Reginald E. Beauchamp
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sculptor whose works include Penny Franklin (1971), Whispering Bells of Freedom (1976), and a bust
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
of Connie Mack
Connie Mack (baseball)
Cornelius McGillicuddy, Sr. , better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball player, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds records for wins , losses , and games managed , with his victory total being almost 1,000 more...
that sits in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Beauchamp was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and immigrated to the United States at age 2, living with his family for five years in Rensselaer, New York
Rensselaer, New York
Rensselaer is a city in Rensselaer County, New York, United States, and is located on the Hudson River directly opposite Albany. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,392; in 1920, it was 10,832. The name is from Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original landowner of the region in New...
, before settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. He worked as the director of special events and then the head of public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
and personnel at the Philadelphia Bulletin
Philadelphia Bulletin
For the 2004 resurrection of the Bulletin, see The Bulletin .The Philadelphia Bulletin was a daily evening newspaper published from 1847 to 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the largest circulation newspaper in Philadelphia for 76 years and was once the largest evening newspaper in the...
newspaper from 1945 to 1975. He was also involved in various community groups, including Rotary International
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
, the Philadelphia Sketch Club
Philadelphia Sketch Club
The Philadelphia Sketch Club, founded on November 20, 1860, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of America’s oldest artists' clubs. The club's own web page proclaims it the oldest. Prominent members have included Joseph Pennell, Thomas Eakins, Howard Chandler Christy, and N.C...
, the Poor Richard Club
Poor Richard Club
The Poor Richard Club was a private club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose members were mostly members of the advertising industry. The club was founded in 1906 with 75 members, just a year after a similar club opened in New York. The advertising industry was on a quest for more respectability,...
, and the Philadelphia Public Relations Association, which named him the first member of its hall of fame in 1972.
Artworks
Beauchamp created 25 works of public artPublic art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
, most of which were installed in Philadelphia. They include:
- The Living Flame Memorial, erected in 1976 in Franklin SquareFranklin Square (Philadelphia)Franklin Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn during the late 17th century in central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.- History :...
as the city's monument to honor city police and firefighters fallen in the line of duty. - The Hero Mosaic in Philadelphia City HallPhiladelphia City HallPhiladelphia City Hall is the house of government for the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At , including the statue, it is the world's second-tallest masonry building, only shorter than Mole Antonelliana in Turin...
. - The Vietnam Bronze War Memorial at Edison High SchoolThomas A. Edison High School (Pennsylvania)Thomas Alva Edison High School and John C. Fareira Skills Center is a high school serving grades 9-12 in 151 West Luzerne Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States...
. The North Philly school lost 66 former students in the Vietnam WarVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, more than any other U.S. high school. Tony Burgee, class of 1961, led the effort to create the memorial. - The Signing of the Declaration of Independence at the Mellon Independence Center mall.
- A bronze of Dave ZinkoffDave ZinkoffDave Zinkoff was a sports public address announcer, memorable for his inimitable and colorful delivery. He worked for the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park in the 1940s, the Philadelphia Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, as well as various colleges and boxing and wrestling matches held at the...
, a veteran announcer of Philadelphia sporting events, at the Philadelphia Spectrum arena. - A "plastic glass spire" at Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia.
- Whispering Bells of Freedom (1976), outside the African American MuseumAfrican American Museum in PhiladelphiaThe African American Museum in Philadelphia is notable as the first museum funded and built by a municipality to help preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans...
in downtown Philadelphia.
In 1986, two Beauchamp bronze bas-reliefs of the face of Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
hero George C. Platt were installed at the approaches to the George C. Platt Bridge
George C. Platt Bridge
The George C. Platt Memorial Bridge is a through truss bridge that carries PA 291 over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was opened to traffic in 1951, replacing a swing bridge to the south which carried Penrose Ferry Road across the river...
over the Schuylkill River
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
. They were commissioned by Platt's great-great-grandson, Lawrence Griffin Platt, who raised $10,000 with the help of a former Gulf Oil Co. executive, and were mounted on poles at either end of the bridge. Both were later stolen; the first in 1987, and the second some time later. A $500 reward offered by the Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
in 2002 was unsuccessful in securing their return.
Beauchamp once hung colored ribbons from the statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia City Hall
Philadelphia City Hall
Philadelphia City Hall is the house of government for the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At , including the statue, it is the world's second-tallest masonry building, only shorter than Mole Antonelliana in Turin...
to nearby buildings, creating the look of a maypole
Maypole
A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, particularly on May Day, or Pentecost although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer...
more than 500 feet tall.
