Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Search Challenge (6/17/15): Fountain's Famous Cousin?


While traveling last week, 

I took a picture of a lovely fountain that I happened to find while on a run somewhere on the east coast of the US.     


As I ran around it, this struck me as being very similar to other sculptural works I'd seen.  So I checked it out and found that the sculptor of this fountain was also the sculptor of a much more famous work--a cousin (so to speak) of this work.

After last week's somewhat challenging Challenge, I thought we should have some fun with this one.  
Our questions this week are: 

1.  What fountain is this?  Where is it located?  And who was the sculptor?  

2.  Can you identify the other, more famous statue by this sculptor, and tell me what color was it when it was made?  

3.  Can you find any other copies of this other, more famous statue?  Where are they located?  


As always, I'll come back (next week on Monday) to chat about what the Regular Readers found, and how I solved the Challenge.  

In your comments, please let us know HOW you figured this Challenge out (and if you can, tell us about how long it took for you to solve it).  

Search on! 



33 comments:

  1. It is the Batholdi Fountain in Washington DC next to the US Botanic Garden. The sculptor was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. A famous statute he completed was the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. The original color was metallic copper. There is a copy in Paris.

    I completed a Google image search with adding Washington DC, since I thought the building in the background looked like the Library Of Congress (It isn't, but it got me to in the right area). Then a series of Google searches on relevant key words got me the rest of the way, including the National Park Service website. Took me longer to type this up that find the info.

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  2. I got the same results as above. However, I started with image search, first with the entire picture and then narrowing down to the figures in the fountain. When I found a visually similar image I brought it up on street view and rotated the image to confirm the building in the background. Once I knew that the sculptor was Bartholdi, I was able to find the information from multiple sources. I thought this was an interesting link depicting how the Statue of Liberty may have looked when first constructed http://www.visualnews.com/2011/09/02/the-statue-of-liberty-before-it-was-green/ It took about 15 minutes.

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  3. I started by checking for exif data and saw it had little or nothing useful. I searched by image and got a lot of random results. Something told me it was close by so I searched by image and added [ dc ] to it. Came up with:

    1a. Bartholdi Fountain. 1b. "...now located at the corner of Independence Avenue and First Street, SW, in the United States Botanic Garden, on the grounds of the United States Capitol, in Washington D.C." 1c. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi

    2a. The Statue of Liberty. 2b. "dull copper color"

    Search path

    I think the 3rd question will take some time so will need to work on that later.

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  4. Good day, Dr. Russell, fellow SearchResearchers

    Searched:

    Question 1.

    Searching for the fountain, using your photo. Also editing it to show only the central figures.

    Search with images and added many words such as women, fountains and others. Finally, looked for something "different" and that is lanterns.

    [Your photo] with lantern fountain.

    Botanical Gardens in Washington, DC.

    [bartholdi fountain]
    Wikipedia

    Went to Google Maps and verified this was the real fountain.

    Fountain in Google Maps.

    [Statue of liberty]
    [statue of liberty original color]

    The Statue of Liberty Before It Was Green


    Statue of Liberty is made of copper just 3/32 inches thick.Old pictures: These adverts for Liebig's beef extract, left, and Superior Silk thread, right, were both issued soon after the statue was built in the 1880s and show Lady Liberty in her original form.

    [statue of liberty copies] (Replicas)
    Hundreds of smaller replicas of the Statue of Liberty have been created worldwide. Includes photos.

    [Statue of Liberty]

    Answers:

    1. What fountain is this? Where is it located? And who was the sculptor?
    A. "Fountain of Light and Water" aka Bartholdi Fountain,designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and it is located in the United States Botanic Garden. Washington, D.C.

    2. Can you identify the other, more famous statue by this sculptor, and tell me what color was it when it was made?

    Statue of Liberty. BTW, early this morning read something related.

    [statue of liberty google doodle]


    Google doodle celebrates 130th anniversary of Statue of Liberty's arrival in New York. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who became fascinated by Bedloe’s Island, now Liberty Island, during a trip to New York in 1871.

    Statue of Liberty, Doodle The statue was actually shipped in separate pieces and then assembled upon delivery.

