The MacNeil sculpture entitled “The Coming of the White Man” that sits atop the hill in Portland’s Washington Park was part of a larger celebration.

The Lewis and Clark Cennentenial Exposition of 1904 was Portland’s version of a “White City” — (Deja Vu Chicago’s Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1893!  That Worlds Fair marked the 400th Anniversary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus in his discovery of the American continent.)

While the 1893 Fair focused the world’s spotlight on Chicago, this commemoration 1904-5 brought Portland and the West into the eyes of the young nation.  

Webmaster Dan Leininger admires MacNeil’s Lewis & Clark Centennial sculpture in its wooded setting. The beauty of this piece is seen in the detail and emotion that is captured in the bronze.

Only three statues remain from the Portland exposition.  All these surviving sculptures commemorate the 1804 Expedition from the Native American perspective. While MacNeil’s piece may be the most prominent, another noble native stands majestically nearby. 

Down the hill to the east and south on a large rock out cropping, rests Alice Cooper’s rendition of “Sacajawea.”  Her powerful, yet gentle, sculpture tells another tale of a heroic Native American. The native woman of this dramatic bronze raises her arm above the horizon pointing to the west as does the large mounting stone base.  Clad in flowing leather skirts, she bears her infant son (Jean Baptiste) swaddled to her back.  

On the base of the piece is the sculptor’s name: “Alice Cooper, Sc. 1905 Copyright”. On the opposite side the casting mark: “Henry Bonnard Bronze Founders, N.Y. 1905”

On the east side of the mounting stone a bronze plaque states the following story of this monumental piece: 

ERECTED

BY THE WOMEN OF THE UNITED STATES

IN MEMORY OF SACAJAWEA

THE ONLY WOMAN

IN THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION

AND IN HONOR OF

THE PIONEER WOMEN OF OLD OREGON.

She carries her young and points the way.

According to a Wikipedia reference

The sculpture was commissioned for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition (1905) by the Committee of Portland Women, who requested a sculpture of “the only woman in the Lewis and Clark Expedition and in honor of the pioneer mother of old Oregon.”[1] Funding sources included the Port of Portland and Women for Lewis and Clark Exposition, which was supported by women across the Western United States.[1] The sculpture was unveiled on July 6, 1905 and originally stood in the center of the exposition’s plaza.[2] Suffragists present at the dedication included Susan B. Anthony, Abigail Scott Duniway and Anna Howard Shaw.[1] The statue was relocated to Washington Park on April 6, 1906, upon the fair’s completion.[2] According to the Regional Arts & Culture Council, which administers the sculpture, Cooper was the first female artist to be represented in Portland’s public sculpture collection.[1]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacajawea_and_Jean-Baptiste

COMMENTS:  Much of the Portland Fair celebrated American Progress in very masculine terms of discovery and expansion. In contrast the two statues by MacNeil and Cooper gave recognition to the perspective of the Native Cultures already existing in the Northwest.  

Alice Cooper was a contemporary of Hermon MacNeil.  Both were trained in the Beau Arts style of allegorical interpretation. She studied with Lorado Taft at the Chicago Art Institute where MacNeil met and married Carol Brooks, an earlier student of Taft. Cooper also studied in New York City at the Art Students League in MacNeil’s first year of teaching there, around 1900-1902.  Their two careers had many overlapping places and periods

These two statues have remained as lessons in bronze on the history and expansion of America.  Intriguingly, they tell their story more from the perspective of First Nation people.  They are rich in the allegorical symbolism of the Beau Arts training from which these sculptors imagined and fashioned their tactical creative work.

We can be thankful for the empowering benefactors of the David Thompson Family and the Women of America and Oregon in particular.  Without their vision and determination these pieces would not grace the Washington Park of Portland or the pages of www.HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com 

For more story, stay tuned for PART THREE or visit the link below and the related postings listed for www.HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com 

The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition: Portland’s “World’s Fair”

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