Classicizing Cincinnati

This ongoing work was inspired by similar, more ambitious, projects such as “Classicizing Philadelphia” (Bryn Mawr) and “Classicizing Chicago” (Northwestern) and by an exhibition in the Lobby of the Blegen Library building at the University of Cincinnati in 2018, a joint effort of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the University of Cincinnati.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (c. 520-430 BCE)

Cincinnati was named after Cincinnatus, the Roman leader legendary for his civic virtue and humility. He was a politician who retired to become a farmer. However, during an armed conflict between the patricians and the plebeians he was called to leave his plow and assume control of the Roman republic in 460 BCE. Cincinnatus and his patrician army were victorious upon which Cincinnatus relinquished his power.  The name also honors the Society of the Cincinnati, a society of military officers founded in the 18^th century. Cincinnatus represented the moral virtues of farmers and war veterans, a large segment of the population of the mid-western frontier city. The statue is in the Theodore M. Berry International Friendships Park.

The Joseph Earnshaw Monument

The grave of Joseph Earnshaw, the landscape designer at Spring Grove, has a neoclassical marker. The Joseph Earnshaw Grecian Corinthian-style monument was based on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.  The Lysicrates monument was the first building to have Corinthian columns on its exterior.  The building was built by Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances at the Theater of Dionysus.

Born in England, Earnshaw immigrated with his family to Cincinnati, Ohio, some time before 1845, where he practiced civil engineering, sharing an office with his brother Henry (also a civil engineer) in 1857, and serving as the city surveyor in 1858. Earnshaw had also begun to build his reputation as a cemetery planner at Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery, where he assisted landscape gardener Adolph Strauch. Throughout the nineteenth century, Earnshaw continued his work at the Spring Grove Cemetery, where, according to his wishes, he is buried.

The Groff Pyramid

This Pyramid (1957) marks the grave of the Groff family, including Dr. William Groff and his daughter Florence, who both were archaeologists and the father also a physician. Florence arranged for her father's body to be brought back from Greece and her mother's from Egypt to be buried under a pyramid. Although the original plan for a pyramid of 425 square feet was not carried out, a small pyramid was erected and the Greek and Latin inscriptions on it exhibit the familial links to the ancient world.

In 1952, at White Plains, New York, a compromise with the relatives was reached contesting the will which authorized the Public Administrator to spend $10,000 of Ms. Groff’s $40,000 estate for the pyramid and to bring the rest of the family members’ bodies back to Spring Grove. The pyramid was finally erected in 1957 at a cost of $7,000 by Beck and Beck, Inc. of Barre, Vermont, for Goodall Monument Works, Inc. The names on the pyramid are in English, Greek, and Egyptian. The pyramid is about ¼ of the originally planned size.

FLORENCE GROFF
BORN CINCINNATI, OHIO
DIED MARCH 21, 1948
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, N. Y.

WILLIAM N. GROFF
BORN MAY 4, 1857, CINCINNATI, OHIO
DIED DEC. 4, 1901, ATHENS, GREECE
ASIATIC SOC. — EGYPTIAN INSTITUTE

WILLIAM T. GROFF, M. D.
BORN DEC. 19, 1843, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
DIED JULY 9, 1900, ATHENS, GREECE

SARAH E. TALBOT GROFF
BORN CINCINNATI, OHIO
DIED MAR. 24, 1900, GHIZEH, EGYPT

The McCooks Monument

It was inspired by a celebratory display of the wealthy choregos Lysicrates, erected in Athens in the 4th century BCE after a triumphant theatrical performance he sponsored. The shape is commonly imitated also in other monuments at Spring Grove such as the Earnshaw Monument and the monument of the Fighting McCooks, an Ohio family active in military life.

The Fighting McCooks were members of a family of Ohioans who reached prominence as officers in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Two brothers, Daniel and John McCook, and thirteen of their sons were in the army, making the family one of the most prolific in American military history. Six of the McCooks reached the rank of brigadier general or higher. Several family members were killed in action or died from their wounds. Following the war, several others reached high political offices, including governorships and diplomatic posts.

