src: c8.alamy.com
The River Horse is a bronze sculpture of a hippopotamus located on the campus of George Washington University. It is in front of Lisner Auditorium, at 21st Street and H Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
In 1996, George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg presented this bronze statue as a gift to the University's Class of 2000. The hippo stands with its mouth wide. Its nose is slightly worn due to passerby rubbing it. A plaque is placed on the base:
- Legend has it that the Potomac was once home to these wondrous beasts.
- George & Martha Washington are even said to have watched them cavort in
- the river shallows from the porch of their beloved Mount Vernon on summer evenings.
- Credited with enhancing the fertility of the plantation, the Washingtons believed
- the hippopatamus brought them good luck & children on the estate often attempted
- to lure the creatures close enough to the shore to touch a nose for good luck.
- So, too, may generations of students of the George Washington University.
- Art for wisdom,
- Science for joy,
- Politics for beauty,
- And a Hippo for hope.
- The George Washington University Class of 2000
- August 28, 1996
Video River Horse (sculpture)
See also
- List of public art in Washington, D.C., Ward 2
Maps River Horse (sculpture)
References
src: c8.alamy.com
Sources
- "Order of the Hippo's not-so-secret secrets unveiled", GW Hatchet, Cindy J. Roth, 2/8/01
- J. Goode, Washington Sculpture, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-8018-8810-7, A cultural history of outdoor sculpture in the Nation's capital, discussing the River Horse.
- http://wikimapia.org/6286328/Hippopotamus-Statue
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments