The Courthouse Plaza Miners' Memorial, (sculpture).

The Courthouse Plaza Miners' Memorial, (sculpture).

Sanderson, Phillips, 1908-1987, sculptor.

Petrovitch, Lee, assistant.

Reifsnider, A. C., assistant.

Carnahan, Helen, assistant.

Junction Mine Shop, contractor.

The Courthouse Plaza Miners' Memorial, (sculpture).

Miners' Monument, (sculpture).

Copper Man, (sculpture).

Iron Man, (sculpture).

Copper Iron Man, (sculpture).

1935. Dedicated Nov. 11, 1935.

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: cast concrete coated with molten copper; Tools: steel; Base: Gunnison granite.

Sculpture: approx. 9 ft. x 4 ft. x 2 ft. 6 in.; Base: approx. 5 ft. x 6 ft. x 4 ft. 6 in. (2,000 lbs.).

(On plinth, front, incised:) R. Phillips Sanderson '35 (On plaque on base:) DEDICATED/TO/THOSE VIRILE MEN/THE COPPER MINERS/WHOSE CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT/OF THE WEALTH AND LORE OF THE STATE OF/ARIZONA HAS BEEN MAGNIFICENT/ERECTED BY THE CITIZENS OF THE/WARREN MINING DISTRICT THIS ELEVENTH/DAY OF NOVEMBER, A.D. 1935 signed

A standing male figure of a mine worker on a rough-hewn square base. The figure holds a hammer in his proper right hand and a chisel in his proper left hand. The hammer and chisel are actual tools made of steel that were incorporated into the casting. The figure's body faces front, but his head is turned and his chin rests on his proper left shoulder. He is bare-chested and wears pants and work boots. The figure and plinth are sputter coated with molten copper over a layer of lead.

Figure male -- Full length

Occupation -- Industry -- Mining

Object -- Art Tool -- Mallet

Object -- Art Tool -- Chisel

Portrait male -- Petrovitch, Lee -- Full length

Outdoor Sculpture -- Arizona -- Bisbee

Administered by City of Bisbee, Management Services, 118 Arizona Street, Bisbee, Arizona 85603

Located Intersection of Quality Hill & Tombstone Canyon Road, Bisbee, Arizona

Commissioned through the Works Progress Administration and funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The statue is a rare example of metallic sputter-coated concrete, a technique in which copper wire is fed through an oxyacetylene-heated gun and sprayed under pressure. The concept for the statue came from R. E. Souers, then Superintendent of Schools. Phelps Dodge Corporation, Copper Queen Branch, donated the copper for plating, concrete and reinforcing iron. Junction Mine Shop did the copper plating. The artist's assistant, Lee Petrovitch, was the model for the piece. The sculpture was the artist's first public commission. IAS files contain an excerpt from "The Sculpture of Raymond Phillips Sanderson," by Tamara Jane Snively, an Arizona State University Master's Thesis, January 1973, and an excerpt from "The WPA Guide to 1930s Arizona," (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989).

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Arizona survey, 1994.

SOS Assessment Award, 2000.

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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