A statue of the 19th-century biologist and geologist

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...

was installed on the exterior of

Jordan Hall Jordan Hall is a 1,051-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall. It is the only conservatory building in the United States to be de ...

, in the Main Quad of Stanford University, in the U.S. state of California.

History

During the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

, the statue, made of

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

, fell from the second floor of the zoology building. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Rebecca Stott writes, "The great scientist, with his head buried in concrete, his upturned body sticking up into air, became an iconic image of the earthquake." The statue was not damaged. In 2020, the

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Department of Psychology requested to remove the statue from the front façade of its building due to his support of

polygenism Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that the human races are of different origins (''polygenesis''). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views no ...

. The statue was removed in October 2020.

References

External links

* 1906 San Francisco earthquake Marble sculptures in the United States Monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests Outdoor sculptures in California Sculptures of men in California Stanford University buildings and structures Statues in California Statues removed in 2020 {{California-sculpture-stub

History

See also

References

External links