicately colored female busts, and other pieces such as his relief entitled An Orchid, have an exquisitely refined Florentine charm. Other especially noteworthy pieces from his early period include the Rabbi’s Daughter and a portrait of Julia Marlowe, a well-known actress of the times, but probably the best example is a bust of Adeliné Valentine Pond.

His unusually sensitive, delicate marble portrait bust of Miss Pond was shown at the Paris Salon in 1888. The piece was greatly admired and won an award, and because of it, he received several commissions for portrait busts from wealthy, sophisticated society women. Adams and Miss Pond later married.

Adams returned to America in 1890 to become an instructor at the new Art School of Pratt Insti- tute in Brooklyn, New York. He had a studio in New York City and by 1910, another in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he spent most of his summers. It appears that he did at lot of the work on the door panels at the Cornish studio. He shuttled between these two studios for most of his career but his commissioned pieces are literally all over the country.

In 1893, he sent scuptures to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where his bust of Adeliné and a polychromed alegorical bust entitled Primaveria (Spring) were shown to great acclaim. By 1894, he had so many commissions that he gave up the teaching post at Pratt.

Also in 1893, Adams was instrumental in the formation of the New York-based National Sculp- ture Society, which was founded to enhance the status of sculpture in America by pairing it with grand American architecture. Twice the Society’s president, he was made honorary president- for-life in 1933.

He was also widely recognized for bronze medallions and reliefs. In 1895, he was commissioned by railroad magnate and founder of Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Collis P. Huntington, to design and execute the bronze doors for the neo-classical revival family mausoleum in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the northern Bronx, New York. The doors to the family mausoleum may have provided an introduction to Adams’ work to the founder of The Mariners’ Museum, Archer M. Huntington, who was Collis’ son. Throughout Archer’s philanthropic endeavors and his support of the arts, he continued to encounter Adams’ sculptures—and Adams himself as a spokesman for American sculpture.

9 In 1923, Archer married Anna Vaughn Hyatt, who was an accomplished sculptor in her own right and an active member of the National Sculpture Society, and often served on committees with Adams. So, when Archer sought a sculptor for the bronze doors at the Museum in 1932, it was natural that he would turn to Adams. When commenting on this particular commission, Adams said, “The history of shipping and the mythology of the sea allowed for freedom of fancy and freshness, and variety of ornament.”

During his lifetime, Adams created more than 160 commissions, including doors, tympani, and exterior sculptures. Among his many commissions on public view are the statue of William Cul- len Bryant at the New York Public Library in Bryant Park in Manhattan, New York; two bronze doors for the Vanderbilt Memorial in St. Bartholomew’s Church and the tympan of the Madonna and Child in the same church, also in Manhattan; the statue of Solon on the Madison Avenue side of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court building in lower Manhat- tan; the bronze doors leading to the gallery at the American Academy of Arts and Letters6 in upper Manhattan; the figures of Plato, Phidias, Praxiteles, and Demosthenes on the frieze on the exterior of the Brooklyn Museum; the Pratt Memorial angel at the Baptist Emmanuel Church in Brooklyn; the bronze portrait relief of Joseph H. Choate in the Union League club; four portrait busts of John Marshall, Joseph Story, William Cullen Bryant, and William Ellen Channing at the Hall of Fame of Great Americans in the Bronx Community College; the memorial tablets for the Boston State House; statues of American type-founders Richard Smith, in Philadelphia, and William Ellery Channing, in Boston; and a number of works for the Library of Congress in Washington, including one of the bronze doors for the entrance portico.

Throughout his long and successful career, Adams participated in nearly every major national and international arts and industrial exposition in America. He was the recipient of numerous honors, including gold medal awards from the Philadelphia Art Club, Charleston Exposition, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, National Academy of Design, National Institute of Arts and Let- ters, medals of honor from the Panama-Pacific Exposition and the Architectural League, and the Waltrous Gold Medal at the National Academy of Design. He was elected to the National Insti- tute of Arts and Letters in 1899 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters6 in 1912. Adams died in 1945.

