Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1913 — SPLENDORS OF AMERICAS GREAT PANAMACANAL CELEBRATION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SPLENDORS OF AMERICAS GREAT PANAMACANAL CELEBRATION

World Noted Sculptors Produce Marvels In the Plastic Art .

> Superb Decorative Statuary Fast Assuming Form at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

FODIOIOUS works of sculpture are now being completed in the sculptural warehouses of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Many of them have already long been finished. The works are remarkable for their imagery and vigor and for the beauty of their conception. Not for many yean will the world be enabled to enjoy so marvelous a collection of the works of contemporary sculptors. The World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago first proved that the greatest talent might be employed to produce even work of temporary value. Since then more and more attention ,hae been given at each succeeding exposition to sculpture as a form of decoratton, .and now the Panama-Pacific International Exposition promises to surpass •ven Chicago’s exquteite display. Viewing the superb groups and individual places of statuary, the visitor facia like a Lilliputian who has been transported into a land of giants. Some es the great groups are of colossal dimensions. Many of- these great pieces of Statuary will adorn huge triumphal arches and when so placed will seem of natural size to the visitor who stands upon the floors of the exposition courts. Wo present upon this page some classical examples of the sketch models and the enlarged figures, a number of America’s foremost sculptors have been engaged in the production of these figures. Among the sculptors are many names widely known both in America and abroad. The list includes A. Stirling Calder, acting director of sculpture; Albert Jaegers, Furio Piccirrilli, Leo Lentelll, Robert I. Aitkin, Adolph A. Weinman, Isadora Konti, Evelyn Beatltou Longman, Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Douglas Tilden, Gutzen Borglum, 'EL X Mac Neil, James E. Fraser, Charles O. Rumsey, Haig Patigan, Paul ManSfatp, F. Ch R. Roth, Charles Neihaus, D. C. French, Herbert Adams and others. The sculpture of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition will carry ant the note of the exposition in celebrating the opening of the Panama canal. Vte spirit of achievement as exemplified by America’s work at Panama will be ManUnod. \- When the sculptors began to plan their work they had as an inspiration an undertaking which has appealed to the imagination of the world for centuries. In the opening of the Panama canal they saw the final result of four centuries of effort to secure a passageway between the oceans. The statuary will reproduce upon a wonderful scale the historic incidents connected with the Panama eanaL Figures of the early explorers of the oceans, groups symbolizing the ititort to pierce the rocky backbone of the continents, compositions designed to symbolise occidental and oriental themes, colossal representations of strugIgto and achievement, will illustrate many of the dramatic topics inseparably touoctated with the search for a passageway to the Pacific and with the final linAflng of the canal at Panama. I no other exposition has sculpture been employed to adorn the grounds to the extent that it will be employed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. And while the sculptors are fast completing their splendid productions, ’ wtifieh reveal the Ideals of sculptors of the present day, other work upon-the •■position is fast progressing. When the gates of this, America’s Panama canal celebration, swing open to the world on Feb. 20, 1915, It will be upon a MBy completed and perfected spectacle, the setting of the greatest internatisnai celebration that the world has ever beheld.