Outside the Library/ The Swann Fountain

Outside the Library is the world, an interesting world with complex currents, historical, present and future, shaping  the near neighborhood.

Directly in front of the Library (what famous picture does the above remind me of?) is Shakespeare Park with its sad statue (somehow the clown looks as fraught as the melancholy Prince. I would have added Portia or Rosalind or Imogen to balance the unbalanced extremes.And put more than one quote on the plinth. Nevertheless, I love that we have a Shakespeare Monument.)

Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this pow'rful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.            Sonnet 55  

These lines where written to the young man in and through whom Shakespeare experienced the fullness of Love. But it's hard to make a statue of Love. (oh wait...Love Park is just up the Parkway.)

Below is the view from the back parking lot. You can see the new Barnes on the left, with its insufficient parking, and on the right building trailers that will be used for the coming Library expansion, with its insufficient parking.

(Screed Warning.) Oh that such an expansion would include parking, which is already getting too tight as the neighborhood keeps developing. If you rank high enough at the Libes you get free parking on Wood St. But the majority of workers are usually scrambling to find close, affordable parking. Since the Library is radically understaffed and most of us work our buns off in often difficult conditions--wouldn't it be fair if the people least able to pay for parking were given a break?

If you walk half a block south, you are at Logan Square. If you look in one direction, you see the art Museum.

If you look in the other you see City Hall.

 And also the Swann Fountain, sculpted by the middle Calder-- Alexander Sterling, from plans by Wilson Eyre.

Usually the Fountain is obscured by blowing jets of wild water. But in winter you can  see how sensually Calder portrayed the power of his river gods. You can almost feel water moving along  you as your eye follows the forms of their bodies.

Above is the maiden of the Wissahickon with her swan;

Below is the strong maton of the Schuylkill.

And the male is for the Delaware.

Isn't that an amazing male torso?

 

 

Below is a picture from when the Fountain was first put in.

And here are the original landscaping plans for it. Both these images are from an untitled book by the local firm Harrison, Mertz and Emlen Inc., published in 1933.

And yes, in summer children swim in it. You can almost hear their giggling from the Library.