Skip to main content
Advanced Search
(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Fenway Court During Construction: Crest of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Fenway Court During Construction: Crest of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

photographer (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)
designer (Lowell, 1842 - 1904, Boston)
Date1900
Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America
MediumGelatin silver print
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberARC.009335
eMuseum ID729027
Other NumberARC.008363_0059
Other NumberARC.008363_0060
EmbARK ObjectID42340
TMS Source ID20931
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on view
Web CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner asked her friend, artist Sarah Wyman Whitman to design this distinctive crest bearing a phoenix rising from the ashes, an emblem of immortality, and the phrase C’est Mon Plaisir (It’s My Pleasure), one of Isabella's mottoes. Isabella took this photograph of the sandstone crest before it was installed above the museum’s former entryway on the north side of the building, where it continues to greet visitors today.
BibliographyNotesShana McKenna, "Sarah Wyman Whitman: Artist and Advocate," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 November 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/sarah-wyman-whitman-artist-and-advocate
MarksNotesPrinted: Velox
Stamped in blue ink (lower right): 34