A Photo for Friday

"Vulcan"

Vulcan

“Vulcan”

December 21, 2016

Birmingham, AL

Continuing with my Birmingham theme of late, this is a statue of Vulcan, the god of the forge, that stands atop a hill overlooking downtown. To get an idea of scale, there is an observation deck in the pedestal.

The statue was originally created for the 1904 World’s Fair and is the largest cast-iron statue in the world.

It has been in its current location since the mid-1930s.

Indeed, I have a photo from when my grandparents were recently married that I realized not that long ago was taken on the stairs going up to the hilltop park where the statue resides.

I remember hearing about the statue as a small boy and assumed that it was a sculpture of Mr. Spock. Alas, this was not the case.

FILED UNDER: Photo for Friday, Photography,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. gVOR08 says:

    Better late than never. And pretty damn good.

    1
  2. OzarkHillbilly says:

    The statue was originally created for the 1904 World’s Fair and is the largest cast-iron statue in the world.

    A-HA! So that’s where it went. Thieves!!! St Louis is going to come down and steal it back!!!

    Oh yeah, a nice pic Steven. The cloudy sky makes it.

  3. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    really, really nice work, sirrah! Ozark’s right; IMO, the clouds really make the image.

    1