There Will Be Other Towers for Thee to Build

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: Walker Hancock
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: bronze
Mediums Description: bronze
Classifications: Sculpture
Medal
Subjects: 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.