NYC's ZIMMs
Sculptor Bruno Louis Zimm (1867-1943) was born in NYC and, assuming an interest in sculpture at a young age, studied under John Quincy Adams Ward (Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools) and Irish sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens (Art Students League of New York). His first major work was at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. In New York, he is represented by two works.
Above is the Women’s Health Protective Association Fountain, installed in 1909 at West 116th Street and Riverside, appropriate since that places it near Barnard College. The fountain consists of a stele with a fountain in front, with two marble benches on the side inscribed with the names of WHPA founders and associates. Charlotte Wilbour, whose name can be seen on the bench below right, helped to found the first New York City Woman Suffrage Association in 1870; it was among the first organization to agitate for female voting rights, which finally came to fruition in 1920.
Perhaps better known, though it has an unfortunate placing behind the lavatory buildings in Tompkins Square Park, is Zimm’s 1906 9-foot tall monument to the victims of the June 15, 1904 General Slocum steamboat disaster in which over 1,000 people perished due to gross negligence on the part of the boat operators. Made of pink Tennessee marble, it features a relief picturing two children looking seaward. Funds were provided by the Sympathy Society of German Ladies. In 1991, it was restored by the NYC Parks Department with funds from SUNY-Maritime College in Throgs Neck, Bronx. The children are described: “They were earth’s purest, children young and fair.” A larger monument can be found in Lutheran All-Faiths Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens.
Apologies for relatively few Substacks lately; I am concentrating on researching a zoom tour about Revolutionary War monuments and relics in New York City, which will take place on Wednesday, August 26 at 7PM. You can register at the link.
Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013).