Bell Memorial – Presentation Notes
When someone is given an opportunity to understand a work of art like this
monument they are more likely to be proud of it - and protect it.
“What am I looking at?”
The Purpose
- a monument to commemorate the invention of the telephone by Alexander
Graham Bell in Brantford (1874).
See:
Bell Homestead National Historic Site
www.bellhomestead.on.ca
The Design
- allegorical interpretation or “what does each statue represent?”
Man / Inspiration / Knowledge / Joy / Sorrow / Sending / Receiving
- plans – an underground vault?
- deteriorating condition of the monument
- words cut into stone are too faint to read
- vandalism and skateboarders have scarred the monument
- fashion/style of the times – nearly nude figures
The Time Period
- produced during the First World War (1914-1918), this design has many
characteristics of a war memorial or cenotaph
-
changes in city planning were being considered in Brantford at this time
including the Report to the City of Brantford by Dunington & Grubb,
Landscape Architects (1914)
- Proposed new Civic Centre around the Bell Memorial
See:
The Dunington-Grubb & Stensson Collection
Centre for Canadian Landscape Architecture Archives
University of Guelph
www.lib.uoguelph.ca/cclaa/landscap.htm
“The designer was an important Canadian sculptor”
Walter Allward (1875-1955) was probably Canada's most important monumental
sculptor in the early 1900’s. Allward preferred allegorical interpretations. His most
notable early success was the Alexander Graham Bell Monument (1908-1917) in
Brantford. The most important commission Allward received was for the monument to
Canadians killed in the First World War at Vimy, France, a project which would occupy
him from 1921 to its unveiling in 1936 on the eve of the Second World War.
See:
Walter S. Allward Collection, National Gallery of Canada
http://national.gallery.ca/english/library/biblio/ngc008.html#a2
“What was on this site before the monument?”
1875 Bird’s Eye View of Brantford
West Street used to cut through the middle of the property. The west side of the
memorial property used to be Cedar Street from Nelson Street south to Brant Avenue.
1875 Brantford City Directory
A. C. Austin, Groceries and Provisions (corner of Cedar and Wellington Streets)
See:
Brantford Heritage Inventory Project
City of Brantford
www.city.brantford.on.ca
Brant Museum and Archives
Brantford, Ontario
www.bfree.on.ca/comdir/musgal/bcma
Bell Memorial – Presentation Images
Photos: Brant Historical Society, Brantford
Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford (Photo: John Quinn)
Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford (Photo: Stephen Robinson)
Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford
and Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington. D.C.