The PNC Tower

The top of the tower built in 1913 (as the Union Central Life Insurance Building) was designed by Cass Gilbert to imitate the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, a 4th century BCE burial monument in Western Turkey considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

When construction of the Cass Gilbert designed building was completed in 1913, the Union Central Tower was the fifth tallest building in the world and the second tallest building (tallest office building) outside of New York City. The building opened on May 1 with final construction costs of approximately $3 million. It remained the tallest building in Cincinnati until 1930, when construction on the Carew Tower was completed. 

The Taft Museum of Art

There are not many buildings in Cincinnati still standing from before or during the years of the Greek Revolution (1821-1829). The Taft Museum of Art on Pike Street, built in 1820, is one of the very few. It was the home of Charles P. and Anna Taft. The Greek Revolution inspired interest in ancient Greek architecture. The so called Greek Revival style flourished in Cincinnati after the Revolution, 1835-1860.

The Church of the Annunciation

Boston architect Edward T.P. Graham designed this Church on 3547 Clifton Avenue from a drawing he made while visiting the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens. It was completed in August 1930. 

The Sinton Rostrum

In the 1870s the merchant David Sinton proposed to fund the construction of a Roman style forum known as the Sinton Forum at present-day Government Square. The Forum would have included an open space for assemblies with a balcony for orators and a huge statue of Cincinnatus. Maybe regrettably, the proposal faced resistance and was abandoned.

Hamilton County Courthouse

1000 Main Street. It was built in 1915 thanks to William Howard Taft. Features include those from a Greek temple such as the cella and Ionic columns. There have been five court houses that have suffered various fates. The third was destroyed by a fire in 1884. Dubbed "the College of Murders" because of the many murderers receiving virtually no jail time, which resulted in ca. 2,000 Cincinnatians eventually rioting in frustration.  

Second District Police Station (1910)

In Greek Revival Style it featured two colossal Ionic columns and classical decorative motifs such as menader patterns, dentils, and egg-and-dart moldings.  

Plum Street Temple

It was designed by James Keyes Wilson in 1866 using a combination of Byzantine, Gothic and Islamic styles. It was originally known as the Isaac M. Wise Temple in honor of its first rabbi, the founder of Reform Judaism and of Hebrew Union College. 

Hickenlooper House (1871)
838 Dayton Street. Featuring egg-and-dart, triglyphs, reliefs, and akanthus decorations.  

A model of what the Bazaar may have looked like can be found in the College of Engineering and Applied Science Library at the University of Cincinnati. 

Burnet House (1850-1926)

Burnet House was a luxury hotel at 3^rd and Vine designed by Isaiah Rogers. The sixth story landmark was furnished with columns and arches and was originally topped by a 42 foot dome.

Theodore M. Berry International Friendships Park

One section of the Theodore M. Berry International Friendships Park recalls ancient Near Eastern architecture such as lotus-like capitals and pillars surmounted by animals in Persepolis in ancient Persia (see close-up below).

The "Lupa" in Eden Park

A bronze cast of the famous Capitoline Wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome (see close-up below). It was a gift to Cincinnati from the City of Rome, its sister city, under fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

The statue was given to commemorate Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the city's namesake and remembered for his civic duty and governance. Mussolini saw himself as the present-day Cincinnatus in his vision of "New Rome." As such, the dictator wanted to spread goodwill to places around the globe with Italian ties. Similar gestures were made to sister cities in New York and Georgia as well although Cincinnati may have been especially suited because of its seven hills and "Roman" name.

The bronze model was tendered to the Cincinnati chapter of the order Sons of Italy in 1931 and dedicated in 1932. The inscription reads Anno X, i.e., Mussolini's tenth year in power.