2. Installation of the bronze doors. The bronze doors were commissioned by Museum founder Archer M. Huntington in 1932. Adams did the design work and created the clay sculptures over the next three years. The work was completed panel-by-panel and apparently was done in both his New York and Concord studios, since his original clay sections were found in both locations.

By August of 1935, The Gorham Company of New York had cast the central doors and the transom piece at their bronze foundry in Providence, Rhode Island, and shipped them to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company via a ship of the Merchants and Miners Transporta- tion Company. They arrived at the Shipyard in late August with detailed instructions on storage, handling, and installation. In November, they were moved to the Museum and by January of 1936, the central doors and the tympanum had been installed, cleaned, and patinaed.

In November 1936, the side panels were completed and held at the Gorham foundry until warm- er weather. The final two panels were shipped to Newport News in March of 1937 and the installation was completed by the Shipyard in June of 1937.

3. The tradition of monumental doors. To fully understand the artistic significance of the bronze doors at The Mariners’ Museum, it is important to place them in the overall context of monumental narrative doors by examining historical artistic precedents.

10 The rare cypress doors at the Church of St. Sabina in Rome, carved between 422 and 432 AD, are among the earliest known narrative doors still in existence. The large relief panels relate to the Passion of Christ, with several panels containing imagery of more than one event. The unknown artist(s) demonstrated great skill and sophistication, probably derived from training in gem, ivory, stone, and smaller scale wood carvings. An ornate grape vine border surrounds each panel and the entire door, symbolizing wine and the blood of Christ.

At the Church of San Zeno in Verona, Italy, two sets of cast bronze images were carefully placed and nailed to massive plain wooden doors. The left door, c. 1040 AD, illustrates the life of Christ, while the right door, c. 1140 AD, relates to the life of San Zeno. At least three artists created the relief squares, patterned borders, human and animal head corner reliefs, and the series of vertical saints in arched niches that divide the two doors.

The 14th and 15th century bronze doors on the Baptistery in Florence represent an enormous leap in artistic style and sophistication. The first of the three doors was commissioned by a merchant’s guild in 1330 AD and completed in 1336 AD. Sculp- tor Andrea Pisano illustrated the life of St. John the Baptist in medieval quatrofoil panels that followed a narrative progres- sion relating cause and effect and were intended to be read as a book page, left to right, top to bottom. The completed doors were hung in the eastern portal of the Baptistery.

In 1401, Lorenzo Ghiberti won a contest to create a second set of bronze doors for the Baptis- tery. He was required to use Pisano’s quatrofoil panel form to illustrate the life of Christ. Re- nowned art historian Kenneth Clark points out that these panels are read differently, from bottom left to top right, flowing upward like the path to salvation. In 1424, Ghiberti’s bronze doors were gilded and installed in the Baptistery’s eastern portal after Pisano’s doors were moved to the southern portal.

In 1425, another commission for bronze doors for the Baptistery went to Ghiberti. This time, he was given more creative freedom, while the subject matter, twenty Old Testament scenes, was selected by humanist philosopher Leonard Bruin. The story is told in ten square panels framed with a foliate border alive with birds and squirrels. Each door is surrounded by a border of classical figures in architectural niches and occuli containing three dimensional portrait heads.

Completed and gilded in 1452, and called the Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo, these doors were hung in the eastern portal after Ghiberti’s earlier doors were moved to the northern portal.

In 1502, three stone sculptures by Andrea Sansovino were placed above Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise. St. John baptizes Christ while an angel observes. As in earlier Romanesque and Gothic portals, the area above the doors—the tympanum—was used to emphasize and enhance the narrative message of the doors.

The first Renaissance bronze doors in Rome were commissioned by Pope Eugenius IV for the old Basilica of St. Peter. Artist Antonio di Peitro Averlino, known by the pseudonym il Filarete and who was a former student of Ghiberti’s, was chosen to create doors depicting New Testament subjects and Papal history. Large panels were filled with large figures, such as St. Peter and St. Paul. The artist also used horizontal narrative relief friezes, patterned background, floral swags, rosettes, and borders, plus profiles of mythological figures. When the new St. Peters Basilica was 11 completed in 1619, Pope Paul V had the doors placed in the central porch entrance where they remain today.

