“Civic Fame” (statue topping the Manhattan Municipal Building)

“Civic Fame” is the 1913 statue by sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870-1952) that tops New York City’s David N. Dinkins Municipal Building. New York’s famed civic models Audrey Munson (1891-1996) and Hettie Anderson (1873-1938) both have competing claims for posing for the sculpture, although it has usually been credited to Munson.
 
“The model from which it was made is a New York girl” was printed in the Pittsburg (PA) Press on March 9, 1913. Audrey Munson was born in Rochester, New York, but had lived and worked in New York City for almost five years. “She has been selected by such men as Adolph Weinman, who modeled the figure placed on the new Municipal building from her; also by Herbert Adams, Isidore Konti and Robert I. Aitken. This young woman is Miss Audrey Marie Munson” was printed in the New York (NY) Press on April 27, 1913. “ALL NEW YORK BOWS TO THE REAL MISS MANHATTAN. Audrey Munson, Who Tops the Municipal Building as Civic Pride and Decorates Other Parts of the City in Various Guises to Typify New York Feminity on the Manhattan Bridge” was printed in the New York (NY) Sun, on June 8, 1913. “‘Civic Fame,’ by Adolph A. Weinman, which is cast in copper twenty feet tall and stands on top of the great Municiapl Building in New York. Miss Munson was the model for this statue, which won the prize among many competitors” was printed in Munson’s syndicated “Queen of the Artists’ Studios” series in the Pittsburgh (PA) Sunday Press (and other newspapers) on January 9, 1921. Munson has also been credited in many other places.
 
Hettie Anderson’s claim to “Civic Fame” comes from a single source, The Architectural Record of June 1913, which does not mention her by name:
 
“The veil of secrecy envelopes the model of the statue for Civic Fame, and (Pg. 523—ed.) there has been considerable speculation as to her identity. It might be interesting to note, howeber, that she is a New York girl, and posed for the figure of Victory in “Sherman’s March to the Sea,” by Augustus Saint Gaudens, which stands at the Plaza entrance to Central Park in Fifth avenue.”
 
Anderson was not a “New York girl”—she was born in Columbia, South Carolina—but she did pose for “Victory” for the St.-Gaudens “Sherman Monument.”
 
It’s entirely possible that sculptor Adolph Weinman had both women pose for “Civic Fame.” Many sculptors use special models for the head, or a hand or a foot. Weinman died in 1952, and he surely saw the many articles crediting Audrey Munson for “Civic Fame” (especially the “Queen of the Artists’ Studios” series in 1921), and he never wrote in to any newspaper to deny this.
 
Adolph Weinman would use both models after “Civic Fame” (1913). Audrey Munson posed for his “Descending Night,” a famous sculpture at San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, that was shown on the cover of Sunset magazine in October 1915. Hettie Anderson was the model for Weinman’s Walking Liberty half dollar, issued from 1916 to 1947. In an article in the Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle on May 2, 1924, Weinman told of the model of this coin, describing Hettie Anderson in all but her name. The “Walking Liberty” model wasn’t described as a “New York girl,” but as an “anonymous Southern beauty.”
 
 
Wikipedia: Manhattan Municipal Building
The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building (originally the Municipal Building and later known as the Manhattan Municipal Building) is a 40-story, 580-foot (180 m) building at 1 Centre Street, east of Chambers Street, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The structure was built to accommodate increased governmental space demands after the 1898 consolidation of the city’s five boroughs. Construction began in 1909 and continued through 1914 at a total cost of $12 million (equivalent to $276,794,000 in 2024).
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Civic Fame
On the Municipal Building’s roof is Civic Fame, a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) statue installed in March 1913. The statue is a gilded copper figure, made from about 500 pieces of hammered copper executed by the Manhattan firm of Broschart & Braun. The statue is variously reported to be supported on an iron skeleton[36] and made over a steel frame. Civic Fame has been variously described as the largest or second-largest statue in Manhattan, depending on whether the larger Statue of Liberty is considered as being in Manhattan. It is similar in style to the Statue of Liberty.