The She-Wolf was stolen from Eden Park on June 16, 2022. It was a sad day for all who value history and who understand and appreciate the importance of the She-Wolf for the founding of ancient Rome, for Roman history, and for Roman life and character, but also for many generations of Cincinnatians. The story of the Wolf, one of countless animals helping humans in both fact and fiction throughout the ages, is a sweet and engaging one. The statue was a gift of the city of Rome, then a sister city of Cincinnati, the city named after a Roman general. Yes, it was gifted while Mussolini was the ruler of Italy; however, the artist of the original statue of the Wolf, probably without the twins, was ancient Roman or, possibly, Etruscan or, according to some scholars, medieval, having no connection to Fascism. There are many literary accounts of the story in Roman authors such as Livy, Dio Cassius, Plutarch, Ovid, and others. Here is one of Ovid's accounts:

"A she-wolf which had cast her whelps came, wondrous to tell, to the abandoned twins: who could believe that the brute would not harm the boys? Far from harming, she helped them; and they whom ruthless kinsfolk would have killed with their own hands were suckled by a wolf! She halted and fawned on the tender babes with her tail, and licked into shape their two bodies with her tongue. You might know they were scions of Mars: fearless, they sucked her dugs and were fed on a supply of milk that was never meant for them. The she-wolf (lupa) gave her name to the place, and the place gave its name to the Luperci. Great is the reward the nurse has got for the milk she gave" (Fasti 2.413-432).

The Sons and Daughters of Italy in Cincinnati, the United Italian Society of Greater Cincinnati, and Cincinnati Parks raised funds to have an exact replica produced by a workshop in Florence, Italy.  The new statue was erected in Eden Park on November 3, 2023, in front of an audience of a couple of hundred Italian Americans and others, including representatives from the office of the Mayor, followed by an exhibition in the John Miller Burnam Classics Library featuring antiquarian books relating the story of the She-Wolf and twins and the eventual founding of ancient Rome in 753 BCE, republican and imperial coins featuring the story, and artistic representations of the motif.     

Thanks to the classics library’s involvement with the Italian American community in Cincinnati and the celebration of the ‘return’ of the Eden Park Lupa last fall, the library has been awarded the honor of housing a gypsum copy of the statue. As the library space proper cannot do justice to the sculpture, it will be housed in the Blegen lobby, which will also make it more accessible. The gypsum She-Wolf was created by Ted Gantz, a Cincinnati-based sculptor, modeled after the Capitoline Wolf, and the base is designed and constructed by Tom Tsuchiya, UC Classics alumnus, and Cincinnati-based artisan Glen Carley.      

Sea God Poseidon/Neptune

A tondo with Empress Faustina (2^nd c. CE) like hairdo?  

Fountain with obelisk and nereids?

Rockwood Pottery Company

The Rockwood Pottery Company drew from ancient culture to create decorative and functional objects such as bookends in the form of sphinxes. Founded in 1880 Rockwood was the first female-owned manufacturing company in the United States. It was founded by Maria Longworth Nichols in 1880. She designed much of the ceramics herself but also hired a master potter from Germany and an expert in Japanese ware. The company, initially on Eastern Ave. and from 1892 on top of Mt. Adams, was famous for its finishes, golden tints, and glazes applied in successive firings. 

"Temple of Sibyl at Tivoli" by Robert S. Duncanson

Hiram Powers’ "The Greek Slave"

This sculpture may have been inspired by the story of Garyphallia/Garafilia, a little Greek girl of 7 who was taken prisoner by the Ottomans during the Greek War of Independence after they killed her parents and siblings. She eventually ended up being purchased at a bazaar at age 10 by American Joseph Langston who liberated her and took her to Boston to live with his cousins.  She was sent to school where she was a bright, sweet and obedient girl until she passed away at age 13 of tuberculosis. After the brutal treatment she had received while a slave and her long journey from the island of Psara to Turkish Smyrna (Izmir) without food or much clothing and the long trip to America, her little body was worn out.  Powers depicted the Greek Slave, Garyphallia, in the image of Venus de Milo, 1844.

"Homage to Cincinnatus" by Richard Haas.

