Handcart Pioneers (also known as the Handcart Pioneers Monument) is a 1926 bronze sculpture by Torleif S. Knaphus, installed in Salt Lake City’s Temple Square, in the U.S. state of Utah.
Description
The sculpture measures approximately 6 x 4 x 10 feet and rests on a stone base which measures approximately 1 x 5 x 12 feet. It depicts people moving a handcart; most are pulling the loaded cart, apart from one young boy who is pushing from the rear. A nearby plaque reads:
Handcart Pioneer Monument / The Handcart Pioneer Monument is a / tribute to the thousands of hardy Mormon / pioneers who, because they could not / afford the larger ox-drawn wagons, walked / across the rugged plains in the 1850s / pulling and pushing all their posses / sions in handmade all-wood handcarts. / Some 250 died on the journey, but nearly / 3,000, mostly British converts, completed the 1,350-mile trek from Iowa City, Iowa, to / the Salt Lake Valley. Many Latter-Day Saints / today proudly recount the trials and the triumphs of their ancestors who were among the Mormon handcart pioneers.[1]
History
The artwork is administered by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints' Museum of Church History and Art. It was surveyed by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture" program in 1993.[1]
References
- ^ a b "Hardcart Pioneers, (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
External links
Media related to Handcart Monument (Knaphus) at Wikimedia Commons
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