Paul Bunyan Digging the Great Lakes, (sculpture).

Paul Bunyan Digging the Great Lakes, (sculpture).

McVey, William, 1905- , sculptor.

Paul Bunyan Digging the Great Lakes, (sculpture).

Digital Reference:

Large relief: approx. H. 11 ft. x W. 5.6 ft.

(On lower right corner of large relief:) Wm McVEY signed

Attached to the north wall of the Lakeview Terrace Community Center is a large vertical relief panel of Paul Bunyan flanked by two vertical rows of three small horizontal relief panels. In the large relief panel, Paul Bunyan is shown standing with a shovel held in front of him as he prepares to dig the Great Lakes. At the edge of his shovel, two tiny pine trees are about to be uprooted. His head is turned to his proper left, facing one of the flanking rows of horizontal relief panels which illustrate his famous exploits.

Literature -- Character -- Paul Bunyan

Literature -- Bunyan -- Pilgrim's Progress

Object -- Tool -- Shovel

Landscape -- Tree -- Pine Tree

Outdoor Sculpture -- Ohio -- Cleveland

Architectural component

Administered by Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, 1441 West 25th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113

Located Lakeview Terrace Community Center, 1290 West 25th Street, North wall, Cleveland, Ohio

The sculpture was created with funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). The artist was hired by William Milliken, Federal liaison officer and Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. IAS files contain excerpts from the Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 10 (Dec. 1974): pg. 369; an undated, unpublished paper discussing civic art in the 1930s; and Karal Ann Marling's exhibition catalog, "Federal Art in Cleveland: 1933-1943," Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Public Library, 1974, pg. 71.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Ohio, Cleveland survey, 1993.

Marling, Karal Ann, "Federal Art in Cleveland: 1933-1943," Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Public Library, 1974, pg. 71.

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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