Global persuasion: power and the four continent allegories on Philadelphia City Hall

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2010
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University of Delaware
Abstract
This thesis investigates the civic and artistic motivations for the creation of the elaborate, exterior sculptural program at Philadelphia City Hall from 1871-1901 and the importance of the imposing figures of global allegory in particular. Using a wealth of archival documents in Philadelphia as the basis for this study, it posits that the architects, advisory board and sculptor worked in tandem to erect sculpture that would project the city’s growing economic might while articulating the hope that Philadelphia would again gain the global presence it achieved in the late colonial period. Alexander Milne Calder’s continental allegories of Asia, Africa, Europe and America were of the utmost importance in imparting this message to citizens of the city and visitors alike. Through their repetition and highly visible, symbolic placement in the building, these sculptural groups helped broadcast civic aspirations through familiar iconography. The first part of this thesis analyzes the space and iconography of the four continent allegories at City Hall, and how the choices made there conveyed coded meanings to viewers. Issues of spatiality and access guided the ways power was communicated to these viewers, and thus determined how successful the Commissioners of City Hall were in imparting their vision of Philadelphia’s national and global prominence. The second part of the paper traces the construction and conception of City Hall within the socio-political framework of Philadelphia, analyzing why at this moment the Commissioners would choose these symbols for this most public building.
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