    Originally, the statue was a dull copper color, but shortly after 1900 a green patina, also called verdigris, caused by the oxidation of the copper skin, began to spread.

    3. Can you find any other copies of this other, more famous statue? Where are they located?
    They are located all over the world.

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    1. Darn it! I meant to include a "nice timing" in my comment as I saw the Doodle this morning before the challenge. Ramón's G+ post reminded me.

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  5. Replies
    1. [Bartholdi Fountain unknown facts]

      Statue of Liberty Facts
      Fountain Bartholdi, Lyon, France

      [Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi] and [Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi structures] very interesting too.

      [frédéric auguste bartholdi facts and figures]

      In 1869, the Egyptian government expressed interest in designing a lighthouse for the Suez Canal. Eager and excited, Bartholdi designed a colossal statue of a robed woman holding a torch, which he called Egypt (or Progress) Brings Light to Asia. Did You Know? Several agencies have been caretakers for the Statue. The U.S. Lighthouse Board cared for the statue as the first electric lighthouse or "navigational aid" 1886 - 1902, followed by the War Department 1902 - 1933 and since 1933 she has been cared for by employees of the National Park Service.

      Bartholdi's immortal Statue of Liberty was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1984. On July 4, 2004, the world's largest replica of the Statue of Liberty was unveiled at Colmar, France. It was made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bartholdi. The statue stands 12 meters high.

      [Edouard de Laboulaye]

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    2. Ramón, your fact didn't list her shoe or more accurately her sandal size. Are you losing your touch? ;-)

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    3. another good find Ramón adorable "piggies"on Lady Libertykeep calm @ the foot of liberty, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi
      wonder how much GCI gets used… good resource.
      … also, one of JtU's links was a 404 for me (maybe I'm just a knothead)
      anyway, some good stuff on the working lin-c-a-s-d-f-g-h-j-k
      the katz iz back

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    4. I think so, Fred :) glad that Remmij share the photo so we can watch dimensions. And courtesy of Google Now:

      "To the sculptor form is everything and is nothing. It is nothing without the spirit - with the idea it is everything." - Victor Hugo, May 13, 1885

      * Lady Liberty wears a size 879 shoe and has a 35-foot waistline. Gustave Eiffel, the man who designed the Eiffel Tower was also behind the design for Liberty’s ‘spine’.*The cost of the statue was funded by contributions from both the French and the Americans. In 1885, a New York newspaper entitled “World” announced that $102,000 had been raised from donors, and that 80 per cent of this total had been received in sums of less than one dollar.*No-one has been able to visit the torch since 1916.

      Thanks Remmij for your links. I thought you will create a pic of Dr. Russell next to the fountain. The images that shows Statue of Liberty process are totally worthy. Also the one green. [Odaiba] to understand your photo. I wonder if Liberty is the most portrayed one on Life Magazine and how much covers she has?

      Also wondering, how much someone has to pay to build a replica. RRR told us USA has a patent . Who gets paid?

      Luis, your link about lanterns is great, thanks for sharing. Glad we have Google Translate.

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    5. In the end it was Joseph Pulitzer, the American newspaper magnate, who helped him (Bartholdi) finish the job by printing the names of every person who donated even a penny to the cause.

      Statue of Liberty in popular culture

      REPLICAS OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. Project Gutenberg The first (original) statue stands in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

      In Wikipedia says : "It was rumored in France that the face of the Statue of Liberty was modeled after Bartholdi's mother.[2] In Paris on the Ile aux Cygnes, there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty which faces west supposedly in alignment with the Statue of Liberty in New York." Project Gutenberg link says: This statue is shown in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets as one of the historic locations.
      Auguste Bartholdi was elevated to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honour*

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    6. Ramón - in the course of search ran across this image… think it is Lady Libby, Uncle Sam & Dan hurrying away from the fountain, circa 1877? perhaps they had just engaged in the time honored soap-in-the-fountain prank… hence Dan's apprehensive look…?
      around that time…
      shenanigans, good times.
      would have been much easier if Dan had snapped a selfie @ the fountain - in the name of searchReSearch trends…
      tool
      DIY - wand of Narcissus
      Liberty to take selfies…

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    7. Great Lady Selfie, Dr. Russell. Glad you shared with us.

