Romance of Transportation [Plaster]
Dublin Core
Title
Romance of Transportation [Plaster]
Subject
Figure sculpture, American--20th century
Animal sculpture--20th century
Animal sculpture--20th century
Description
Romance of Transportation, 1951
Plaster original painted silver
This 44-foot long relief mural was originally located at the Fort Street Union Depot in Detroit, Michigan. It has since been relocated to the
B. & O. Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. This plaster original is painted silver to more closely resemble the original cast in aluminum. Because it is so long, it was cast in twelve sections, then welded together.
This sculpted mural depicts the development of transportation in America.
According to the dedication program:
"Fredericks chose the modern steam locomotive and a streamlined diesel, which he contrasted with older modes of travel to form a panoramic history of transportation in America (including) Indian riders of the plains, the ox-drawn prairie schooners and stage coaches of the western pioneers, and one of the first wood-burning locomotives. On the right are the high wheel bikes of the 1890s, the runabout and touring car of the early 1900s, the first airplane, and another wood burning locomotive of civil war vintage. The work was designed to convey the impression of life and motion, and at the same time, create sustained interest by depicting many forms of old-time transportation."
When Fredericks first started to do the design for this sculpture he thought of using many forms of transportation rather than just a large train. He claimed it would be "more interesting for people." These same themes are incorporated into the two reliefs centered below The Romance of Transportation, Modern Trains and Horse and Antique Trains. These were located at the main entrance of the Fort Street Union Depot.
Plaster original painted silver
This 44-foot long relief mural was originally located at the Fort Street Union Depot in Detroit, Michigan. It has since been relocated to the
B. & O. Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. This plaster original is painted silver to more closely resemble the original cast in aluminum. Because it is so long, it was cast in twelve sections, then welded together.
This sculpted mural depicts the development of transportation in America.
According to the dedication program:
"Fredericks chose the modern steam locomotive and a streamlined diesel, which he contrasted with older modes of travel to form a panoramic history of transportation in America (including) Indian riders of the plains, the ox-drawn prairie schooners and stage coaches of the western pioneers, and one of the first wood-burning locomotives. On the right are the high wheel bikes of the 1890s, the runabout and touring car of the early 1900s, the first airplane, and another wood burning locomotive of civil war vintage. The work was designed to convey the impression of life and motion, and at the same time, create sustained interest by depicting many forms of old-time transportation."
When Fredericks first started to do the design for this sculpture he thought of using many forms of transportation rather than just a large train. He claimed it would be "more interesting for people." These same themes are incorporated into the two reliefs centered below The Romance of Transportation, Modern Trains and Horse and Antique Trains. These were located at the main entrance of the Fort Street Union Depot.
Creator
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998
Date
1951
Rights
Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Type
sculpture
Coverage
University Center (Mich.)
Sculpture Item Type Metadata
Physical Dimensions
48" x 528"
Materials
Painted Plaster full-scale
Catalog Number
1991.070
Object Location
Main Exhibit Gallery
Provenance
1987 July,1 Gift to Museum and SVSU Board of Control
Notes
MF, Sculptor copy:
"Union Station on Fort Street in Detroit was a landmark of nineteenth-century Romanesque architecture used by the Chesapeake and Ohio, Baltimore and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wabash railroads. Passengers left from its platforms for the great ports of the Atlantic coast south of New York, and for St. Louis and the West. When it was remodeled and modernized after the war, Fredericks was asked to do something on the long narrow band of wall over the doors through which travelers passed to the train platforms. On what would appear an awkwardly long and constricted span, Fredericks executed in polished aluminum a free-floating relief, forty-four feet long, which he called The Romance of Transportation (figs. 150-153). Beginning at the left with the opening of the West-Indians, a wagon train, stagecoaches, highwaymen-the relief swells into a crescendo of railroads and a streamlined train, then tapers off through airplanes and automobiles, to motorcycles and bicycles. The successive forms flow into each other, accentuated by the gleam of hammered and polished aluminum, leading the eye easily from one end to the other of a symbolic history of a people in movement. The relief was put in place in 1950. Subsequently, as the railroads' passenger traffic declined, the Fort Street Station, as it was popularly known, was demolished. The relief was removed to the Railroad Museum in Baltimore, where it remains on view."
