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Image of the Statue of Liberty take from New York Harbor at sunset, the island and statue itself a national monument is under the auspices of the National Park Service from my archives capture back in 2018. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from our French comrades back in 19th Century. The idea in 1865 of a monument for the United States was first proposed by Frenchman Edouard de Laboulaye. It took a decade for that concept to percolate into a real proposal with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi commissioned to design a sculpture with the target completion 1876, the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. The original proposal for the monuments name was “Liberty Enlightening the World” and would be a joint endeavor between France and the United States. The United States would build the pedestal for the monument but struggled mightily for the capital to build said pedestal. The French had issues raising capital for the statue as well.
Regardless of the financial issues Bartholdi realized the structural integrity of his massive statue was beyond his artisan knowledge, so he sought knowledgeable help and commissioned Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) who designed a massive iron pylon and the metal skeletal secondary framework that would be required to put this massive memorial together. After a final push from newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer that poked directly at the American middle class and the wealthy the necessary funding for the pedestal was raised and the pedestal was finished in the spring of 1886. The statue actually was finished in France in 1884, reduced into 350 individual pieces that arrived in New York Harbor summer of 1885 on French frigate “Isere”. So, in October of 1886, 10 years late for the Declaration of Independence centennial celebration New Jersey’s own United States President Grover Cleveland oversaw the dedication of the completed monument.
York Minster is a cathedral in York, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe.
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York 043 DSC_1772
England, Yorkshire, York. The English Gothic style Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, or York Minster.
One of the frequented ‘touristy’ spots in New York City is the original Macy’s at Herald Square the world’s biggest store. Why is it named Herald Square? Like a square a few blocks north (Times Square), it is named after a newspaper that once called this location home but is now defunct. The New York Herald traces its origins back to 1835 when James Gordon Bennett published the first edition of the New York Herald. By the year 1845 it was the most circulated and financially stable newspaper in world. In 1866 Bennett passed control of the New York Herald to his son James Gordon Bennett Jr. who continued to run the paper basically until his demise in 1918.
Under the auspices of James Gordon Bennett Jr. the paper continued to flourish and in 1894 the bold & beautiful New York Herald Building opened directly north of the square on West 35th Street. James Gordon Bennett Jr. was said to be obsessed with owls, in fact the New York Herald Building had owl statues lined on the east and west parapets of the New York Herald Building as well as a pair on the south facing entrance. It is rumored that he kept owls in his office at the New York Herald there in New York. James Jr. eventually relocated to Paris France and attempted to run the paper via telegram…wow perhaps the world’s first attempt at ‘telecommuting’? This was a failed experiment which according to historians began the New York Herald downward spiral into eventual oblivion. Several years after James death in 1918, the New York Herald was purchased and taken over by the smaller rival New York Tribune which launched the New York Herald Tribune basically marking the end. The New York Herald Building was torn down in 1921, but fortunately the publisher of the New York Sun William T. Dewart saved some of the edifice’s beautiful statuary & artifacts which he donated to NYU who in turn permanently loaned the works to the New York City Parks department.
In 1940 in the square south of the New York Herald Building’s former location was unveiled a 40 foot monument to both James Gordon Bennett Jr. and his father James Gordon Bennett which is what this picture is. The monument features rescued artifacts from the New York Herald Building, the bronze statue of Minerva with her faithful bronze blacksmiths Stuff and Guff who swing their hammers on the hour to ‘hit’ the bronze bell on top which resides what else, an owl. I have quotes around hit because the hammers don’t actually touch the bell, there are internal hammers that take of bell ringing. On the very top of the monument area clocks (one on the north face and the one in the image facing south) also from the New York Herald building that were located above the entrance below the brass statues. There’s actually an owl on the west and north side (left and right in the image) of the monument whose eyes light up an eerie green at night, alluding the James Jr.’s obsession which are obviously not visible in this image. The monument was carefully restored in 1989 and then again in 2007. In 2007 the mechanical workings had deteriorated to the point that one of the blacksmiths was actually hitting the bell. Major repairs were made fixing the worn mechanisms and they were back in business. The synchronization of the bell rings and the beautiful clock above it are maintained by New York City’s Clock Master Marvin Schneider. Part of the inscription pays tribute to both Bennetts:
A MEMORIAL TO / JAMES GORDON BENNETT (1795-1872) / FOUNDER OF THE
NEW YORK HERALD IN 1835 / AND TO HIS SON / JAMES GORDON BENNETT
(1841-1918) / THROUGH WHOSE VISION AND ENTERPRISE / THE NEW YORK
HERALD BECAME ONE OF THE / WORLD'S GREAT / NEWSPAPERS / THE BRONZE
FIGURES OF MINERVA AND THE / BELLRINGERS ARE THE WORK OF ANTONIN/
JEAN CARLES. THEY STOOD, FROM 1895 TO / 1921. ABOVE THE CORNICES
OF JAMES / GORDON BENNETT'S NEW YORK HERALD / BUILDING ON THE NORTH
SIDE OF HERALD / SQUARE AND TOLLED THE ACTIVE HOURS TO / THE
MILLIONS.
Taken with an Olympus E-5 with 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 SWD lens processed with Adobe Lightroom.
The York Eye, which was the Birmingham Eye when it was there but now it's moved to York it is the York Eye.