      Remmij, thanks for sharing selfies. I hope one day to take one with tsome squirrel like in the link.

      The photo hurrying away from the fountain is awesome! And the foto of the fountain in wikipedia too. Thanks Remmij!

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    8. Ramón - this was the other Dan/fountain pic I'd noticed… not sure the NPS was down with this, but it looked like a nice dive day, with a bit of excitement…
      Dan & friends dive D.C.

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    9. Good day, Remmij. Thanks for the links. I like the Lighting and the unknown facts. I am reading the Scout Executive. If the Lady was of Gold, I think that part of her essence. Do you agree?

      Hopefully, one day I can create great images like you do, Remmij. Dr. Russell's photos look amazing.

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    10. Lady Liberty could have been in Philadelphia or Boston or Searchlight, NV? and is too much of a NY/NJ icon to move, but it occurs to me that a "Sister Libby"
      might be well situated in the middle of the country… maybe at even twice the size… think the son of Jean & Augusta would green light the project… especially if Google was a corporate sponsor… & maybe mmmmmm… the cost would be stratospheric…
      one contender - contiguous geographic center, 39°50′N 98°35′W of course, locating the local location would be loco…
      ~ nothing is simple…depends on what the definition of center is…

      George Taylor's discovery regarding a possible final disposition (well shot)
      "George Taylor was a male human born some time in the late 1920s or early 30s. A cynical misfit who is happy to leave the twentieth century forever in the belief that he can find something more humane and civilized in another place or another time."
      there are many wikis for many things

      — she does have some distant cousins… of both/all genders… a few of them:
      Mother
      GK a view, but no harbor…
      Om ah Hum - toes not as dainty (Spring Temple Buddha)
      in Mexico
      I might go this route -
      Erawan/Airavata
      or mr. gormley
      a list
      of note
      and now, the lady on the $10

      btw, Lil BUB is something… gatos gracias Ramón but my Boston is dubious…

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  6. This seemed like a search that could easily be solved with image search. So I decided to focus on keywords & search operators. Query ["famous sculptor" "united states" "fountain"] SERP first result was Wikipedia showing the Sculpture of the United States. As soon as I saw the Statue of Liberty it came to mind that the copper statue changed to green. (searched for correct term) Copper that is exposed to the elements undergoes a series of chemical reactions that give the shiny metal a pale green outer layer called a patina.

    Following the link to Wikipedia’s Statue of Liberty led me to the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor. An interesting fact about the Statue of Liberty was that it’s beginnings were in France.

    Next step was to confirm Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was the sculptor for the fountain in question or else all this was for not. Linking via Wikipedia Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and we have an image of the Bartholdi Fountain.

    I thought that I had seen a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Las Vegas. Query [Las Vegas Statue of Liberty] and SERP first result is Replicas of the Statue of Liberty and there is one in Las Vegas but as well there are hundreds worldwide.

    I saw in a comment that Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty design was actually patented in the United States. So I decided to find the actual
    patent USD11023 in Google Scholar.

    This was a fun & quick challenge that actually has a lot of the basic elements necessary.

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    1. Rosemary, I can't resist: Its not not its naught jontU

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  7. I also looked at the EXIF data and then sliced out the building facade and did a Google reverse image search. Got lots of pictures of similar buildings including the Eccles Building (Federal Reserve HQ), but none were an exact match or had a fountain nearby. Tried reverse searching the entire image, found lots of fountains but not that one.

    So then I simply typed "fountain with bronze sculpture lamps three figures" into Google and lo and behold the first result is the Wikipedia article for the Bartholdi Fountain. I clicked the lat/long link in that article and navigated to Google Street View to verify the view from the spot where you took the photo.

    1. It's the Bartholdi Fountain designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and it sits at the corner of Independence and First in Washington DC in the U.S. Botanical Garden.

    2. He is more famous for desigining the Statue of Liberty, which was copper colored (reddish brown metal) when made but is now green due to oxidation.

    3. There are hundreds of replicas of the Statue of Liberty, so many that there is an easily found Wikipedia article listing them.