The statue was designed by Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870–1952). It was commissioned by the New York City government at a cost of $9,000 (equivalent to $293,000 in 2025) to celebrate the consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of New York.The figure is barefoot and balances upon a globe. She carries various symbolic items: a shield bearing the New York City coat of arms, a branch of leaves, and a mural crown, which she holds aloft. The mural crown has five crenellations or turrets, which evoke city walls and represent the five boroughs. The crown also includes dolphins as a symbol of “New York’s maritime setting”. Audrey Munson posed for the figure; she had also posed for a very large number of other important allegorical Beaux-Arts sculptures in New York, including those at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, New York Public Library Main Branch, Manhattan Bridge Colonnade, and USS Maine National Monument at Columbus Circle.
 
NYC.gov
The David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building
1 Centre Street
New York, NY 10007
Date Built: 1909-1914
Architect: William M. Kendall / McKim Mead & White
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Surmounting the central tower is a 20-foot tall gilded statue,“Civic Fame,” fashioned by sculptor Adolph Weinman. Constructed of sheets of copper with a hollow core, this female figure stands barefoot on a sphere and wears a flowing dress and a crown of laurels to signify glory. In her left hand she holds out a five-pointed crown representing the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island).
 
Newspapers.com
9 March 1913, Pittsburg (PA) Press, “The Girl Highers Up,” Illustrated Magazine Section, pg. 1, col. 1 photo caption:
Civc Fame is the title of the heroicc gilded statue which will surmount the pinacle of the marvelous new Municipal Building of New York City, 582 feet above the street. The figure is 20 feet high and was cast in five sections, 500 pieces of hammered copper being used on its construction. The model from which it was made is a New York girl. The sculptor is Adolph A. Weinman.
 
Old Fulton New York Post Cards
27 April 1913, New York (NY) Press, part VI, pg. 1:
If the Venus de Milo
Came to
New York
She’d Be Rejected as a Model
(...)
Miss Audrey Munson, the sculptor’s perfect type.
(...) (Col. 5.—ed.)
Lithe and Graceful Girl.
“She has been selected by such men as Adolph Weinman, who modeled the figure placed on the new Municipal building from her; also by Herbert Adams, Isidore Konti and Robert I. Aitken. This young woman is Miss Audrey Marie Munson.”
 
Google Books
June 1913, The Architectural Record, “A Sculptor of Monumental Architecture: Notes on the Work of Adolph Alexander Weinman” by Charles Dorr, pp. 522-523:
The veil of secrecy envelopes the model of th statue for Civic Fame, and (Pg. 523—ed.) there has been considerable speculation as to her identity. It might be interesting to note, howeber, that she is a New York girl, and posed for the figure of Victory in “Sherman’s March to the Sea,” by AUgustus Saint Gaudens, which stands at the Plaza entrance to Central Park in Fifth avenue.
 
Newspapers.com
8 June 1913, The Sun (New York, NY), fourth setion, pg. 9, col. 1:
ALL NEW YORK BOWS TO THE REAL MISS MANHATTAN
Audrey Munson, Who Tops the Municipal Build-
ing as Civic Pride and Decorates Other Parts
of the City in Various Guises to Typify New
York Feminity on the Manhattan Bridge
MISS MANHATTAN is here, and here to stay—the real Miss Manhattan at last. She will have her place on the bridge after what she is called.
(...) (Col. 2—ed.)
Up on top of the Municipal Building stands the figure of “Civic Pride,” made by Adolph Weinmann. There Miss Munson is again, while down on the Custom House she is to be found in several of the pieces of work.
 
Newspapers.com
6 January 1915, The Times (Shreveport, LA), “Talk with Nearly All Statuary in Panama-Pacific Exposition” by Norman Rose, pg. 7, col. 2:
In this city (New York—ed.) she (Audrey Munson—ed.) is immortalized in the huge gilded figure of “Civic Pride,” which surmounts the new municipal building.
 
Newspapers.com
28 November 1920, Buffalo (NY) Sunday Courier, “Sad Plight of Beautiful Audrey Munson,” pg. 33 photo caption:
The statue of “Civic Pride,” which adorns the Municipal Building in New York, perpetuates the classic lines of Miss Munson’s figure.
 
Newspapers.com
9 January 1921, Pittsburgh (PA) Sunday Press, “Queen of the Artists’ Studios,” The American Weekly, pg. 11 photo caption:
“Civic Fame,” by Adolph A. Weinman, which is cast in copper twenty feet tall and stands on top of the great Municiapl Building in New York. Miss Munson was the model for this statue, which won the prize among many competitors.