Corning Fountain is a fountain with sculpture located in

Bushnell Park Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut is the second oldest publicly funded park in the United States, after Boston Common, which was established in 1634, and converted to a park in the 1830’s. Bushnell Park was conceived by the Reverend Hora ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. The two-tiered fountain was designed by sculptor

J. Massey Rhind John Massey Rhind (9 July 1860 – 1 January 1936) was a Scottish-American sculptor. Among Rhind's better known works is the Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial and the marble statue of Dr. Crawford W. Long, located in the Natio ...

and dedicated in 1899. It was given to the city by John J. Corning in memory of his father, John Benton Corning (1811–1896), a Hartford businessman who operated a grist mill on the site. It is 28 feet tall, made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

and

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, and features stylized

Saukiog The Saukiog tribe (sometimes spelled Sickaog or Suckiaug) was a Native American people who lived in the Hartford, Connecticut vicinity around the early 17th century. The Saukiog spoke an Algonquian dialect and were part of the Algonquian confed ...

and

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida N ...

Indians topped with the figure of a

stag A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) a ...

(hart) as Hartford's emblem. The fountain features four bronze Saukiog braves around the lower basin, a center pedestal surrounded by four bronze Oneida maidens, and an upper basin topped by a bronze hart. The Saukiog braves are: (west side) holding a spear; (south side) wearing a feathered headdress and scanning the horizon; (east side) raising a tomahawk; (north side) holding a peacepipe and lifting his hand in a gesture of peace. Below the upper basin are four animal heads as water spouts (a catamount, a bear, a fox, and a beaver). As viewed Sept. 15, 2017 these have been removed. Below the lower basin are four lion heads, which are also water spouts. Water flows over the edges of each tier and into a large concrete basin at the base of the fountain. The text on the bronze plaque in front of the base reads, "THIS FOUNTAIN IS / ERECTED AS A TRIBUTE / TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN B. CORNING BY HIS SON / JOHN J. CORNING 1899." Image:Corning Fountain, Hartford CT - general view.JPG Image:Corning Fountain, Hartford CT - brave view.JPG Image:Corning Fountain, Hartford CT - top.JPG

References

Smithsonian Institution

Bushnell Park Foundation

{{Hartford, Connecticut Buildings and structures in Hartford, Connecticut Fountains in Connecticut Tourist attractions in Hartford, Connecticut

See also

References