In this artwork, how is the Relocation of the History elucidated?
In preparation for excavation of the 9th Street Tunnel under the National Mall, the monument was removed and placed in storage in the late 1960s. The Army Medical Museum and Library (formerly the Army Medical School Building) was demolished in 1969, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (completed 1974) was built on its site. In April 1970, the statue and its base were relocated to the campus of Jefferson Medical College, where Dr. Gross had gone to medical school and been Professor of Surgery for 28 years.
Alexander Stirling Calder's statue of Samuel D. Gross, which Jefferson retrieved from the warehouses of the Federal Government in Washington, where it had been moved from the Mall during construction of an expressway underpass, was placed to the rear of the Scott Building some months ago. The real question is why Jefferson placed it overlooking the parking lot rather than on the Walnut Street front, as the architects suggested. One assumes that it is to relate eventually to an open area in the center of the block which would result if new construction proceeds along Eleventh and Locust Streets and parking is placed underground.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 9th Street Tunnel Samuel D. Gross National Mall Army Medical School Alexander Stirling Calder Army Medical Museum and Library