PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 57 – STATUE OF COLUMBUS TAKING POSSESSION
Only in a lesser degree than that accorded the Statue of the Republic was attention secured by its commanding situation to the statue representing Columbus taking possession of America. It stood in front of the eastern portal of the Administration Building, where were always throngs assembled whether the attendance of the Fair was light or heavy. In this part of the plaza the thousands gathered to listen to the music and to look out upon the beauties of the Court of Honor by day and the brilliancy of its illumination by night, and the statue was almost in their midst. It was the verdict, too, of most people, that it merited the position given it. It was begun by Louis St. Gaudens, brother of the famous sculptor, and completed by Miss Mary Lawrence, one of the latter’s pupils. The figure stood on a square pedestal, the discoverer being shown in the formal act of occupation of the New World in the name of his sovereigns. In his right hand was grouped the staff from which floats the standard of Castile and Aragon while his left upheld a naked sword- The face was beardless, deep-lined and earnest, differing materially in expression from most of the portraits accepted as likenesses of the navigator.