Focus on this artwork and discuss the Location.
The statue's location was chosen deliberately--both in its general location and in its specific position. The bronze was cast from a plaster form in Rhode Island and its trip to Oregon took over a month by train. When Proctor gave his presentation address of the sculpture he said:"It is sufficient to say that here the Willamette and McKenzie rivers join their waters into one grand channel and create this beautiful valley, the paradise to which the pioneer struggled over great mountains and across desert plains to which he first came in numbers, and in which he made home. No more fitting place than the campus of University of Oregon could be found for the memorial."A committee including Mr. and Mrs. Teal, Dean Ellis F. Lawrence, and Irene Hazard Gerlinger chose the statue's exact physical location. It was placed within the Oregon fir trees facing the Administrative Building between the library (Fenton Hall) and Friendly Hall on the University of Oregon campus. The statue was situated facing southward, as requested by the artist, to ensure that the figure's front received as much natural light exposure as possible.
Irene Hazard Gerlinger bronze fir trees Ellis F. Lawrence University of Oregon Rhode Island