How does this artwork elucidate its Design and construction?
Borglum visited Marietta in October 1936. He was asked by the former state governor, his friend George White, to design a sculpture to commemorate the Westward expansion of the United States, from its original thirteen states, the settlement of the Northwest Territory and the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the establishment of Marietta in 1788. His appointment, by the Federal Commission for the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Ordinance of 1787, was first announced on the front page of The Marietta Daily Times on November 18, 1936.Borglum designed the memorial at his studio in San Antonio, Texas in late 1936 and 1937, working in plaster of Paris. From this full-scale rendering, a small clay maquette was made, and given to stonemasons engaged using Works Progress Administration funding as part of the New Deal. They sculpted the design from an 80-short-ton (73 t) block of sandstone from a quarry near the old lock number 18 on the Ohio River at a workshop at Briggs Station.With its weight reduced to 25 short tons (23 t), the partially completed carving was moved ten miles (on a circuitous route to avoid a railroad bridge at Mile Run) on May 7, 1938 to Muskingum Park (then known as East Muskingum Park), Marietta, on the east bank of the Muskingum River, where work was completed. The chosen position is where Arthur St. Clair was inaugurated as first governor of the Northwest Territory.The sculpture depicts three standing men on a rock, with two further men and a woman behind them, alongside a boat, to represent the first landing of pioneers. The figures wear eighteenth-century clothing.With John Schooley, State Architect of Ohio, who worked pro bono, Borglum also designed the esplanade on which the statue sits. It includes anding stage on the riverbank.
Borglum also sculpted four eagles, as a gift to the city, to top pylons, or obelisks, located at entrances to the park, on Front Street.
New Deal Marietta Muskingum River Works Progress Administration Muskingum Park John Schooley Ohio River sesquicentennial Northwest Territory George White Arthur St. Clair plaster of Paris maquette Westward expansion of the United States