Dewey Arch
{{Short description|Triumphal arch in Manhattan, New York}}
{{Infobox monument
| monument_name = Dewey Triumphal Arch and Colonnade
| image = File:Dewey Arch, New York.jpg
| image_alt = The Dewey Arch in 1900
| caption = (1900)
| location = Manhattan, New York
| coordinates = {{Wikidatacoord|Q5268170|region:US-NY_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| designer = Charles R. Lamb
| type = Triumphal arch|
| material = Staff{{cite book |last=Brody |first=David |author-link=David Brody (historian) |title=Visualizing American Empire: Orientalism and Imperialism in the Philippines |year=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-07534-1|page=133}}
| length = {{cvt|70|ft|m}}
| width = {{cvt|30|ft|m}}
| height = {{cvt|85|ft|m}}
| open = September 1899
| dismantled = 1900
| dedicated_to = George Dewey
| extra = 240px
}}
{{External media|video1=[https://www.loc.gov/item/00694000/ The Dewey Arch, American Mutoscope and Biograph Co., 1899. Available through the National Screening Room at the Library of Congress.]}}
The Dewey Arch was a triumphal arch that stood from 1899 to 1900 at Madison Square in Manhattan, New York City, United States.{{cite magazine |date=1900 |title=The Dewey Arch |work=Architects' and Builders' Magazine |volume=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kQsaAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22THE+arch+through+all+time+has+been+a+chosen+form+of+memorial%22&pg=PA1 |access-date=May 12, 2020 |publisher=W.T. Comstock |issn=0749-3088 |oclc=8754926 |page=1}}{{cite web |last=Cusack |first=Andrew |date=January 19, 2005 |url=http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/the-dewey-arch/ |title=The Dewey Arch |publisher=andrewcusack.com |access-date=May 12, 2020}}{{cite news |page=16 |date=December 30, 1900 |title=Art and Artists – Destruction of Dewey Arch |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/12/30/102622974.pdf |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=May 12, 2020}} It was erected for a parade in honor of Admiral George Dewey celebrating his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines in 1898.{{cite news |date=May 10, 1992 |title=Streetscapes: Monumental Parallels; The Arch and the Bandshell |last=Gray |first=Christopher |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/10/realestate/streetscapes-monumental-parallels-the-arch-and-the-bandshell.html |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=May 11, 2020}}
History
Planning for the parade, scheduled for September 1899, began early that year. The architect Charles R. Lamb built support for a triumphal arch among his fellow members of the National Sculpture Society.{{cite web |last=Lamb |first=Charles Rollinson |date=2020 |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/charles-r-lamb-scrapbook-dewey-arch-7833 |title=Charles R. Lamb scrapbook on the Dewey Arch, 1899–1901 |publisher=Smithsonian |access-date=May 12, 2020}} A committee of society members, including Lamb, Karl Bitter, Frederick W. Ruckstull, John Quincy Adams Ward and John De Witt Warner, submitted a proposal for an arch to the City of New York, which approved the plan in July 1899.
With only two months remaining before the parade, the committee decided to build the arch and its colonnade out of staff, a plaster-based material used previously for temporary buildings at several World's Fairs. Modeled after the Arch of Titus in Rome, the Dewey Arch was decorated with the works of twenty-eight sculptors and topped by a large quadriga (modeled by Ward){{cite book |last=Sharp |first=Lewis I |title=John Quincey Adams Ward: Dean of American Sculpture |year=1985 |publisher=University of Delaware Press |isbn=978-0-87413-253-3 |page=52f}} depicting four horses drawing a ship. The arch was illuminated at night with electric light bulbs.{{cite book |last=Nye |first=David E. |author-link=David E. Nye |title=Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880–1940 |year=1992 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-64030-5 |page=51}}
After the parade on September 30, 1899, the arch began to deteriorate. An attempt to raise money to rebuild it in stone (as had been done for the arch in Washington Square Park) failed, owing to the growing unpopularity of the Philippine War. The arch was demolished in 1900, and the larger sculptures sent to Charleston, South Carolina, for an exhibit, after which they were either destroyed or lost.
See also
- The separate Victory Arch which was built in the same place in 1918 and torn down 1920. As of 2024 there is no arch in Madison Square Park.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [https://archive.org/download/DanishSongs/07ProgressOfCivilization.jpg Bas-relief on Dewey Arch] by Johannes Gelert
{{Authority control}}
Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1900
Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan