Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial: Settling the Seaboard, (sculpture).

Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial: Settling the Seaboard, (sculpture).

Williams, Wheeler, 1897-1972, sculptor.

Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial: Settling the Seaboard, (sculpture).

Settling the Seaboard, (sculpture).

Installed 1942.

Relief: limestone; Base: granite.

Relief: approx. 145 x 214 x 66 in.; Base: approx. 36 x 132 x 66 in.

(Relief, proper left, near base:) Wheeler Williams/1942 (Base, below the figures:) SETTLING OF THE SEABOARD (Relief, to proper left of figures:) IF WE CONSIDER THE ALMOST/MIRACULOUS BEGINNING/AND CONTINUANCE OF/THIS PLANTATION/WE MUST CONFESS/THAT GOD HATH OPENED/THIS PASSAGE UNTO US/AND LED US BY THE HAND/INTO THIS WORK/ALEXANDER WHITAKER (Relief, to the proper right of figures:) I HAVE GREAT LOVE/AND REGARD TOWARDS/YOU AND I DESIRE TO WIN/AND GIVE YOU LOVE AND/FRIENDSHIP BY A KIND JUST/PEACEABLE LIFE AND/THE PEOPLE I SEND ARE OF/THE SAME MIND AND SHALL/IN ALL THINGS BEHAVE/THEMSELVES ACCORDINGLY/WILLIAM PENN TO THE INDIANS

(Relief, back, next to relief of a turkey:) WE YIELD UNFEIGNED THANKS AND PRAISE/FOR THE RETURN OF SEED-TIME AND HARVEST/FOR THE INCREASE OF THE GROUND/AND THE GATHERING IN OF THE FRUITS THEREOF/AND FOR ALL OTHER BLESSINGS/OF THY MERCIFUL PROVIDENCE/BESTOWED UPON THIS NATION AND PEOPLE/THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER/ LAND IS SETTLED signed

This relief is part of a six-piece group (two reliefs and six free-standing figures installed on the South Terrace) that depicts the theme of the U.S. emerging as an independent nation and settling the eastern coast. The Settling of the Seaboard depicts the nation's earliest settlers, a pioneer family and a Native American, looking out over the land. In high relief, a female figure holding a baby in her arms and a male figure behind her stand next to a seated Native-American male figure. The figures emerge from a rectangular wall and are flanked by inscriptions. The Native American is dressed in a feathered headdress and holds a peace pipe in his lap. The standing male holds an ax vertically with his proper right hand and rests his proper right foot on a tree stump; his proper left arm is around the waist of the female on his proper left. All three figures look off into the distance to their proper left and the female also raises her proper left arm to point toward the distance on her proper left. A tree is visible in the background. On the back is a relief of a turkey and another inscription.

History -- United States -- Westward Expansion

Figure group -- Family

Occupation -- Other -- Pioneer

Dress -- Historic -- Pioneer Dress

Figure male -- Full length

Ethnic -- Indian

Dress -- Ethnic -- Indian Dress

Landscape -- Tree

Animal -- Bird -- Turkey

Outdoor Sculpture -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Coadministered by City of Philadelphia, Fairmount Park Commission, Memorial Hall, West Park, P. O. Box 21601, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131

Coadministered by Fairmount Park Art Association, 1616 Walnut Street, Suite 2012, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

Located Fairmount Park, South Terrace, Kelly Drive below Girard Avenue Bridge, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Williams and the other sculptors on the South Terrace were chosen for this commission after the second International Exhibition of Sculpture held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1940.

Fairmount Park Art Assoc., "Sculpture of a City: Philadelphia's Treasures in Bronze & Stone," NY: Walker Publ., 1974, pg. 250-257.

Bach, Penny Balkin, "Public Art in Philadelphia," Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992, pg. 224.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia survey, 1993.

Fairmount Park Art Assoc., "Sculpture of a City: Philadelphia's Treasures in Bronze & Stone," NY: Walker Publ., 1974, pg. 257.

Companion to: 88320076.

Companion to: 88320075.

Companion to: 88320074.

Companion to: 88320073.

Companion to: 88320072.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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