Augusta Savage’s Monument

1939

The original 16-foot-tall sculpture welcomed guests at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

In 1937, sculptor Augusta Savage was commissioned to make a sculpture for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. She spent the next two years designing and shaping a 16-foot-tall painted plaster sculpture inspired by James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” Because Savage could not afford to have the sculpture cast in bronze, it was destroyed when the fair closed, as was common during this period. But Lift Every Voice and Sing lives on through replicas and photographs.