The work displays the 4th dimension--time. It shows a progression of time in methods of transportation from horses and man-powered vehicles to engine powered vehicles.
Two motifs are located next to it:
Molly Barth's copy:
The long relief on the west wall of the gallery is titled The Romance of Transportation. This plaster model has been painted silver because it was cast in aluminum. The aluminum cast was dedicated in 1951 at the Fort Street Railroad Station in downtown Detroit during a major renovation of the building which was built in 18??. They commissioned Fredericks to make a relief for a long, narrow space above the gates to the train platforms. In this design, the diesel locomotives are intermixed with the older forms of transportation. On the left are Indians and the covered wagons, and stagecoaches. The locomotives in the center are the powerful ones. Notice also the cars, airplanes, bicycles, and the motorcycle and dog on the far right. Once trains ceased to be a popular mode of transportation, with airplanes being so much faster, the depot was closed and then demolished, I believe in 1970. The aluminum cast of this relief and the two reliefs above the exit sign here in the Gallery. Modern Trains, and Horse and Antique Trains, which were also done for the Fort Street Station were removed. They were then sent to the Baltimore Railroad Museum, where they are (hopefully) on exhibit now. [Discuss plaster model sections of original model, some sections made from aluminum cast in Detroit.]
"Union Station on Fort Street in Detroit was a landmark of nineteenth-century Romanesque architecture used by the Chesapeake and Ohio, Baltimore and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wabash railroads. Passengers left from its platforms for the great ports of the Atlantic coast south of New York, and for St. Louis and the West. When it was remodeled and modernized after the war, Fredericks was asked to do something on the long narrow band of wall over the doors through which travelers passed to the train platforms. On what would appear an awkwardly long and constricted span, Fredericks executed in polished aluminum a free-floating relief, forty-four feet long, which he called The Romance of Transportation (figs. 150-153). Beginning at the left with the opening of the West-Indians, a wagon train, stagecoaches, highwaymen-the relief swells into a crescendo of railroads and a streamlined train, then tapers off through airplanes and automobiles, to motorcycles and bicycles. The successive forms flow into each other, accentuated by the gleam of hammered and polished aluminum, leading the eye easily from one end to the other of a symbolic history of a people in movement. The relief was put in place in 1950. Subsequently, as the railroads' passenger traffic declined, the Fort Street Station, as it was popularly known, was demolished. The relief was removed to the Railroad Museum in Baltimore, where it remains on view."
The work displays the 4th dimension--time. It shows a progression of time in methods of transportation from horses and man-powered vehicles to engine powered vehicles.
Two motifs are located next to it:
Molly Barth's copy:
The long relief on the west wall of the gallery is titled The Romance of Transportation. This plaster model has been painted silver because it was cast in aluminum. The aluminum cast was dedicated in 1951 at the Fort Street Railroad Station in downtown Detroit during a major renovation of the building which was built in 18??. They commissioned Fredericks to make a relief for a long, narrow space above the gates to the train platforms. In this design, the diesel locomotives are intermixed with the older forms of transportation. On the left are Indians and the covered wagons, and stagecoaches. The locomotives in the center are the powerful ones. Notice also the cars, airplanes, bicycles, and the motorcycle and dog on the far right. Once trains ceased to be a popular mode of transportation, with airplanes being so much faster, the depot was closed and then demolished, I believe in 1970. The aluminum cast of this relief and the two reliefs above the exit sign here in the Gallery. Modern Trains, and Horse and Antique Trains, which were also done for the Fort Street Station were removed. They were then sent to the Baltimore Railroad Museum, where they are (hopefully) on exhibit now. [Discuss plaster model sections of original model, some sections made from aluminum cast in Detroit.]
Files
Citation
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998, “Romance of Transportation [Plaster],” Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, accessed April 25, 2024, https://omeka.svsu.edu/items/show/5120.