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The Boston Public Library ’Sisters’ can now
bookend the literature in your own library
BOSTON · November 26, 2007–For nearly four generations, Bostonians have been welcomed to the Copley Square
entrance of the Boston Public Library by two "heroic figures," as one newspaper account described them. On the left is Science
and on the right, Art. They are two magnificent
bronze sculptures
whose creator described them as the "sisters of Literature," with literature embodied by the library itself.
While the two sisters will never leave the library, for the first time in their 95-year history they are being reproduced on a
scale that will fit a home library. Levenger is casting 8 ¼" replicas of Science and Art as bookends—sisters of literature once again.
The company is offering the set of bookends for sale in its Boston store, as well as through the Levenger catalog and on its
website. The bookends will be available in both bronze, cast in the centuries-old lost wax method, and poly resin with a bronze finish.
In the process, Levenger is casting its support for the library through the licensing fee it pays on each sale of the bookends.
"Because of our mission, supporting libraries is a natural fit for Levenger," says Steve Leveen, the company’s CEO and co-founder.
Levenger creates high-quality products designed for reading, writing and working with ideas.
"America’s first libraries are treasure houses, not just for their collections but for their art," Leveen adds. "It’s enormously
satisfying to know that our support can take the form of products that bring these treasures into many people’s homes."
Not part of the original plan
Befitting a library treasure, Art and Science have a story to tell. For starters, they weren’t intended to be there at all.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the celebrated sculptor who worked on other aspects of the Boston Public Library, had drawn up plans for
the sculptures that would grace the top of the marble pedestals. A grouping of figures was to be on each. But Saint-Gaudens died
in 1907, before he could execute his plans, leaving the pedestals vacant.
One of his students, Bela L. Pratt, was chosen to succeed him on the project. As the Boston Sunday Post reported on May 15, 1910,
the library’s trustees had declared Pratt "the one American sculptor who could complete the work." Fittingly, he was a Bostonian
(though Yale-educated).
In Pratt’s hands, the sisters became finely nuanced works of art. Science holds a globe that is intended to show, as the
July 20, 1912 edition of The Christian Science Monitor describes it, "the perfected whole of existence as seen through the eyes
of understanding." Her eyes are downcast, her face deeply shadowed by her hood, both suggesting thoughtful repose. Art is not a
mirror image, instead gazing toward Science as she holds her palette.
The same woman modeled for both sisters, Miss Ethel Nash of Brookline. For a year and a half she posed in Pratt’s Harcourt Street
studio four hours a day, barely moving an hour at a time in order to maintain the fold and drape of the gown. The results, as one
report neatly summed it up, are remarkable.
"The grand sculptures we know as ‘Art’ and ‘Science’ have welcomed millions to our palace of learning—the Boston Public Library,"
says Bernard A. Margolis, Boston Public Library president. "Now everyone can have this wonderful artistic work to bookend their
own libraries and to provide a rich welcome to the rewards that are part of the world of books and reading."
Another treasure uncovered: a century-old tote bag
The sisters are not the only treasure that Levenger has discovered at the Boston Public Library. On a behind-the-scenes tour a
few years back, Leveen spied one of the canvas tote bags that the library had been using for decades to shuttle books between
its branches.
It now enjoys a reincarnation as an extra-sturdy tote bag that Levenger sells, under license, as the Boston Public Library
Delivery Bag. The company bills it as "the living antique that carries on." The tote bag’s simple but ingenious design allows
library workers to carry a bundle of books up and down stairs—two bundles, in fact, as a bag in each hand helps balance the
load. It’s also ideal for shuttling gym gear, yoga mats, rolls of wrapping paper and, of course, books.
"I’m particularly proud that our re-creation passed muster with the library’s operations staff, and that they’re now carrying
our version as they make their rounds among Boston’s many branches," says Leveen.
Leveen and his wife, Lori Granger Leveen, founded Levenger in 1987 in Belmont, Mass., and later moved its headquarters to
South Florida. The company’s Boston store is in the Shops at Prudential Center, around the corner from the library.
Levenger has also created products based on treasures from the New York Public Library and the Library Company of Philadelphia,
as well as the George Eastman House in Rochester, a National Historic Landmark.
More images of the Art and Science bookends are available on Levenger.com, the company’s website.
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