Sculpture lists Record
Staff writer
Championing First Amendment rights, a retired University of Chicago professor has built a sculpture honoring media organizations.
Ron Davidson’s sculpture represents a pantheon of journalism entities: the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, PBS, NPR, BBC, Mother Jones, the New Yorker and the New Republic.
After hearing about the raid of the Marion County Record in 2023, Davidson decided the Record needed to be included, too.
“I want to capture the historic press,” he said.
Constructed of heavy wood timbers set in concrete, the sculpture contains vintage typeface letters is embedded in an antique printer’s drawer on the pillars, along with the logos of newspapers and broadcast media as well as the ACLU.
A roll of rusted barbed wire is stretched across the top of the sculpture, suggesting a violent threat challenging the free speech and a free press, while a red flag on an old parking meter indicates that the time may already have expired.
Four typeface blocks below a Statute of Liberty poster spell out “VOTE,” suggesting there is only one way out of our historic dilemma, Davidson said.
“I decided I wanted to include the Marion County Record for what you guys did,” he said. “In a small town in Kansas, you deserve to get recognized.”
The sculpture sits in the front yard of his home in Washington, D.C.