Administered by City of Detroit Landscape Division 2008 Water Board Building, 735 Randolph Street Detroit Michigan 48226
Located Old Wayne County Building Randolph Street On the tower Detroit Michigan
Date:
Modeled 1903. Installed 1904
Notes:
Save Outdoor Sculpture, Michigan survey, 1993.
Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985.
Detroit Institute of Arts, 1976.
Detroit Historical Museum, City of Detroit Monuments, 2004.
Image on file.
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
Four female allegorical figures representing law, commerce, agriculture, and mechanics are installed one on each corner of the Wayne County Building's main tower. Law holds a fasces, an ancient Roman magistrates emblem of authority consisting of a bundle of rods bound around an ax blade. Agriculture holds a scythe. Mechanics holds a mallet and anvil. And Commerce causes some confusion because she holds a caduceus, usually a symbol associated with the medical profession.