Piece Of Metal From Support Crab Of The Obelisk In N.Y. "Cleopatra's Needle"
date: label: Collection Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: U S Navy Henry H. Gorringe
label: Donor Name
content: Miss Sophie P. Casey
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "See Cat. No. 348946. Consisting of iron cramp encased in lead. The obelisk was transported from Alexandria, Egypt by Lieut. Cmdr. Henry H. Gorringe, U.S.N. in 1879 and the crab was given by him to Cmdr. Silas Casey [III], U.S.N. The obelisk was quarried at Syene on the Nile and first erected at Heliopolis near Cairo in front of the temple of the Sun by Thothmes III (1501 - 1447). Removed to Alexandria under Augustus in 22 B.C. where it wa placed in front of the temple of Caesar. The Egyptians stood the obelisk directly on the pedestal. The Romans used crabs for supports supposedly because the crab was symbol of Apollo, the sun-god, and the obelisk was connected with the sun, representing a ray of it. Only two mutilated crabs of the N.Y. obelisk are extant, the other is in the Metrop. Mus. of Art in N.Y. The other two crabs have been removed long ago and their places were supplied by stones. The present "crab" was found by Lt. Gorringe between the heel of the obelisk, and its pedestal when it was uncovered on Nov. 6, 1879, at Alexandria and given by him to Cmdr. Casey, commanding the U.S.S. Wyoming at Gibraltar, Spain, June 24, 1881, when the obelisk was on its way to N.Y. in the hold of the Steamer Dessong [sic, should be Dessoug]. The obelisk with another one set up at Heliopolis (Biblical O_) by Thothmes III and were moved to Alexandrai by Augustus Caesar 23 B.C. Here they were called "Cleopatra's Needles." It was presented in May, 1870, to the U.S. by Mohammed Tewfic at that time Viceroy of Eg. and T., the munificence of the late Wm. H. Vanderbilt was set up in Central Park, N.Y., Jan. 22, 1881. The other stands on the Thames embankment."
label: Notes
content: Cleopatra's Needle is one of a pair of obelisks originally made during the reign of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled from 1479-1425 B.C., to celebrate his third jubilee (30th year of reign), and erected in Heliopolis, Egypt. Both monuments were moved around 12 or 10 B.C. to front Alexandria's Caesareum. Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, gifted it to the United States. U.S. naval commander Henry W. Gorringe was in charge of transporting it from Alexandria, Egypt to New York City in 1879 - 1880, where it was then erected in Central Park in 1881. In Alexandria, the Romans had placed the obelisk on the pedestal/base with 4 bronze supports cast in the form of sea-crabs, placed at the four corners of the obelisk and secured to the obelisk by metal bars/dowels and the use of molten lead for filling in the interspaces. Only two of the four crabs survived in damaged form at the time the obelisk was moved to New York City. The two remaining original crabs were put in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See D'Alton, Martina (1993). The New York obelisk, or, How Cleopatra's Needle came to New York and what happened when it got here. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
label: Notes
content: It is possible that the larger of the two objects numbered 326767 may be 45458? See ledger drawing.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 Aug 2017
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Alexandria, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
culture: label: Culture
content: Roman Period
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 083438
label: USNM Number
content: A326767-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Metal