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I am trying to find out what happened to the Iwo Jima statue at St. Albans Naval Hospital.
I have heard that the statue at St. Albans was the original plaster cast that the Marine Memorial (Iwo Jima) statue was made from. However, I know the original plaster cast is now at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas. It was moved there from the artist's studio in Rhode Island in 1981.
We know that the Marine Memorial was created and the original plaster cast was made in New York City. The original plaster cast was used to make the bronze statue, which was then moved to Arlington, Virginia and reassembled and dedicated in November 1955.
Did the original plaster cast go to St. Albans and stay there until it closed in 1973?
Or did the original plaster cast get moved to the artist studio in Rhode Island immediately after the bonze pieces were cast in 1954?
I know the original plaster cast and original bronze statue are 32 feet tall figures.
Anyone with any information that you can share I would appreciate it.
Also, would greatly appreciate and pictures of the statue at St. Albans.
And after I posted…. I see you found this thread and posted there too…
I remember that statue.
When I was a little kid I used to see it from my family's baby blue 1950 Oldsmobile 88 when my mom or dad were driving somewhere.
Even at 3 or 4 years old, that statue made an impression on me.
I remembered it about 14 years ago and asked my older brothers if they remembered it; strangely, they had no idea what I was talking about.
I searched online for it, and could find nothing about it.
I was beginning to wonder if my memory was playing tricks on me, except for the fact that the image of the statue and the nearby entrance gates was so vivid in my mind.
In one of my online browsing sessions, I ran across a website in which you can find historic aerial photographs of places.
I don't remember if I looked for the St Albans Naval Hospital location to see if I could make out the statue by the entrance were I able to find photos of the hospital from the air in the 1950s.
If I did look for it, I must not have found a photo of the right vintage or if I did, maybe the detail was too blurry to make out for sure--else I surely would remember finding proof the statue was there.
There is a copy of the statue in the Intrepid Air Space Museum. I don't know whether it's the one from the Naval Hospital. For all I know, the person who owns the copy and/or the museum itself might not know another copy existed. Or it may be the copy in the Museum is actually the same as the one at the Naval Hospital, but moved from the hospital so long agon that the current owner of the copy doesn't even know it was ever there.
Anyway, anybody who wants to play around with the historick airial photos website can find it here:
There's an article on Wikipedia about the original sculpture, which also contains a list of related memorials, many of them copies of the original.
Perhaps one of the ones in the list used to stand at the St Albans' hospital.
I also learned the copy on the Intrepid was taken off the ship for good when the intrepid underwent a refit a few years ago.
I think its the copy the owner then tried to sell but got no bids higher enough.
Here's a excerpt from Wikipedia:
Related memorials
When there were no government funds for sculpture during the war, the sculptor financed a concrete version of similar design in a one-third size that was placed on a parcel of land in Washington, D.C. until 1947, when it was put into storage. It later was restored and displayed at a museum on an aircraft carrier and again, returned to storage. This small concrete statue of the second U.S. flag raising at Iwo Jima in 1945 was scheduled to be auctioned in February 2013 at a New York auction dedicated to World War II artifacts,[13] but it failed to receive the minimum bid required for the auction of it to begin.
Other related memorials and copies:
The original plaster working model for the bronze and granite memorial statue currently stands in Harlingen, Texas, at the Marine Military Academy, a private Marine Corps-inspired youth military academy. The academy also is the final resting place of Corporal Harlon Block, one of the flag raisers who was killed in action on Iwo Jima.
A small model stands in the lobby of Spruance Hall, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. It was presented by the sculptor, a resident of Newport.
There are scaled-down replicas at three Marine bases:
At Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia just outside the front gate.
At Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kāne'ohe Bay.
At Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina on the Peatross Parade Deck, where the replica is steel that is one-third scale and also sculpted by Weldon. For the final act of The Crucible, the Marines' 54-hour final training test, Marine recruits at Parris Island hike 9 miles to the statue as the sun rises and the flag is raised. They then are addressed on the flag raising and its meaning and are then awarded their Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblems by their drill instructors signifying them as full-fledged Marines.[14][15]
A similar (though not identical) statue was erected located at Cape Coral, Florida, in 1964[16]
On 18 May 1973, a bronze relief of the memorial was placed along Cedar Point Road near St. Nicholas's Chapel at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.
A version of the memorial dedicated in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of World War II stands in the Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pennsylvania.
A similar design is used for the National Iwo Jima Memorial in Newington, Connecticut, which was dedicated in 1995 to the 6,821 U.S. servicemen who died in the battle.