France, too, has a history of narrative panels that flourished in stone in Romanesque and Gothic church architecture and lead to a proliferation of later bronze creations.

The 16th century Church of Saint Maclou in Rouen has a bronze central portal with an odd top-heavy composition surrounding a central statue of the Virgin. Its narrative frieze and large round narrative panels are interspersed with large decorative panels. These doors particularly influenced Rodin.

French artist Charles Percier, in 1811, drew a proposal for the doors for the Salle des Caryatides in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Henri de Triquete’s bronze doors, 1834-1841, for the Church of the Madeline in Paris recounts the Ten Commandants using Ghiberti’s square panels. The foliate door frame is stone, instead of cast bronze.

Rodin’s Gates of Hell were commissioned in 1880 by the French gov- ernment for the entrance to a proposed Decorative Arts Museum that was never built. An 1880 Rodin drawing shows his knowledge of Ghib- erti’s Florentine Gates of Paradise and his desire to emulate Ghiberti’s work. From 1880 to his death in 1917, a total of 37 years, Rodin continuously reworked this commission! The completed project, as he intended it, was to be topped by the contorted figures of Dante’s Three Shades flanked by Adam and Eve.

In Rodin’s Paris studio, the plaster model for his Gates is surrounded by plaster models and fin- ished sculptures. This kind of studio atmosphere was familiar to American sculptors who came to Europe to travel, study, and work. According to art historian Wayne Craven, Herbert Adams was aware of Rodin’s Gates project and admired Rodin’s sculptural technique and his use of rough, textured surfaces that created a sense of flickering light, immediacy, and motion.

Most American sculptors began working in the United States as stone cutters and wood carvers (e.g., figure heads, etc). By the 1830’s, a group of these artists moved to Florence and Rome to study with Italian masters and to work in white marble. Between 1840 and 1870, a second group of Americans followed.

By the late 1840’s, a few American sculptors began experimenting with bronze casting in their studios on a small scale. By the 1850’s, they had gained some skill and American foundries developed rapidly to meet the artists needs.

Out of a growing sense of National pride and economic prosperity, local, state, and federal gov- ernments, as well as civic and arts organizations and wealthy individuals, became patrons of American sculpture. They commissioned public monu- ments, portraits of historical and contemporary statesmen and events, war memorials—and narrative bronze doors.

In 1855, Thomas Crawford, an American sculptor who had studied in Italy, was commissioned to create bronze doors for the entrance of the Senate wing of the U.S. Capital building in Washington. Crawford’s doors were to be the first monumental narrative bronze doors completely designed and cast in America. When Crawford died in 1857, his widow asked sculptor William Henry Rinedard to complete the commission. In 1866, the completed Crawford model was sent to the Ames Foundry in Chi- 12 copee, Massachusetts, where it took two years to cast and finish it. The roundels show symbolic images of war and peace while the other six panels depict events from the American Revolution and George Washington’s early career.

Meanwhile, Randolf Rogers, who was in the second wave of Americans to study sculpture in Italy, coveted Crawford’s commission, so in 1855, Rogers proposed a set of bronze doors for the Capital’s eastern Rotunda entrance. Roger’s door’s illustrate the history of Columbus and his voyages. In the lunette, above the doors, Columbus lands in the New World and claims it for Spain. Completed in 1861 and cast in Munich, Germany, they are the first Renaissance Revival doors in American art and the first bronze doors installed in the Capital since the Crawford commission was still a work- in-process. Rogers knew Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise and modeled his Columbus doors after them. He claimed with great pride that his skill and talent equaled Ghiberti’s.

By 1875, the colony of American sculptors in Italy had diminished in size and Paris became the new Mecca for their artistic studios. And so it was, in 1885, that Herbert Adams traveled to Paris to study, learn, and develop his skills.

4. The Museum’s Exterior. On February 23, 1932, Ferguson wrote to Huntington, “We are trying to work up a design of building using either stainless steel which is rust proof or in aluminum alloy for the outside.” Huntington responded on Febru- ary 27, 1932, “I think your plan to use (stainless) steel is of real value, and exactly in line with my own thought that the building should represent modern shipbuilding engineering to house that of earlier time.” Somewhere along the line, the design was changed to brick and rough mortar, in a rusticated Mediterra- nean-style of architecture favored by Huntington (known col- loquially as ‘the Huntington squeeze’).

