There Will Be Other Towers for Thee to Build

Walker Hancock, There Will Be Other Towers for Thee to Build, 1940, bronze, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Albert Laessle: Mrs. Albertine de Bempt Laessle, Mr. Albert M. Laessle and Mr. Paul Laessle, 1972.167.3
Copied Walker Hancock, There Will Be Other Towers for Thee to Build, 1940, bronze, 1⁄8 x 2 7⁄8 in. (0.3 x 7.4 cm) diam., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Albert Laessle: Mrs. Albertine de Bempt Laessle, Mr. Albert M. Laessle and Mr. Paul Laessle, 1972.167.3

Artwork Details

Title
There Will Be Other Towers for Thee to Build
Artist
Commissioner
Society of Medallic Arts
Founder
Medallic Art Company
Date
1940
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
1⁄8 x 2 7⁄8 in. (0.3 x 7.4 cm) diam.
Credit Line
Gift of the heirs of Albert Laessle: Mrs. Albertine de Bempt Laessle, Mr. Albert M. Laessle and Mr. Paul Laessle
Mediums
Mediums Description
bronze
Classifications
Keywords
  • Landscape — tree
  • Figure group — male — nude
  • Allegory — quality — hope
Object Number
1972.167.3
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1972.167.3

Artwork Description

Walker Hancock won the National Sculpture Society’s Lindsey Morris Sterling Memorial Prize in 1941 for the design of this medal. On the reverse side, two saplings rise from the blasted tree trunk, echoing the classical figures on the obverse. The young trees also refer to the imaginative and adventuresome children addressed in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Castle-Builder”:

There will be other towers for thee to build;
  There will be other steeds for thee to ride;
There will be other legends, and all filled
  With greater marvels and more glorified.