COLUMBUS MONUMENTS PAGES

Photos of the Construction of the Huelva Columbus Statue, 1929

This text belongs to the Huelva statue on the Columbus Monuments Page

The Huelva statue of Columbus is designed by Gertrude V. Whitney, but the factual construction on site was supervised by Florence J. McAuliffe (1882-1940).

McAuliffe stayed in 1928-29 for this reason in Huelva, and for the largest part of this time he was accompanied by his wife Virginia née Hebert (1886-1930) and four small children, Anne (b. 1922), John (b. 1923), Mary (b. 1925) and Francis (b. 1926) (their fifth child, William, was born on the journey home in 1929). McAuliffe's sister Anne McAuliffe (1886-1975) was there part of the time. She made several photos of the family, and of the construction site, and composed an album. This album is still preserved and was borrowed to my by John McAuliffe (very much thanks). I scanned all the photos and present the one most interesting for the construction here. On request, the original scans are available.
John McAuliffe wrote me: "Mrs. Whitney, the designer of the statue appears in a photo with the international famours sculptor, Andrew O'Connor. He had a studio in Paxton, Mass. Here where my father studied under him. He was a student of Rodin and also had a studio in Paris. Mrs. Whitney had a natural talent and with her philantrophist means had her own studio in New York City, on 8th St. West, lower Manhattan. This is where my father worked on her designs creating the more heroic sized completed statues. He was in full charge of the operation at Huelva. A few sculptors aided him in the construction. One Aristide Mian, a Frenchman, WW-I veteran whom my father knew here, would get in the bull ring with the young bulls in Seville. He rode a horse through the countryside. Another, Gerald Horrigan, the tall lanky man with my father, years later had his own sculture business here. The area was much devoid of habitation in 1928. Very open beaches and the like.

Foundation, 12 June 1928.
Pedestal of the statue, January 1929.	Gerald Horrigan and Florence J. McAuliffe, January 1929.
Moving Queen Isabella to the chapel, March 1929.	May 1929, John McAuliffe in the foreground.
View of the works, January 1929.	View of the sheds, January 1929.
Portuguese cutters at lunch, Italians in distance, January 1929.	"Some of the gang." 28 August 1929
Playing football: Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, etc.

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