5. It may be of interest to local admirers of art and history, that it was Adams’ mentor in Paris, Antonin Mercié, who designed and created the equestrian statue of General Robert E. Lee that stands on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.

6. The American Academy of Arts and Letters is headquartered in two buildings at Audu- bon Terrace, a museum complex in upper Manhattan created in 1904 by Archer Huntington as a cultural center. The property was originally part of a farm belonging to painter and naturalist, John James Audubon. Huntington made parcels of the land available to other cultural institu- tions and frequently subsidized the construction of their buildings. Today, Audubon Terrace houses the Academy; The Hispanic Society of America, which was founded by Huntington and apparently the institution of which he was most proud; The American Numismatic Society; the Children’s Museum of Native Americans; and Boricua College. The elegant bronze doors leading to the North and South Galleries of Audubon Terrace were designed by Adams, who used classical figures to represent arts, letters, poetry, music, painting, sculpture, inspiration, and drama, a representational theme that he carried forward to his design for the Bronze Doors for The Mariners’ Museum. Numerous pieces by Anna Hyatt Huntington also grace the courtyard of Audubon Terrace.

7. The Mariners’ Museum seal was also commissioned to Adams by Archer Huntington in 1932. It is a raised design of a caravel in a rolling sea similar to the caravel illustrated in the right entrance door. A rope decora- tion encircles the ship with raised points of a mariner’s compass rose outside the rope. A scallop shell extreme outer border is also provided. The letters

13 “Mariners Museum” are inter-laced between the compass points.

The seal is often confused with the Archer M. Huntington medal, the obverse of which has a similar appearance. The medal was commissioned to Gertrude Katherine Lathrop by the Board of Trustees in 1954. It is a deep relief, two-sided medallion. On the obverse, a caravel in a rolling sea similar to the ship featured in the seal is surrounded by the Museum’s name. Two dolphins leap playfully from the sea forward of the bow and a mythical sea monster appears to threaten the ship along the port side. On the reverse, a mariner’s compass rose is embellished with a traditional fleur-de-lis at the north point and representations of various types of sailing ships, also apparently based on Adams’ bronze doors, are shown at each of the other seven cardinal points. A bow-on view of a more modern steam ship is featured at the center. The Huntington Medal is “awarded from time to time by the Board of Trustees to individuals for exceptionally meritorious ser- vices rendered The Mariners’ Museum”.

8. This monograph was written by Cynthia Katz, a co-founder of the Bronze Door Society of The Mariners’ Museum. Supporting research by Lyles Forbes and Josh Graml of the Museum staff. Photographs of the bronze doors by Megan Evans of the Museum staff. Compiled by Tom Clark, member of the Bronze Door Society. Typeset by Sara Kiddey of the Museum staff. December 2007.

Bibliography

1. Aspects of Present Day Sculpture in America, Herbert Adams, The American Magazine of Art, October 1921, v. 12, pp. 334-336. 2. The Sculpture of Herbert Adams, article by Ernest Peiixotte, The American Magazine of Art, May 1921, v. 12, pp. 151-159. 3. Herbert Adams, article by George Henry Payne, The Criterion, May 28, 1898, v. 18, no. 436. 4. Herbert Adams 1858-1945, Adolph A. Weinman, New York, 1951. 5. Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Beatrice Gilman Proske, Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown, SC, 1968, pp. 26-29. 6. Sculptures by Herbert Adams, Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown, SC, 1937. 7. Sculptures in America, Wayne Craven, New York, 1958, pp 431-437. 8. Obituary, Herbert Adams, The New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 24, 1946. 9. Herbert Adams, Fourth President of the National Sculpture Society, National Sculpture Review, Fall 1963, v. 12, no. 3, pp. 17-18. 10. Art Treasures of the Vatican: Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture, ed. D. Redig DeCampos, Prentice-Hall, Inglewood, NJ, 1975. 11. Early Christian Art, Wolfgang Fritz Volbach, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., NY. 12. Exhibition of Sculpture Under the Auspices of the National Sculpture Society, The Whitney Museum of Art, NY, 1940. Introduction by Herbert C. Adams. 13. Exhibition of American Sculpture, Catalogue, NY, 1923. 14. Contemporary American Sculpture: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco, 1929, Press of the Kalkhoff Company, NY. 15. The Florence Baptistery Doors, George Robinson, A Studio Book, Viking Press, NY, 1980; intro duction by Kenneth Clark. 16. The Story of St. Peters, Thea and Richard Berger, Dodd & Mead Co., NY, 1966. 17. Sculpture in American, Wayne Craven (U. of Delaware), Thomas Y. Crowell Co., NY, 1968. 18. 19th Century Sculpture, H. W. Janson, Harry N. Adams, NY, 1985. 19. The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin, Albert E. Elsen, Stanford University Press, CA, 1985. 20. The Romantics to Rodin, French 19th Century Sculpture in North American Collections, org by Peter Fusco and H. W. Janson, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, 1980. 21. European Sculpture of the 19th Century, Ruth Butter and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Oxford University Press, NY and Oxford, 2000. 22. The Churches of Rome, Roloff Beng and Peter Gunn, Simon & Schuster, NY, 1981.