In 1967, he unsuccessfully proposed a $5 million, 14-story bust of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
to be mounted on Belmont Plateau in the city's Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of 63 parks, with , all overseen by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, successor to the Fairmount Park Commission in 2010.-Fairmount Park proper:...
. It was to be made of vertical stainless-steel tubes, six inches in diameter and one inch apart, that would have been lit from the interior of the sculpture.
Among the privately held works by Beauchamp is a sculptural rendition of John Trumbull
John Trumbull
John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings...
's painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
, installed at the Philadelphia Protestant Home in the Lawndale neighborhood.
Another is "Philadelphia Then & Now," a 53-by-68-inch painting commissioned by the Philadelphia Bulletin in 1947 to commemorate the newspaper’s 100th anniversary. It depicts the city as it appeared in 1847, with the contemporary skyline floating in the clouds above. The painting was exhibited at Newman Gallery, hung for 25 years at the Poor Richard Club, shifted into private hands in the mid-1970s, and was offered at auction in 2009.
Penny Franklin
Beauchamp's favorite of his public works was Penny Franklin, a bust of Ben Franklin that was covered with 80,000 penniesPenny
A penny is a coin or a type of currency used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system.-Etymology:...
collected from local schoolchildren. The work was conceived as a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Philadelphia Fire Department
Philadelphia Fire Department
The Philadelphia Fire Department provides firefighting and Emergency Medical Services within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, the professional descendant of the Franklin-founded Union Fire Company
Union Fire Company
Union Fire Company, sometimes called Benjamin Franklin's Bucket Brigade, was a volunteer fire department formed in Philadelphia in 1736 with the assistance of Benjamin Franklin. The first fire fighting organization in Philadelphia, though followed within the year by the Fellowship Fire Company...
, and an homage to the man who coined the phrase "a penny saved is a penny earned."
"Using clay, Beauchamp modeled an adult-sized bust of a long-haired, gentle-eyed fellow — the Franklin of the history books, wise and timeless. Then he reached into his penny supply and covered the entire thing with coins, creating a sort of chain-mail effect. Beauchamp completed it with a quarter-inch coating of fiberglass."
The sculpture was installed in 1971 in Girard Fountain Park
Girard Fountain Park
Girard Fountain Park is a pocket park in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 325 Arch Street. It is open to the public during daylight hours and is maintained by the Philadelphia Fire Department....
in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood, and dedicated in a June 10 ceremony that featured a speech by U.S. Mint Director Mary Brooks
Mary Brooks
Mary Elizabeth Thomas Peavey Brooks directed the United States Mint from September 1969 to February 1977.Brooks was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, the third woman named to the post...
. "It was a hit...a favorite of tourists and passersby on Arch Street for 25 years," the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote. A box that would play a recorded message at the push of a button was less popular with nearby residents, and it was eventually dismantled.
The sculpture took a beating from children who climbed on it and vandals who pried off chunks of coins. In 1982, the city coated it with a defensive layer of epoxy and Beauchamp painted it to make it look "normal statuary green." "All those pennies don't do wonders for his
complexion. But there are plenty of young adults in Philadelphia today who can
remember donating their pennies to the cause," the Inquirer wrote.
Over a quarter-century, the work deteriorated, "began to lean precariously and became a hazard to pedestrians." Firefighters from the firehouse next door eventually tied ropes around the sculpture to keep it from toppling over. In August 1996, it was removed and placed in a municipal warehouse in South Philadelphia. City officials contemplated restoring it, but the cost, estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars, was deemed prohibitive. "I've done a lot of things for this city, but that was my favorite," Beauchamp said.
The sculpture was replaced in October 2007 by Keys To Community, a bronze sculpture by James Peniston
James Peniston
James Peniston is an American sculptor whose monumental bronze works include Gregor Mendel and Keys To Community .-Life:...
, who echoed Beauchamp's work by sculpting a bust of Franklin and covering it with casts of keys collected from neighborhood schoolchildren.
Family
Beauchamp's wife of 64 years, Elizabeth Sarah "Betty" Beauchamp, died January 9, 1999, of leukemia. She had helped create many of his public art works. An obituary noted:"In her earlier years, the former Elizabeth Brown worked for the Curtis Publishing Co. in the subscription department. Because the company would not employ married women, she and her future husband drove about 100 miles to Pottsville to be married. She kept her name out of the license columns of the Philadelphia newspapers and kept her marital status secret until she left Curtis to raise a family."
The Beauchamps had two sons, Ronald and Roy; and a daughter, Irene B. Brooks.
External links
- Photo of Penny Franklin sculpture, May 11, 1977, PhillyHistory.org.
- Location of Whispering Bells of Freedom: 39.953116°N 75.151656°W
- Beauchamp's entry at Philadelphia Public Art@philart.net.