The museum was given the exclusive rights in 1913 to remove the prehistoric remains from the tar pits at Rancho La Brea. The rotunda’s dome is 58 feet in height, with a skylight approximately 20 feet across, designed by the eminent Walter Horace Judson.Īs the Museum was being built, four local organizations-the Historical Society of Southern California, the Cooper Ornithological Club, the Southern California Academy of Sciences, and the Fine Arts League-were persuaded to fill the galleries of the new museum. Julia Bracken Wendt’s “Three Muses” statue graces its center. The rotunda’s walls are made of Italian marble, its floor of mosaic tile. The focal point of the 1913 Building was, and is today, the rotunda, which measures 75 feet in diameter with three wings. It incorporated an eclectic blend of styles: Spanish Renaissance ornamentation is seen in the terracotta trimmings Romanesque style in the arched windows and the brick walls and the Beaux Arts tradition in the T-shaped floor plan. The original structure-what is today known colloquially as the 1913 Building-was designed by local architects Frank Hudson and William A.D. Stephens and other dignitaries in attendance, and with the Grand Lodge of Masons of California officiating, the Museum’s cornerstone was laid and construction began. On December 17 of that year, with Bowen, Mayor George Alexander, future California Governor William H. The museum building was located on the western axis of the proposed sunken rose garden of Agricultural Park, renamed Exposition Park in December 1910. This tripartite ownership still exists today. In this plan, the State would build an exposition building for California products (and later an armory) the County would build a historical and art museum and the City would maintain the grounds. He led the 1909 fight to convince the State, County, and City to develop the park as a cultural center. In the 1890s, a local attorney and Sunday school teacher, William Miller Bowen, became increasingly alarmed by the growing numbers of saloons, gambling events, and other vices that existed in the park. Somehow I have this picture in my mind of crafty peddlers selling bits of bronze to unwary tourists even centuries later telling them they used to be part of the statue.The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) is situated on land that served as an agricultural fairground from 1872 until 1910. Sadly enough when the Arabs conquered Rhodes they broke up the remains and sold the pieces off as scrap. Within it, too, are to be seen large masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it while erecting it.” Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen yawning in the interior. Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues. “Even as it lies, it excites our wonder and admiration. For centuries it lay beside the harbour entrance a memory of its old glory. Sadly enough Helios’ glory lasted for only fifty-six years when an earthquake shook the city and tumbled the statue. Built around stone pillars, with iron rods for stability, the wooden framework was covered in bronze plates, that were carefully hammered in place. The statue was created by Chares of Lindos, a local sculptor, who had fought in the defense of the city. This doesn’t seem very likely as it’s a strange pose for a Greek statue. Popular myth depicts the statue as standing with its legs spread on either side of the harbour mouth. According to Pliny it took them twelve years to finish the 40 meter high statue. A year after the siege started Ptolemy’s relief force arrived and Demetrius fled.Īs a sign of their victory the Rhodians melted down Demetrios’ war machines and used the metal to construct a huge statue of their patron god, Helios. Demetrius first attempt, using a floating tower, failed as did the second using an even bigger tower. The general sent his son Demetrius with 40,000 men to conquer the city.ĭue to the large walls around the city, the attackers were forced to use wooden siege towers to try and get into the city. The Rhodians preferred Ptolemy, who ended up ruling Egypt after Alexander’s death, which did not make Antigous, one of the other generals very happy. At his death it was divided among three of his generals, including Ptolemy. He lost the little kingdom to the Persian how again lost it to Alexander the Great in 322BC. Some fifty years later the island was conquered by Mausolus of Halicarnassus, yes, him of the Mausoleum. Its capital, with the highly original name Rhodes, was build in 408BC around the best natural harbour on the island. Rhodes, one of the Greek Isles, straddled the trade routes between the Aegean and the Mediterranean. Search Search for: The Colossus of Rhodes
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