Letter Carriers' Monument

Letter Carriers' Monument

Artist	Elliot Offner
Year	1989 (1989)
Type	Bronze monument
Dimensions	170 cm × 170 cm × 140 cm (66 in × 67 in × 56 in)
Location	North Plankinton Ave. and West Wells St., Milwaukee
Coordinates	43°2′25.16″N 87°54′46.133″W / 43.0403222°N 87.91281472°W / 43.0403222; -87.91281472Coordinates: 43°2′25.16″N 87°54′46.133″W / 43.0403222°N 87.91281472°W / 43.0403222; -87.91281472
Owner	Administered by the City of Milwaukee

The Letter Carriers' Monument is a piece of public art by American artist Elliot Offner, located on a triangular plot formed by North 2nd Street, North Plankinton Avenue and West Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. Created in 1989, the monument depicts three letter carriers and was commissioned in celebration of the centennial of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC).

The bronze sculpture depicts three figures representing letter carriers from across NALC's history: A white man with a mustache wearing a turn of the 20th century uniform (with an inscription on the jacket reading "Offner '89"); an African American man wearing a 1939 uniform (from the time of NALC's fiftieth anniversary); and a woman in a contemporary uniform. The sculpture is set on a black granite base, with the north and south faces of the base reading: "In honor of the men and women/ who have delivered for America/ in rain, sleet, and snow./ And in tribute to their Union,/ the National Association of Letter Carriers,/ founded across Plankinton Avenue/ from this site on August 30, 1889./ Dedicated August 30, 1989." The monument measures 66 x 67 x 56 inches, and was created in 1989.^[1]

The sculpture is a tribute to the National Association of Letter Carriers, commissioned to celebrate the centennial of its founding. The group's history began when the United States Postal Service gave employment preference to veterans after the American Civil War. As a result, there were many veterans employed by the Postal Service across the United States. After the Postal Service administration refused to recognize the eight-hour day, a group of veteran Milwaukee postal workers organized 60 postal worker veterans from 18 states who met in a tavern on Plankinton Avenue (the building, now used for storage by Renaissance Books, formerly housed the headquarters of Manpower Inc.) on August 30, 1889, immediately following the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Milwaukee. The postal workers agreed to form the National Association of Letter Carriers, demanding an eight-hour work day, a higher pay scale, a pension plan, and service stripes for every four years of service.^[2]

Elliot Offner was commissioned through the Franz Bader Gallery in New York to create the monument. He built the maquette in Cambridge, England while he was there as a visiting artist. He then worked with the Tallix Foundry in Beacon, New York to cast the sculpture. The work was sent to Milwaukee by truck from New York.

Centennial celebrations lasted four days and included a parade, exhibits and the dedication of the monument by Vincent R. Sombrotto, NALC's president. More than four thousand letter carriers and their families attended the festivities. The U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp (designed by Jack Davis) depicting three contemporary letter carriers, to commemorate the centennial day.

Buck and Palmer's 1995 Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook observes: "The downtown Milwaukee site of the monument is correct in a historical sense, but unsuccessful in its public presence. Site considerations for the monument were overlooked and it stands on the small crowded triangle with annoying awkwardness."^[2]

The sculpture is well maintained.^[1]

References

1 2 , SIRIS.
1 2 Buck, Diane M. and Virginia A. Palmer (1995). Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, p. 42. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison

Milwaukee public art

Downtown	The Victorious Charge Family The Calling Wisconsin Workers Memorial Wind Leaves Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil The Great Double Woodland Indian and Whistling Swans Solomon Juneau Leif, the Discoverer Letter Carriers' Monument Argo Bronze Fonz Walkways Through the Wall Abraham Lincoln George Washington Referee Immigrant Mother King Gambrinus RiverSculpture! Gertie the Duck General Douglas MacArthur The Spirit of Polonia World War I Memorial Flagpole Pedestrian Drama Midsummer Carnival Shaft Acqua Grylli Laureate Diana Trigon Pere Jacques Marquette Spanish-American War Soldier Ruins X Ex Stasis City Yard Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Peter John A Beam of Sun to Shake the Sky Rainbow Machine Topiary Lucere Dancing Through Life Gertie Gets Her Ducks in a Row Mother Teresa Monument Jacques Marquette You Rise Above the World The Last Alarm

North Side	Celebrating the Arts Christian Wahl Elk On Watch Pattern Lapham Memorial Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. here, mothers are... Music Fishing Spirit of the Firefighter Dauntless Guardian Buildings 1992 Gear 23 All in the Air at Once First Flight Sea of the Ear Kindred Ties

East Side	Cleopatra's Wedge Float Polyphony Boy with Goose Eight Stone Lions Three Bronze Discs Holocaust Memorial Happy-Go-Luckies of Nature and Technology Blue Dress Park Sentinels Hermes Milwaukee Eclipse 'X' Intertwining Compass Erastus B. Wolcott Sharing the Load Robert Burns Near Here Compass Walk Like a River Spillover II Tip Jantar-Mantar Cass Street Park Brady Street Beasts Connect Fairies Candles

South Side	Menomonee Count Casimir Pulaski Spirit of Commerce Bay View Series A Place to Sit Stratiformis The Hill Climber Deflected Jets Angel in a Cage R.D. Whitehead Monument Memorial for Belle Austin Jacobs T.A. Chapman Memorial Nature Belle Oops, Missed Space Game Engine Company No. 10 William A. Starke Memorial Steel Reborn Red Flower Rising General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Patrick Cudahy Memorial SOARING Two Opposites Reaching Up Toward the Peak of Progress Edge Elements Ribbons VI Bridge Stone Bracelet Untitled Quartet Tending the Fire Bird and Fish The Sower The Reaper Giving Gifts

West Side	Henry Bergh Goethe–Schiller Monument Chrysalis The Ideal Scout Uptown Triangles Tree of Life Magic Grove Steuben Monument Kneeling Camels Teamwork Aaron Monument Yount Monument Selig Monument Uecker Monument Fire and Water Vliet Street Commons Miller Valley Veterans Monument Children of the West End

Lynden Sculpture Garden	Sinai Wandering Rocks Sea Form (Atlantic) Sky Fence Floating Sculpture No. 3 Mo, Ni, Que Trio Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9 Way Four Compound Junior Salem No. 7 Bremen Town Musicians Ancestor Queen of Sheba Rhythm in Space Peristyle, Three Lines Orizzontale Embrace Ursa Major Three Graces Large Torso, Arch Double Up Upstart The Lovers Poland Axeltree Orbits Ritual II Hara Olympus The Lovers Tensione No. 2 The Source Rainbow Unfolding Vegetative Sculpture I Round About Lodgepole Twist for Max Bench-Stone Windfall Knife Tree Conversations with Magic Stones, Figure Three Conversations with Magic Stones (Magic Stone Three) Kumo Untitled Arch Epicenter Epicenter II III Columns Flight Pin Oak I

Mobile projects	Overpass Light Brigade

Overview	List of public art in Milwaukee

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