Haskell Fountain

Date

1931-present; restoration, 2007

Location

In front and to the right of the Allen Memorial Art Museum on Main Street.

Architects/Collaborators

Artistide Petrilli, Florence, Italy (sculptor)
Restoration: Fairplay Stonecarvers, Oberlin (restorers)

Style

Italian Renaissance

History

The white Carrera marble, red porphyry and bronze fountain in front of the Allen Memorial Art Museum is a memorial to Katharine Wright Haskell by her husband, Henry "Harry" J. Haskell. Both Katharine and Harry were students at Oberlin; Katharine graduated in 1898. Katharine Wright was the younger sister and "third member" of the powered-flight team of Wilbur and Orville Wright, actively assisting their careers. She taught Latin and English in her native Dayton, Ohio for about 10 years. She remained involved with Oberlin, leading its alumni group and gaining election to its Board of Trustees, the second woman to do so. She married late in life and died at age 54.

The fountain is a copy of the "Boy Holding a Dolphin" fountain by Andrea del Verroccio, ca. 1470, in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy. In 1931, Haskell shipped 25 crates of hand-cut Italian marble to be assembled at Oberlin and inscribed with the words, "To Katharine Wright Haskell 1874-1929." After years of Ohio winters, the fountain was badly in need of repair until a restoration project brought it back to its original glory in 2007.

Sources

Betty Gabrielli, "Oberlin College Celebrates Restoration of Katharine Wright Haskell Fountain," The Source, © 2007 Oberlin College, accessed May 27, 2015..

Oberlin College Archives, President E.H. Wilkins Papers.