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    1. Ooops! I accidentally read krelnik's answer. I guess I'm done with #3. “What has been seen cannot be unseen, what has been learned cannot be unknown." - C. A. Wolf

      Nice job on the whole challenge krelnik! :-)

      Delete
  8. 1. What fountain is this? Where is it located? And who was the sculptor?

    Image Search led the charge to Wikipedia --

    Its the "Fountain of Light and Water" made for the 1876 Phildelphia Exposition. The creator was Frederick Auguste Bartholdi. It is located at the corner of Independence Avenue and First Street, SW, in the United States Botanic Garden, on the grounds of the United States Capitol, in Washington D.C..[1]

    2. Can you identify the other, more famous statue by this sculptor, and tell me what color was it when it was made?

    Same source says Statue of Liberty. [statue of liberty original color] many sources says it was copper coloured which seems reasonable.


    3. Can you find any other copies of this other, more famous statue? Where are they located?

    http://io9.com/bizarre-replicas-of-the-statue-of-liberty-and-the-eiffe-1463542875 has dozens of replicas with images and locations

    http://picturescool.com/countries/statues-of-liberty-around-the-world.html also lots of images and locations around our world.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicas_of_the_Statue_of_Liberty hundreds of replicas worldwide.

    jon tU

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  9. …am late to the party, but have a few items…
    did you run this nearby park/fountain? - that would have made it happy, doesn't get much respect…
    also near the Rayburn Building
    SoJP
    a critic
    architect of the capitol - Bartholdi Park - "Fountain of Light and Water" (previously in Philadelphia)
    more detail:USBG - full restoration, 2008-11
    the sRs dovetailed nicely with the doodle…
    today's doddle
    everything is not bigger in Texas…
    Forney,TX
    overseas
    Odaiba
    green, but not copper
    patina backstory

    (Ramón - nice find on the Klemm Company good to see FD - this was kinda in his bailiwick…
    C.A. Wolf must have been unfamiliar with personal servers…;))

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  10. a good collection worth passing along - nos. 14 & 16 are worth noting - inching up to WWll
    pLOG - they do a nice job putting image collections together
    also thought the variety of uses was notable; an example

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  11. A1: The Bartholdi Fountain, in the US Botanical Garden Bartholdi Park, in front of the Rayburn House Office Building (Washington, D.C.). Street View from the same angle: https://goo.gl/maps/Lf74r. Work by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.

    Research path:
    Monuments are usually thoroughly described in official sies. So, I believed I could find it if I could describe it with the right terms. I suspected the statues raising their arms to hold the fountain were called "cariátides" in Portuguese but I wasn't sure. Also, I wasn't sure of the spelling in English So:

    Web Search: [ cariátide ] → Wikipedia article. I found the term in the corresponding English article is "caryatid". Also, this is indeed what I was looking for.

    I can't figure out what animals are holding the top element and I'm not sure if it can be called a pinnacle nor if it is some kind of crown. So I only have "caryatids" and the vague "lamps" to search for:

    Images: [ fountain caryatids lamps east coast ] didn't yield anything similar enough, apart from a Wallace fountain in Paris I disregarded. So I thought I needed some better description for those street lamps.

    I lost a lot of time searching for the right name of that type of lamp, googling strings like [ paris street lamp design ] (because, although we have that in Portugal and it's similar to what I found to be called "farolas fernandinas" in Spain, and in fact are in many other places, like Montreal, I suspected, rightly, that the design was originally French). I also tried [ lamp post design history ], [ reverbère ] (after consulting my Portuguese analogue dictionary = thematic dictionary = descriptionary, on paper) or [ fontaine cariatides lanternes ]. After trying [ réverbères à huile modèle Bourgeois de Château Blanc ] on Google Images, I found this excellent source of lamp history in France: Histoire de l'éclairage publique en France. It wouldn't prove useful, though. That's when I decided to restrict the search to each of the East Coast states, and go for trial and error:

    Images: [ fountain caryatids lamps new york ]. The same Wallace fountain appeared, this time with a better image, so I decided to research it. It happens that there are a lot of "Wallace Fountains", and from the Wikipedia article it looked like it could be it: a type of fountain designed by Charles-Auguste Lebourg, all over Paris but also in the Americas. Unfortunately, the only one I found in New Orleans was quite different from the challenge. Next step:

    Images: [ fountain caryatids lamps washington ]. Boom. → Picture 1 and 2 are details and may well be what I'm looking for. Picture 3 is definitely the same. Picture 4 seems to be the same, only with different lamps (globes here). (After reading the USBG description: [ fountain caryatids tritons lamps ] would do.)


