John Frederick Oberlin Monument

Date

1995-present

Location

Wilder Bowl just to the right of Wilder Hall

Architects/Collaborators

Paul B. Arnold (1918-2012), Oberlin (designer)
Cleveland Monument Company, Cleveland (stone carver)

History

Oberlin College did not erect a monument to its namesake until 1995, about a decade after Robert Sherwood Hunt, Class of 1939, began raising funds for it. After Hunt's sudden death in 1990 several of his friends saw the project to completion. Oberlin College President S. Frederick Starr helped to initiate the project and provided leadership and support throughout the planning and design of the monument. The monument was designed by the late Paul B. Arnold (1918-2012), Young-Hunter Professor Emeritus of Art. Arnold made a number of paperboard models for consideration, and a full-size model was placed on campus in several locations until a site was selected. The Cleveland Monument Company, a maker of cemetery monuments, was retained for the execution of the design in stone.

The 10,000-pound burgundy granite monolith, 7 feet 4 inches high, holds a carved inset of black African marble with a surface that, when interrupted by tooling, becomes white. The inset stone was carved to resemble paper in vertical folds like an accordion, on which two different images appear on the opposing sides of the "folds." When viewed from one side of the monument, one sees a flower design; from the other, a bird appears to roost on a branch. This was an interpretation of a similar device in paper used by John Frederick Oberlin, a pastor in a remote region of Alsace in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. When counseling a couple, Oberlin would show the device to each of them from a different angle, and each would see a different picture from the other. In this way he would demonstrate that two different, valid viewpoints could be held by two different people, and that both could be acknowledged and respected in a loving relationship. Paul Arnold used this visual expression of Oberlin's approach to reconciliation for the monument to good effect, interpreted by the inscription on the monument written by President S. Frederick Starr:

"Oberlin, Pastor of Waldersbach in Alsace, France, for whom Oberlin College was named, used the original of this optical curiosity shown above for pastoral counseling. His simple message--that people with diverse perspectives can live in friendship with one another--lies at the heart of the aspirations of this college."

For video interviews with Paul Arnold on the design of this monument, and for extensive information on John Frederick Oberlin, see Oberlin's Namesake, a multimedia presentation by the Oberlin College Archives.