Gravely Speaking

The largest museum in the United States dedicated to one artist—seven floors in Pittsburgh—houses a large collection of artwork by famed pop artist Andy Warhol. The museum, located in an 88,000-square-foot building downtown contains 900 paintings, 77 sculptures, nearly 2,000 works on paper, over 4,000 photographs, more than 1,000 prints and over 4,350 Warhol films and videotaped works.  The collection includes such iconic pieces as his silkscreen paintings of Campbell’s Soup Cans and his Marilyn Monroe Diptych.

Born Andy Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) the son of Andrew and Julia Warhola and raised in the Pittsburgh area, Warhol began his career as a commercial illustrator but developed into one of the most influential artists of his day.  The Factory, his New York studio, attracted the rich, famous, and celebrities of the era.  Warhol became famous for his art but also for those he knew and, in fact, for his own fame.  He was a Kardashian before there were Kardashians!

He also popularized the expression “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” which has become part of the American vernacular. The saying first appeared on a 1968 exhibition program of his work at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Warhol, 58, died in February 1987 after complications from gallbladder surgery.  He was buried in Bethel Park, a south side suburb of Pittsburgh, in the St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church Cemetery close to his parents’ graves.  His gravestone is a plain and drab dark gray granite slant-face marker—not the colorful, iconic imagery one might expect to mark his grave.  His grave, however, was littered with rosaries, mementos from fans, and Campbell Soup cans as a nod to one of his most famous images produced in The Factory.

As recognition of his lasting fame, cameras have been placed on a pole facing his grave and live stream people coming and going to pay tribute to Warhol at his grave site.  His 15 minutes have long outlasted him.

The link to the Warhol erathcam livestream:

https://www.earthcam.com/usa/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/warhol/?cam=warhol_figmentstream

This photo taken by Paul Breda

In the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, formerly known as the Presbyterian Cemetery, in Lexington, Virginia, stands the commanding bronze statue of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, sculpted by famed Richmond, Virginia, artist Edward Virginius Valentine (November 12, 1838 – October 19, 1930).  The statue was cast by the Henry Bonnard Bronze Company of New York in 1890.

The statue commemorates the grave of the Confederate Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson, considered one of the greatest military tacticians during the Civil War.  Jackson was shot by “friendly fire” during a reconnaissance trip after a successful flanking maneuver at the Battle of Chancellorsville.  He and eight aides were returning to camp late at night on May 2, 1863.  A skirmish broke out and gun fire was exchanged.  Four of Jackson’s aides were killed and Jackson was mortally wounded.  In the darkness and the confusion of war, the 18^th North Carolina Infantry had mistakenly fired upon General Jackson.

The next morning, at the makeshift field hospital at Wilderness Tavern, General Jackson’s left arm was amputated.  Upon hearing the report of General Jackson’s death, General Robert E. Lee sent word to Jackson through Reverend Beverly Lacy, “Give General Jackson my affectionate regards, and say to him: he has lost his left arm but I my right.”

Jackson’s chaplain, Reverend Lacy went to visit him as he lay in a tent convalescing.  Upon leaving, Lacy saw Jackson’s amputated arm outside the tent.  Lacy gathered up the arm in a blanket and walked across a field to his brother’s farm, Ellwood Manor, where he buried the severed arm.

(Years later, Reverend James Power Smith, who served on Jackson’s staff, erected a gray granite gravestone to mark the spot where the arm was buried.)

Jackson was removed to Guinea Station where he died on May 10 of infection and pneumonia.  His remains were buried in a family plot in the Presbyterian Cemetery in Lexington, which was later renamed for him.  Though his white-marble gravestone still remains in its original place in the family plot, his remains were removed along with other family members to repose underneath the statue erected in his honor.  Though Jackson was reunited with his family members under the great statue, he was not reunited with his left arm which rests miles away in a cemetery on Ellwood Manor.

The plaque in front of his original gravestone reads:

GEN. THOS. J. JACKSON

THE REMAINS OF

STONEWALL JACKSON

HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS SPOT

AND NOW REPOSE UNDER THE MONUMENT

IN THIS CEMETERY ERECTED TO HIS

MEMORY BY HIS LOVING COUNTRYMEN.

