Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Anchorage, Alaska - Seward Statue

William Seward is still a big man in Alaska, and not just because he worked with Abraham Lincoln and turns up often in the superb book by Doris Kearns Goodwin on the Civil War era.

After all Seward is the guy who convinced President Andrew Johnson that Alaska was a steal for $7.2 million in 1867, so America acquired a huge amount of land from Russia at two cents an acre. As one-sided deals go, this is right up there with (editor's note - pick your favorite one-sided sports trade to fill in the blank here).

You'd expect plenty of things to be named after him, and they are. Anchorage pays tribute to Seward with this statue that's in front of Old City Hall.

According to one story, scupter Gerald Conaway didn't have enough good marble to do a full statue of Seward. This was the second choice, complete with design elements depicting a bear and sunshine.

I know. What's the point of art if you can figure it out at a glance?

Be notified of new posts via Twitter @WDX2BB

No comments:

Post a Comment