Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 295, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1920 — Erect Memorial to General U. S. Grant [ARTICLE]

Erect Memorial to General U. S. Grant

Grand Statue at Washington Is Nearly Finished. Second Largest Equestrian .Statue In the World Has Been Eighteen 7 Years In the Making. Washington.—Eighteen years in the making, a memorial to Gen. U, S. Grant is nearing completion here, hnd probably will be unvefled before the end of the year. It Is In the form of a. magnificent equestrian statue of bronze, the second ■ largest of its kind In the world, mounted on a granite pedestal and flanked on the left by a casting of a group of cavalry and on the right by a group of artillery, both groups done In bronze. Two huge lions in stone at the foot of the pedestal Complete the memorial. The equestrian figure stands 16 feet high, weighs 10,700 pounds and costs $250,000. The memorial is located in the botanic gardens at the foot of the capitol grounds, and congress has.approved removal of a section of the Iron fence on the east front of the gardens to admit the statue and to provide space for, spectators at the unveiling ceremonies. Authority for the creation of the memorial was given by congress on Feb. 23, 1901. The Competition for the statue was held in 1902 and the award was to Henry M. Shrady, a noted sculptor of Elmsford, N. Y., whose design was selected by a jury consisting of Augustus Salnt-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French, Daniel H. Burnham and Charles F. McKim. The pedestal was designed by Edward Pierce Cqsey of New York, associated with Mr. Shrady, and was completed and put In place In 1906. The equestrian statue has just now I -'• ' ‘‘

been finished, however, and was shipped here in sections ,by mdtortruck from New York city. The memorial to the famous general and eighteenth President of the United , States will bear no inscription, according to the members of the fine arts commission, who recently approved the statue in its completed form. A member of the Grant memorial commission had composed a lengthy inscription, but after careful consideration oflicials of the commission and of the office of public buildings and grounds deemed an inscription unnecessary.