Rainey Memorial Gates, (sculpture).

Rainey Memorial Gates, (sculpture).

Manship, Paul, 1885-1966, sculptor.

Platt, Charles Adams, 1861-1933, architect.

Columbo, Angelo, assistant.

Comp. des Bronzes Bruxelles, founder.

Rainey Memorial Gates, (sculpture).

Paul Rainey Memorial Gate, (sculpture).

1926. Installed 1933. Dedicated June 1934.

Digital Reference:

Gates: bronze; Gatehouses: pink granite.

Sculpture: approx. 36 x 42 x 5 ft.; Base: approx. 3 x 30 x 3 ft. (28 tons).

(Sculpture, center left beam:) Paul Manship/Sculptor/A. Columbo/Assistant (Sculpture, center right beam:) Cie. Des Bronzes/Founders-Brussels (Base:) signed Founder's mark appears.

Two monumental gates separated and flanked by trees carrying various birds and animals such as a penguin, pelican, cranes, owl, toucan, and lion. Each tree is anchored in the back of a turtle. The semi-circular frame over the easterly gate carries the figures of the three bears; the semi-circular frame over the westerly gate carries the figures of three deer. Flanking this main gate are two gatehouses.

Landscape -- Tree

Outdoor Sculpture -- New York -- New York

Administered by New York Zoological Society, Bronx, New York 10460

Located Bronx Zoo, Department of Exhibition and Graphic Arts, 185th Street & Southern Boulevard, Pelham Parkway entrance, New York, New York 10460

Gift of Mrs. Grace Rainey Rogers. Inscription on nearby plaque reads: Rainey Gates/These hightly ornamental free-standing bronze gates/are the works of the American sculptor, Paul Manship,/and were presented by Mrs. Grace Rainey Rogers as a/memorial to her brother, Paul Rainey, big game hunter/and patron of the New York Zoological Society. The/gates, with their stylized plants and animal forms, are/among the few examples in New York City of the French/Arts Decoratifs style. The pink granite gate lodges that flank the composition were designed by Charles A. Platt/in the same exhuberant manner. This monumental main/entrance to the Bronx Zoo was dedicated in 1934./Plaque Provided by the New York Community Trust 1973.

IAS files contain a Landmarks Preservation Commission document number LP-0108 dated January 11, 1967 designating the gates as a landmark. The document describes the gates in detail and notes that Manship began work on the gates in 1926. It took him five years to finish the design during which he changed the medium from wrought iron to bronze. The gates were cast in Belgium over a two year period. IAS files also contain articles from the New York Sun, April 4, 1934; New York Sun, June 15, 1934; New York Times, June 15, 1934; New York Times March 14, 1933.

Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985

The City of New York, Department of Parks, 1941.

Lederer, Joseph, "All Around the Town: A Walking Guide to Outdoor Sculpture in New York City," New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, New York, New York survey, 1993.

Lederer, Joseph, "All Around the Town: A Walking Guide to Outdoor Sculpture in New York City," New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975, pg. 194.

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

Control Number:

Horizon Information Portal 3.25_9382

Powered by SirsiDynix

About | © 2020 Smithsonian | Terms of Use | Privacy | Contact

SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System