    A2: The Statue of Liberty. "Originally, the statue was a dull copper color."

    Research path:
    Very easy Wikipedia-only search. I believe the claim about the color, because the source is good enough, besides the article having deserved a "featured article" star. The original source reads "copper colored, but not shiny."


    A3: Hundreds, all over!

    Research path:
    CTRL+F on the Wikipedia article [ copies ] → nothing
    Web Search [ statue of liberty copies ] → Wikipedia article Replicas of the Statue of Liberty. I counted 51 replicas explicitly mentioned, added to over a hundred mentioned on the linked article Strengthen the Arm of Liberty.

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  12. Anne and I had to go a different route. We tried uploading the image into google images. That only led us to the search challenge. We then added in the description Washington DC because we both had a hunch it was in DC and still no results. Got other fountains but not this one. We tried getting exif data and that didn't work. So next we tried a search in Google for fountains washington dc and there was a picture of this fountain and that was how we finally came to the answer. Once we got the name of the fountain it linked to an article in Wikipedia on the fountain. This article said that Bartholdi also created the Statue of Liberty.
    For the next question we used the terms statue of liberty original color and got this very nice site which showed how the statue has changed colors over the years - http://www.visualnews.com/2011/09/02/the-statue-of-liberty-before-it-was-green/ It started out as a copper color.
    For the last question we did a search for copies of statue of liberty which led to the wikipedia article entitled replicas of the statue of liberty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicas_of_the_Statue_of_Liberty
    Who knew there were so many replicas of the statue of liberty? My favorite is the one in Leicester England. My daughter lives there I'm going to tell her to visit it. The original site was demolished in 2002 but it is now on a pedestal near the Liberty Park Halls of Residence (wondering if they were named Liberty in honor of the statue? Sounds like they may have been). If she is in the mood she can visit the bowling alley in Warringon, England where there is another replica.

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  13. Luís — good find with the "strengthen the arm of liberty" campaign - 200+, $350per sounds like a deal…even in 1950.
    examples with locations
    part 1
    part 2
    interesting bit of Egypt/cotton/U.S. civil war backstory -
    Suez
    almost a different color

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  14. I tried search by image first but that didn't work.

    It looked like 2 ladies on the photo, so I then tried [statues USA 2 ladies lamps fountain] but again that did not reveal anything obvious. I then added [sculpture] to this search and the 7th result is Wikipedia and the Bartholdi Fountain which is a possibility. Going to the page I can see that this is it and there's actually 3 ladies. It's located in Washington D.C and was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi who also designed the Statue Of Liberty.

    The wikipedia page for Statute of Liberty states that it was originally a dull copper colour and the copper has patinated to green.

    To double check this I searched [photos of statue of liberty in 1886] which brings up loads of interesting sites with photos from the time and the construction. They are of course in black and white so not much help on the colour confirmation but I think we can pretty certain it was copper coloured originally.
    And of course there is this -
    https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/the-construction-of-the-statue-of-liberty/QRWHcXMU?hl=en&position=0%2C-1

    There are also a lot of sites which have had fun photoshopping pictures back to a copper colour. e.g http://gizmodo.com/5800568/what-the-statue-of-liberty-looked-like-in-1886


    No of copies.
    Did a search for [how many replicas are there of the "statue of Liberty"]

    There is actually a Wikipedia page on this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicas_of_the_Statue_of_Liberty
    - there are hundreds!
    This took about 20 mins in total but had to restrain myself in reading all the stuff found as part of the original photos search – suspect one could lose a lot of time there if interested!
    Sarah

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  15. The monument to a Russian warlord called Vladimir. 25m causing alarm.

    And, to wish all SearchReSearch Fathers, a beautiful day. Congratulations!

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