Piece Of Metal From Support Crab From N,Y. Obelisk "Cleopatra's Needle"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1930
label: Collection Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: U S Navy Henry H. Gorringe
label: Donor Name
content: John A. Roebling II
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "On Ms. label accompanying specimen, "A steel (?) clamp with lead around it with which the stones of the pedestal of Cleopatra's Needle were fastened together - presented to Mrs. W. A. Roebling [Emily Warren Roebling, Mrs. Washington Augustus Roebling] by Commander [Henry H.] Gorringe who moved the obelisk from Alexandria, Egypt, to Central Park, New York City - April 26, 1882." "This was given to me in 1882 and in 1895 I find that it has rusted more than in the previous 2000 years - due to the moist climate of Brooklyn and Trenton - I have therefore paraffined it. W. A. R. [Washington Augustus Roebling]"
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content: Cleopatra's Needle is one of a pair of obelisks originally made during the reign of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled from 1479-1425 B.C., to celebrate his third jubilee (30th year of reign), and erected in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. The machinery needed to move and ship the obelisk was fabricated at John A Roebling's & Sons Company, then in the midst of building the Brooklyn Bridge 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. See also A326767.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 Aug 2017
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
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: 109842
label: USNM Number
content: A348946-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Metal