Type Bronze Artist Einar Jónsson Year 1920 | Location Philadelphia Created 1920 | |
 | ||
Dimensions 210 cm × 140 cm × 120 cm (84 in × 54 in × 48 in) Owner City of Philadelphia
Fairmount Park Commission Similar Stone Age in America, James Garfield Memorial, Ingólfur Arnarson | ||
Thorfinn Karlsefni is a bronze statue by Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson. The first casting of it is located in Fairmount Park on Kelly Drive, at the North end of Boathouse Row, Philadelphia. The sculpture was commissioned by Joseph Bunford Samuel through a bequest that his wife, Ellen Phillips Samuel, made to the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association), specifying that the funds were to be used to create a series of sculptures "emblematic of the history of America." Thorfinn Karlsefni (1915–1918) was installed along Philadelphia's Kelly Drive near the Samuel Memorial and unveiled on November 20, 1920. The artwork is one of 51 sculptures included in the Association for Public Art's Museum Without Walls: AUDIO™ interpretive audio program for Philadelphia's outdoor sculpture. There is another casting of the statue in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The inscription reads: (Sculpture, lower proper left:)
Einar Jonsson
sculptor
1915-18
(On back of Karlsefni's shield: Icelandic verse)
From the island of the North, of ice and snow,
Of blossoming valleys and blue mountains,
Of the midnight sun and the dreamy mists,
The home of the goddess of northern lights.
(Base, front:)
Thorfinn Karlsefni
Icelander
1003-1006
(Base, front plaque:)
Following Leif Ericson's Discovery of
North America in 1003, Thorfinn Karlsefni
with 165 men and 35 women established a
settlement which lasted for 3 years and
his son Snorri was born in North America
Leif Ericson Society of Pennsylvania
Scandinavian Craft Club of Philadelphia
October 9, 1974