One of the most beautiful murals in downtown Cincinnati is this one at the corner of Plum and Vine streets. The artist is Richard Haas. It was completed in 1983 and restored in 2015. The remarkable trompe-l'œil mural (see close-up below) is a celebration of the city and an homage to the Roman general Cincinnatus, but also to the city of Rome with a collage reminiscent of the interior of the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, the round temple of Vesta with the eternal flame, the Tarpeian Rock inside one of the three arches below the statue of Cincinnatus with his plough, above a fountain and a grotto with an oculus flanked by water spouting Neptunes, recalling the Fontana del Mascherone and the Trevi Fountain, the stairs and the reddish gold stone of the Renaissance and Mannerist Villa Caprarola, north-east of Rome, and the Spanish Steps. The tripartite serliana (named after Italian architect Sebastiano Serlio) construction consists of a central opening with a semicircular arch over it, springing from two entablatures each supported by two (Corinthian) columns or pilasters flanking narrower flat-topped openings on either side. As typical of Renaissance, Mannerist, and Neoclassical styles, classicizing architectural elements such as garlands, egg-and-dart, medallions, dentils, rosettes, miniature obelisks and pyramids abound. The artist himself has said that he was inspired by lithographic prints of Italian artist and classical archaeologist Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778). 

"Lux Mundi" by Tom Tsuchiya

"Atlas Recycled" by Tom Tsuchiya.

In the lobby outside of the UC Classics Department and Library. The Titan Atlas carrying Earth on his shoulders.

University of Cincinnati

Arts & Humanities Hall (formerly McMicken Hall), the home of the College of Arts & Sciences

It was built in 1949 succeeding another Hall built in 1894 and named after Charles McMicken (1782-1858), a wealthy industrialist who gave a million dollars to the City of Cincinnati to found a university in 1870, named the University of Cincinnati in 1875 (the date used by UC to commemorate its founding, however, is that of Cincinnati College from 1819). The college, too, used to be named after Charles McMicken who had envisioned an institution of higher learning for white students only. 

On September 22, 1894, at the founding ceremony of the original building, a number of documents were put into the building's cornerstone such as a copy of McMicken’s will, the first and most recent UC catalog, annual reports, the mayor’s last annual message, the manual of the city, a copy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, a copy of that day’s program, a pamphlet “embodying the instructions to the architects of the building,” a copy of the Student’s Annual, a copy of The Cincinnatian (the UC yearbook), a copy of the McMicken Review (the student paper in the late 19th century), and the manuscript of Hunt’s oration: “Charles McMicken, Founder of the University of Cincinnati.”  The Hall was foremost the home of Bearcat Basketball. Sports and the Bearcats are still a focus of UC.

The classicizing main entrance to today's Hall is flanked by two lions referred to as "Mick and Mack," a play on McMicken's name, replicas from Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, Italy, and from the original 1894 building, and four Ionic columns in relief, and a tympanon with acanthus leaves and dentils, which were added features in 1949.  The building was renamed in 2022.

The Blegen Library building

Built in 1930, it once housed the University of Cincinnati's Main Library. Today it houses the John Miller Burnam Classics Library, the Albino Gorno Memorial (Music) Library, and the Archives and Rare Books Library. It was dedicated to UC archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1983. Its exterior is replete with classical motifs such as architectural relief sculptures in the northern corner, portraying Homer, Plato, Herodotus, Euclid, Pheidias and others and under the roof above the entrance is a relief of the She-Wolf suckling Romulus and Remus.  Above the entrance is a relief of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, surrounded by various symbols of knowledge such as the five-pointed star of human wisdom, the six-pointed star of divine wisdom, the key to knowledge, the dolphin and rose and a number of owls, the symbol of Minerva and of wisdom as well as illustrations of oral history (prehistory) and the history of writing (history) -- pictograms, cuneiform, hieroglyphs. Inside the Reading Room of the Music Library are chandeliers with Greek and Latin phrases from philosopher Democritus and playwright Terence.  

Relief of the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva, and her owls. Above the entrance to the Blegen Library building (see close-up below). The bronze panels feature "oral tradition," a bard handing a lyre to his son who hands it to his children, etc., a Pyrenees man draws images (perhaps early "pictograms") on a cave wall, an Assyrian scribe writes cuneiform, an Egyptian scribe writes on papyrus, a Hindu scribe writes on a palm leaf book.   

Professor Carl W. Blegen (1887-1971)

Portrait in the Lobby of the Blegen Library building.

Margot Leaman "Margo" Taft Tytus (1913-2008)

The benefactor of the prestigious Tytus fellowship (the Margo Tytus Visiting Scholars Program). The photo was taken when Margo and the Troy staff went on a picnic to the nearby-by site of Neandria (info. by Archivist Jeffrey Kramer, UC Classics Dept.).