The Vulcan, (sculpture).

The Vulcan, (sculpture).

Moretti, Giuseppe, 1857-1935, designer.

McWane, James R., caster.

Bnettiker, Fred, fabricator.

Smith, Nick D., fabricator.

Hancock, Clarence, fabricator.

Rush, George, fabricator.

Birmingham Steel and Iron Company, founder.

Williamson Foundry, founder.

The Vulcan, (sculpture).

Commissioned Nov. 24, 1903. Cast March-May 1904. Dedicated June 7, 1904. Relocated late 1930s.

Digital Reference:

Statue: iron, painted rust red; Base: sandstone, marble, and cement.

Statue: approx. H. 56 ft.; Tower: approx. 124 ft. (120,000 lbs.).

Full-length standing mythological figure of the Vulcan, Roman god of the forge. He is depicted as a smithy, wearing a forger's apron and Roman-style laced sandals. He is bearded and looks up at a torch he bears in his proper right hand. In his proper left hand, he holds a hammer that rests on an anvil. The statue stands atop a tall pedestal that includes an elevator and observation tower.

Mythology -- Classical -- Vulcan

Occupation -- Industry -- Milling

Object -- Other -- Torch

Outdoor Sculpture -- Alabama -- Birmingham

Administered by City of Birmingham, Parks & Recreation, 400 Graymont Avenue, Birmingham, Alabama 35204

Located Vulcan Park, On top of Red Mountain, Birmingham, Alabama

Formerly located Alabama State Fairgrounds, Birmingham, Alabama 1905-ca. 1930s.

Louisiana Purchase International Exhibition, St. Louis, 1904.

The idea for the monument originated with James A. MacKnight, who with Frederick M. Jackson, Sr., President of the Birmingham Commercial Club and General Manager of Alabama Consolidated Coal & Iron Company, and J. B. Gibson, led the drive to raise approximately $20,000 in funds for the Vulcan statue, Alabama's exhibit in the St. Louis exposition of 1904. The statue was to be built locally and composed from Alabama natural resources, to tower over other exhibits, and bring exposure to Birmingham, then a thriving industrial town of 40,000. Vulcan, the Roman god whose deeds as architect, smithy, armorer, chariot builder and artist, was chosen as emissary for the city.

Among those contributing funds: Jefferson County Board of Revenue ($5,000); and $500 each from the City of Birmingham, District 20 of the United Mine Workers of America, the Birmingham Belt Railway Company, Tennessee Coal & Company, Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Company; and $300 from First National Bank and Alabama Consolidated Coal & Iron Company. Additional creative funding efforts including a theater event with an operatic solo by the artist Moretti; admission to see a plaster model displayed on the grounds of the Birmingham Steel and Iron Company; an exhibition baseball game, where New York Giant "Iron Man" pitcher Joe McGinnity agreed to help pour one of the molds; and production of 12 inch high cast bronze replicas, sold at $2.00 a piece.

Giuseppe Moretti contracted with James A. MacKnight for a sum of $6,000 to design and supervise casting and erection of the statue. Moretti made an eight foot clay model in his New York studio; and produced a 56 foot clay and plaster model in St. Stephen's Church in Passaic, New Jersey. By the end of Jan. 1904, sections of the plaster model were shipped to Birmingham. On Feb. 18th, Moretti moved to Birmingham to oversee the casting process. On March 11, the first of 15 castings took place. Casting was done by the newly formed Birmingham Steel & Iron Company, and James R. McWane, Clarence Hancock, George Rush, Fred Bnettiker and Nick D. Smith provided fabrication assistance. Williamson Foundry cast the final small pieces.

The statue was shipped in pieces to St. Louis, with the feet arriving first. On opening day, only the lower half had been erected; the entire statue was not completed until late May. In Sept. 1904, the Vulcan statue was awarded Grand Prize for best exhibit in the Mineral Department of the Fair. After the Fair closed, the statue was returned to Birmingham, where it was placed in pieces by the railway for two years, while the City argued over its placement. Although the Commercial Club had passed a resolution to erect the statue in Capitol (now Linn) Park, the statue was eventually moved to the Alabama State Fairgrounds, where in the haste of installation, workers incorrectly installed Vulcan's right and left arms. The statue stood near the Agriculture Exhibit Building on the Fairgrounds from ca. 1905-1930s and over the years was used to advertise a variety of products, including Weldon Ice Cream, Heinz Pickles; and Coca-Cola.

In the 1930s, Thad Holt, state director for the Works Progress Administration, authorized construction of Vulcan Park on Red Mountain, home of the ore from which the statue was cast. Holt appropriated approximately $39,000 of Works Progress Administration funds toward the total $44,062 project cost. U.S. Steel donated the five acre site. By 1939, the newly painted 56 foot tall statue stood atop a 124 foot pedestal of native sandstone. In 1946, the Birmingham Jaycees made the Vulcan a symbol of highway safety -- the color of the torch light changed with each traffic fatality. In the late 1960s, the statue underwent restoration. At that time, a new glassed-in observation deck was added, with an elevator, gift shop, snack bar and fountain. A marble-sheathed pedestal replaced the earlier pedestal.

In 1993, the statue was documented by the National Park Service, for possible designation as a National Historic Landmark. SOS! surveyor was unable to do onsite examination of sculpture due to height and placement of sculpture. Conditions information recorded as given in George Clinton Thompson's article in Alabama Heritage, Spring 1991, pg. 2-33. IAS files contain related newsclipping from New York Times, March 22, 1997, pg. 8, which discusses need for conservation work. IAS files also contain unidentified Alabama newspaper clipping from March 2004, announcing the reopening of the monument after a 5 year restoration project.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Alabama survey, 1993.

Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985.

Thompson, George Clinton, "Vulcan: Birmingham's Man of Iron," in Alabama Heritage, Spring 1991, pg. 2-33.

Morris, Philip A., "Vulcan & His Times," Birmingham Historical Society, 1995.

SOS Assessment Award, 1999.

SOS Conservation Treatment Award, 2000.

Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1904.

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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