Those graves marked underneath the statue:

Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian Jr, Colonel U.S. Army Air Corps, November 13, 1915 – August 12, 1944, Killed in Action – Arras, France, Body Not Recovered

Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian, Brig. Gen., U.S. Army, August 25, 1888 – September 15, 1952

Thomas Jonathan Jackson, “Stonewall” Lieut. Gen. C. S. A., January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863

Mary Graham Jackson, Infant Daughter, in Crypt with Father, Feb. 28, 1858 – May 25, 1858

Mary Anna Jackson, Wife of Stonewall Jackson, July 21, 1831 – March 24, 1915

William Edmund Christian, May 14, 1856 – February 5, 1936

Julia Jackson Christian, Daughter of Stonewall Jackson and Wife of William Edmund, Nov. 23, 1862 – Aug. 30, 1889

CHARLES ADOLPH SCHIEREN

BORN FEBRUARY 28, 1842  DIED MARCH 10, 1915

MARIE LOUISE SCHIEREN

BORN AUGUST 5, 1840  DIED MARCH 11, 1915

IN THEIR LIVES THEY WERE LOVELY AND IN THEIR DEATH

THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED

Most people are familiar with Gutzon Borglum, who was the artist behind the massive undertaking of blasting tons of rock and carving the face of Mount Rushmore with jackhammers to create the iconic mountain sculptures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

But Gutzon was not the only sculptor in the family.  His younger brother Solon Hannibal de la Mothe Borglum (December 22, 1868 – January 31, 1922) was also an accomplished artist best known for his depictions of life in the frontier.  In fact, Solon was better known at the turn of the 20^th Century than Gutzon until Mount Rushmore was completed.  It was only then when Gutzon eclipsed his brother’s fame.

Both Borglums were most likely influenced by the early wood carving work of their father, James Borglum—who later became a physician.  However, it was Solon who was an award-winning sculptor, including wining the Court of Honor at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

His works can be found in many places in the country.  Solon’s equestrian monument of General John B. Gordon can be seen on the Georgia state capitol grounds in Atlanta.  His bronze equestrian statue Rough Rider Bucky O’Neill, as well as, his statue Cowboy at Rest are displayed in front of the courthouse in Prescott, Arizona. Evening, a statue of a cowboy leaning against his horse, can be seen at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.

Two of his works, Inspiration and Aspiration, stand guard on either side of the gate entrance to the courtyard of the St. Mark’s Church-in-the-bowery in New York City. Other works of his can be found in Jersey City, New Jersey and New Britain, Connecticut, among other places.

Along with famous commission work for monumental public works, Solon Borglum also created a funerary bronze for his friends Charles and Mary Louise Schieren.  Charles Schieren had been mayor of Brooklyn (1894-1895).  Tragically, in 1915, the couple died from pneumonia within 24 hours of each other and were buried in a double funeral in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

To commemorate their lives, Solon created a dramatic and haunting sculpture of Azrael, the Spirit of Death, as a memorial.  The statue captures the moment of death when many Jews and Muslims believe Azrael descends to free the trapped soul from the dead body.  In Solon’s sculpture Azrael is depicted as a cloaked figure, her hood draped forward covering her face.  She is bent over with her arms stretched touching closed books on either side of her.  Two books representing the full lives lived by Charles and Mary Louise.  The patina of the bronze oxidized giving the sculpture a light green cast except for Azrael’s face which is recessed underneath the hood giving the entire monument an eerie appearance unlike any other in the cemetery.

Today it is right and proper to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the day Americans toast as our country’s birthday.

James Wilson was one of the Pennsylvania delegation members and was a signer, though, he did not sign the great document until August 2.  His greatest influence, however, was during the Constitutional Convention which wrote our founding document that formed our Republic.

Wilson was a Scottish immigrant who came to the colonies to find his destiny—which is now intertwined with his adopted country.  Wilson died in 1798 and was first buried in North Carolina.  His remains were removed to his beloved state of Pennsylvania in 1906 and reburied in the Christ Church Churchyard where six other signers of the Declaration are buried including Benjamin Franklin.

JAMES WILSON

A SIGNER

OF

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

A MAKER

OF

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

AND

A JUSTICE

OF

THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

AT ITS CREATION

BORN SEPTEMBER 14, 1742

DIED AUGUST 28, 1798

—–

ON

NOVEMBER 22, 1906

THE GOVERNOR AND PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA

REMOVED HIS REMAINS

TO

CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA

AND DEDICATED THIS TABLET

TO

HIS MEMORY

—-

“That the Supreme Power, therefore,

should be rested in the People is, in

my judgment, the great panacea of human politics.”

                                                                                                          — WILSON