14 23. The Mariners’ Museum seal, accession number 1933.0292.000001 (QS 0020) 24. The Archer M. Huntington Medal, accession number 1965.0105.000001A (QK 0394A) 25. The Bronze Doors, accession number xxxxxx (QS 0025).

The Bronze Door Society is the premier member-managed support organization of The Mariners’ Museum. The Society encourages an in-depth understanding of the Museum’s collections; supports the Museum’s mission and programs by funding the acquisition, conservation, management, and exhibition of artifacts and works of art; provides educational programs for the community; and favors its members with an enjoyable and educational forum in which to learn about and better-appreciate the value of the Museum. For more information, visit the Society website at www.MarinersMuseum.org/BDS.

15 The Bronze Door Society

The Bronze Door Society is the premier member-managed support organization of The Mariners’ Museum and focuses its attention on the Museum’s collections. It helps to promote an in-depth understanding of the collections; supports the Museum’s mission and programs by funding the acquisition, conservation, management, and exhibition of artifacts and works of art; provides educational programs for the community; and favors its members with an enjoyable and educational forum in which to learn about and better-appreciate the value of the Museum.

• Membership in the Society is $150 per person in addition to Museum membership, paid annually. One-hundred percent of the membership fee goes to fund the acquisition of artifacts or works of art, object conservation, or educational programs for the Museum.

• At the Annual Meeting of the Society (typically in May), the Museum’s curators and educators present proposed conservation or acquisition projects, which the membership evaluates and the votes on the allocation of Society funds. Only members of the Society are eligible to vote. Each Society member is entitled to one vote.

• Typically, four other events are held throughout the year, including both social and educational offerings.

• All the programs and activities of the Society are for members and their personal guests. There may be one or two events each year to which other guests may be invited; this will clearly be stated on the invitations to those events.

• The costs for the programs and activities of the Society will be paid on an individual reservation basis, over and above membership fees.

Membership in the Society is open to all Museum members who have an abiding interest in the collections. Further information about the Society may be found on their website at www.MarinersMuseum.org/BDS or you can call the Museum’s Director of Membership, Katherine Gilbert, officer at 757-591-7733. Or, you may complete the application below and mail it to the Museum.

Yes, I’d like to become a member of The Bronze Door Society.

Name(s)______I wish to support The Mariners’ Museum Address______with membership at the following level: City______State___ Zip______□ Leifr Eiriksson Society $10,000 Telephone______E-mail______□ Lancaster Eagle Society $5,000 □ Huntington Society $2,500 □ Enclosed is my fully tax-deductible check to The Bronze □ Ferguson Society $1,000 Door Society of The Mariners’ Museum for member- □ Sponsor $500 ships at $150 per person. □ Donor $250 □ Contributor $125 □ Family $75 □ Yes, I am a Museum member (no additional fee). □ Senior Couple $55 □ Individual $45 □ Included is my Mariners’ Museum membership at the □ National Associate $45 level indicated. □ Senior/Student $35