Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973) was an American sculptor of animals who founded the nation’s first sculpture garden, Brookgreen Gardens, in 1932. Hyatt Huntington, whose personal papers are housed at Syracuse University, is an important yet understudied artist. Focusing on Hyatt Huntington’s sculptures in Brookgreen Gardens and on the gardens themselves, which also included a zoo, this paper will examine themes of labor in the artist’s oeuvre.
Hyatt Huntington placed an emphasis on hard work as she fought to distinguish herself as a sculptor in a male-dominated field. The products of her labor often venerate the work of animals, from bulls to horses to jaguars. Many of these sculptures are situated at Brookgreen Gardens. Founded at the dawn of the Great Depression, the gardens provide an opportunity to study her work in an era in which labor became a central theme for many artists, who, like Hyatt Huntington, saw hard work as a means to a better future. The multifaceted views of labor manifested in Hyatt Huntington’s work offer critical insights into her sculptures and American art at the time, as labor transforms her sculptures from realistic depictions of animals into beacons of toil, endeavor, and meaningful production
