The ''Seattle George Monument'', also known as ''Seattle, Washington Monument'', is an outdoor 1989 sculpture by

Buster Simpson Lewis Cole "Buster" Simpson (born in 1942) is an Americans, American sculptor and environmental artist based in Seattle, Washington. Career Lewis Cole Simpson was born in Saginaw, Michigan and raised in a nearby farming community. He became int ...

, installed outside the

Seattle Convention Center The Seattle Convention Center (SCC), formerly the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC), is a convention center in Seattle, Washington, United States. It consists of several exhibition halls and meeting rooms in buildings along Pike Street ...

, north of 7th Avenue between Union and Pike Streets, in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, in the United States.

Description and history

The kinetic sculpture, which is made from aluminum, steel, painted metal, wire, English ivy, concrete, and mylar sheets, depicts

Chief Seattle Chief Seattle ( – June 7, 1866) was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief. A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with "Doc" Maynard. The city of Seattle, in th ...

and

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

. It was surveyed and deemed "treatment needed" by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's "

Save Outdoor Sculpture! Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) was a community-based effort to identify, document, and conserve outdoor sculpture in the United States. The program was initiated in 1989 and ended in 1999. History Save Outdoor Sculpture! was initiated by Herit ...

" program in October 1994. The sculpture was designed to resemble the

highway shield A highway shield or route marker is a sign denoting the route number of a highway, usually in the form of a symbolic shape with the route number enclosed. As the focus of the sign, the route number is usually the sign's largest element, with oth ...

s used by Washington's state highway system. The sculpture rests on a trellis base under the suspended nose of a

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...

. Lines from Chief Seattle's farewell speech are etched in the base in English and phonetic

Salish Salish () may refer to: * Salish peoples, a group of First Nations/Native Americans ** Coast Salish peoples, several First Nations/Native American groups in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest ** Interior Salish peoples, several First Nat ...

References

1989 establishments in Washington (state) 1989 sculptures Aluminum sculptures in Washington (state) Concrete sculptures in Washington (state) Cultural depictions of George Washington Kinetic sculptures in the United States Monuments and memorials in Seattle Monuments and memorials to George Washington in the United States Outdoor sculptures in Seattle Sculptures of Native Americans in Washington (state) Sculptures of presidents of the United States Steel sculptures in Washington (state) {{Washington-sculpture-stub

Description and history

See also

References