AA-2026-48C0F2
On the image
Outside a Beaux-Arts civic building somewhere in the American Northeast, a bronze figure of a Native American scout stands with one arm raised above a recumbent bison, both of them buried to the shoulders in fresh snow, which the 1950s had not yet taught anyone to regard as a metaphor for anything. The sculpture belongs to the genre of civic allegory that proliferated around the turn of the century, when cities competed to demonstrate their seriousness by installing large bronze statements about Manifest Destiny in front of courthouses and libraries, presumably so that citizens would feel historically legitimised on their way to pay a fine. Snow has a democratic quality when applied to monumental bronze: it rounds off the heroic gestures, softens the raised arm into something that looks less like triumph and more like someone hailing a cab. The Beaux-Arts facade behind it — rusticated stone, arched entries, colonnaded upper floors — is the building's way of insisting it will still be here when the sculpture's ideology has become embarrassing, a bet the building appears to be winning.
Visually related — by likeness
The Scout Statue Under Snow, Buffalo City Hall Area, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-48C0F2. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/the-scout-statue-under-snow-buffalo-city-hall-area-1950s.
@misc{aaAA202648C0F2,
title = {The Scout Statue Under Snow, Buffalo City Hall Area, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-48C0F2},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/the-scout-statue-under-snow-buffalo-city-hall-area-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - The Scout Statue Under Snow, Buffalo City Hall Area, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-48C0F2 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/the-scout-statue-under-snow-buffalo-city-hall-area-1950s ER -
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