A copy was dedicated at Fall River's Bicentennial Park, along the banks of the Taunton River, in Massachusetts in 2005.[17]
The tilted spire above the National Museum of the Marine Corps is a visual allusion to the original sculpture.
A plywood cutout version is found along Highway 62 ca. 17 miles (27 km) from the center of Twentynine Palms, California.
Iwo Jima Sculpture and Memorial Wall at Foster Park in Young Harris, Georgi
Thanks so much for the response & my apologies for this delayed response.
So here is my update on trying to unravel this puzzle.
The QUESTION: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MARINE MEMORIAL STATUE FROM ST ALBANS NAVAL HOSPITAL (~1950-1960???)
The statue at St. Albans was NOT the original plaster cast that is now at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas. This original plaster cast was moved there from the artist's studio in Rhode Island in 1981 to Harlingen. I spoke with the curator at the Marine Memorial Museum at the Marine Military Academy and the original plaster cast was never at St. Albans Naval Hospital.
The statue at St. Albans would have been big, but not 32 ft tall big. (Harlingen original plaster cast and Arlington bronze statue have a32 feet tall figures).
There are several references to people remembering the statue and a reference to a younger brother climbing on the statue at St. Albans - that was a clue that the statue was not the 32 ft tall cast.
I also ruled out the smaller statue that Mr. Rodney Brown owns and was on the USS Intrepid. I have direct communications with him confirming it was never at the St. Albans Naval Hospital.
The mystery remains unsolved. But I'm going to keep exploring.
If anyone knows or can help, any assistance figuring out this mystery would be appreciated!
Thanks,
tylerrd
Quote:
Originally Posted by OutDoorNut
There's an article on Wikipedia about the original sculpture, which also contains a list of related memorials, many of them copies of the original.
Perhaps one of the ones in the list used to stand at the St Albans' hospital.
I also learned the copy on the Intrepid was taken off the ship for good when the intrepid underwent a refit a few years ago.
I think its the copy the owner then tried to sell but got no bids higher enough.
Here's a excerpt from Wikipedia:
Related memorials
When there were no government funds for sculpture during the war, the sculptor financed a concrete version of similar design in a one-third size that was placed on a parcel of land in Washington, D.C. until 1947, when it was put into storage. It later was restored and displayed at a museum on an aircraft carrier and again, returned to storage. This small concrete statue of the second U.S. flag raising at Iwo Jima in 1945 was scheduled to be auctioned in February 2013 at a New York auction dedicated to World War II artifacts,[13] but it failed to receive the minimum bid required for the auction of it to begin.
Other related memorials and copies:
The original plaster working model for the bronze and granite memorial statue currently stands in Harlingen, Texas, at the Marine Military Academy, a private Marine Corps-inspired youth military academy. The academy also is the final resting place of Corporal Harlon Block, one of the flag raisers who was killed in action on Iwo Jima.
A small model stands in the lobby of Spruance Hall, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. It was presented by the sculptor, a resident of Newport.
There are scaled-down replicas at three Marine bases:
At Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia just outside the front gate.
At Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kāne'ohe Bay.
At Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina on the Peatross Parade Deck, where the replica is steel that is one-third scale and also sculpted by Weldon. For the final act of The Crucible, the Marines' 54-hour final training test, Marine recruits at Parris Island hike 9 miles to the statue as the sun rises and the flag is raised. They then are addressed on the flag raising and its meaning and are then awarded their Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblems by their drill instructors signifying them as full-fledged Marines.[14][15]
A similar (though not identical) statue was erected located at Cape Coral, Florida, in 1964[16]
On 18 May 1973, a bronze relief of the memorial was placed along Cedar Point Road near St. Nicholas's Chapel at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.
A version of the memorial dedicated in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of World War II stands in the Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pennsylvania.
A similar design is used for the National Iwo Jima Memorial in Newington, Connecticut, which was dedicated in 1995 to the 6,821 U.S. servicemen who died in the battle.
A copy was dedicated at Fall River's Bicentennial Park, along the banks of the Taunton River, in Massachusetts in 2005.[17]
The tilted spire above the National Museum of the Marine Corps is a visual allusion to the original sculpture.
A plywood cutout version is found along Highway 62 ca. 17 miles (27 km) from the center of Twentynine Palms, California.
Iwo Jima Sculpture and Memorial Wall at Foster Park in Young Harris, Georgi
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I was looking for info about it too
