A Christmas Present for Jacksonville The “LIFE” Sculpture in Memorial Park
By Wayne W. Wood
‘Twas the first day of Christmas, under skies that were dark.
The people all hurried to Riverside’s new park.
They unveiled the winged boy who stood on the ball,
And everyone gasped, “He has no clothes at all!”
Hundreds of people gathered under threatening clouds at 3:30 p.m. on Christmas Day, 1924, to see the dedication of the new Memorial Park in Riverside and the unveiling of the much-anticipated bronze statue. As the covering was drawn from the monumental sculpture by two young girls, Mary Burroughs and Mary Bedell, a notable gasp was emitted by the crowd at the anatomical realism of the figure on top of the globe. Then, after a momentary pause, the audience began to applaud, growing louder and sustained with cheers, as the recognition of the artistic beauty of the monument sunk in.
The bronze sculpture was designed by local artist Charles Adrian Pillars, who came to Jacksonville in 1894 after apprenticing with noted sculptors Daniel Chester French, Lorado Taft, and Edward C. Potter during the construction of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. As a monument memorializing the soldiers who died in World War I, Pillars created a metaphor symbolizing peace rising above the horrors of war:
“I constructed a sphere to represent the world, engirdled with masses of swirling water typifying the chaotic earth forces. In this surging mass I shaped human figures, all striving for mere existence. Surmounting this swirling maelstrom with its human freight, I placed the winged figure of Youth, representative of spiritual Life, the spirit of victory. Immortality attained not through death, but deeds; not a victory of brute force, but of spirit. This figure of Youth holds aloft an olive branch, the emblem of peace.”
Pillars named the sculpture simply “Life,” although he also occasionally referred to it as “Spiritualized Life.” It was his magnum opus and the crowning feature of Memorial Park. The park setting for the sculpture was designed by the famed Olmsted Bothers of Brookline, Massachusetts, and, after a hundred years, it remains one of Jacksonville’s grandest public spaces.
