The sculptor, Isaac Broome, was very well regarded in his day (this monument dates from 1867), and his works may be found in a number of American museums. Old Pa Pitt is not sure what the wand represents, and would be delighted if someone would enlighten him.
Mr. Daniel O’Neill was editor of the Dispatch, which he built into Pittsburgh’s most respectable newspaper, a position it maintained until it fell victim to the great newspaper massacre of 1923, when spiraling paper costs forced countless newspapers across the country out of business. It seems that a newspaperman’s work is quite literally never done: this statue of Mr. O’Neill hard at work still looks as fresh as it did when it was put up in 1877. Note the Egyptian-style lotus-blossom pedestal that supports his desk.
Cemeteries in Pittsburgh are littered with obelisks. Let us agree that, in this post-Freudian era, we have no need of the facile explanation that occurs to the snickering schoolchild in each one of us, and admit that a lofty obelisk can be a grand symbol of heavenward aspiration.
A fine sculpture from 1887 that looks as fresh now as it did when it was put up.
