We're standing outside the main entrance of the Santa Barbara central public library on the southwest corner of Anapamu and Anacapa streets. If you're a Santa Barbara resident, you've probably walked past this door countless times without ever looking up! The library was built in 1917 thanks to a $50,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie who funded the construction of over 1600 libraries in the United States. This semi-circular decoration above the doors is called a tympanum and this particular tympanum is one of most unique architectural elements in our city. It was designed in 1924 by the architect, Carleton Winslow, who was a key proponent of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in Southern California. If you didn't know this was the entrance to a library, your first thought might be that you were about to walk into a church or some kind of ancient monumental building. That's because Carleton Winslow and other architects of early 20th century Santa Barbara were heavily influenced by historic European and classical architecture.
At the main entrance of the Earl Warren Showgrounds on Calle Real just off the 101 Freeway at the Las Positas exit, we encounter the “California Cowboy.” This sculpture was erected in 1967 in honor of Earl Warren, California’s Governor (1943 to 1953) and Chief Justice of the United States (1953 to 1969). The sculptor is Francis “Duke” Minturn Sedgwick, known also as a civic leader, novelist, art collector, UC Santa Barbara benefactor, and cattle rancher. Sedgwick’s Cowboy not only signals the equestrian purpose of the showgrounds, but it also presents a mid-twentieth-century characterization of this place and its history as “western,” and “pioneering.” The “California Cowboy” reflects its creator’s image of who was equestrian and when “equestrian” is identified with Santa Barbara. The sculpture therefore represents two moments in history – the mythical California past and the 1960s interpretation of that past. The genre of “Cowboy Commemoration Art” is a controversial topic and has sparked debate among scholars and activists alike for its connotations of racism, nationalism, and nostalgia for a Romantic and idealized perspective of the West. Proponents counter that the Cowboy symbolizes traditional patriotic American values based on historical notions of pioneers taming the wilderness of the early American West. Referred to as "an American fantasy of history" by the art historian, J. Gray Sweeney, this perspective threatens to erase important figures and events from our historical narrative and can lead to wide ranging negative consequences. In particular, these complicated understandings of the Cowboy as a white American cultural symbol stem from the idea that Anglo cowboys and other settlers "discovered" an empty landscape and settled it, erasing the histories of the indigenous peoples and their rich cultures that flourished there long before. Furthermore, mythologizing the cowboy as white preferences an Anglo-Californian history. Who was actually managing cattle in Santa Barbara during the eighteenth and nineteenth century? The answer might surprise you. The art historian Michael Grauer recently spoke at the Sid Richardson Museum about the tendency in art, literature, and film of depicting cowboys as white gunslingers, when historical records demonstrate they were typically Black or brown slaves and vaqueros. Whether we’re talking about Sedgwick’s “California Cowboy” or Clint Eastwood’s character in the 1964 film, A Fistful of Dollars, it is important to recognize that this cowboy image was a 1960s construct that doesn’t reflect the historical understandings of the 2020s. Regardless of where you might stand on this controversial issue, learning more about different perspectives on our local monuments and histories makes us all feel more invested in our community. This bronze equestrian statue depicts a cowboy astride his horse holding the reins with both hands near the handle of his saddle. His head is bowed slightly. He wears a cowboy hat, chaps and spurs. The sculpture is mounted atop a tall, rectangular concrete base.A plaque on the front pedestal reads:THIS STATUE OF A CALIFORNIA COWBOYON A CALIFORNIA COWPONY, SYMBOLIZINGTHE VANISHED FRONTIER AND A VANISHING TYPE,IS DEDICATED IN 1967 TOEARL WARRENGOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIAANDCHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATESSCULPTOR:R. M. SEDGWICK There is some lack of consensus regarding the identity of the man who modeled for Sedgwick’s sculpture. One source suggests that Sedgwick used his own ranch foreman, while another source claims the sitter was “Texas-born Lefty McPeeters who came here in 1936, loved the Fiesta and rodeos, and rode at Earl Warren many times.”[1] Sedgwick’s other local sculptures include: the cowboy bas relief[2] in the corridor of the Hollister building; St. Francis, made for Christ the King Convent in Montecito, now located at St. Francis Medical Center in Santa Barbara.; Saint Barbara, in the patio of the Santa Barbara Historical Society Museum; and the conquistador at Cabrillo Senior High School in Lompoc.[1] Phone conversation with Kevin Snow, president of the Earl Warren Showgrounds Foundation, May 21, 2021; Carol Storke, “Horses and Horse Sports in Santa Barbara County 1919-2001,” Noticias: The Quarterly Magazine of the Santa Barbara Historical Society, Vol. XLVII, No. 2 (Summer 2001), 45.[2] A relief is a type of sculpture where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background and the image projects outwards. Unlike a high relief, a bas relief has a very shallow depth (similar to a coin).
Three massive, friendly bronze dolphins greet thousands of visitors each day at the end of Stearns Wharf. The Dolphin Family, or Bicentennial Friendship Fountain, has been a fixture of downtown since 1985. Sculptor James "Bud" Bottoms (1928-2018) won a city-wide contest to design a commissioned statue from the city of Santa Barbara. The Dolphin Family is at the heart of Santa Barbara's famed waterfront, so it is easy to think of merely as a tourist centerpiece. However, the Dolphin Family is the legacy of larger questions about Santa Barbara's past, especially with regards to colonialism and the resiliency of the indigenous Chumash communities. Sculptor: JAMES "BUD" BOTTOMS
Across from Ambassador Park, near West Beach in Santa Barbara, California, a 20-foot-wide mosaic sits on the village site of Syuxtun (also spelled Syuxhtun), the largest Chumash settlement spanning all of the Chumash lands. The story circle features 21 separate panels, depicting aspects of Chumash religion, history, present, and future. The mosaic was a community-based project, emphasizing the importance of togetherness and connection through time and space.
Located at the corner of Montecito and Chapala Streets, Santa Barbara’s Moreton Bay Fig Tree arrived in 1876 as a seedling from its native Australia. The 140 year old tree has since grown to a height of 80 feet and its canopy to a distance of almost 200 feet which provides over 20,000 square feet of shade. It’s trunk now measures an impressive 12.5 feet in diameter and it is thought to be one of the largest fig trees in North America, although there are nearby trees competing for that title in Los Angles and San Diego.
At the corner of the Chase Bank building in Santa Barbara, California, there is a statue of Shoshone woman Sacagawea and her infant son, who worked on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806), she never came to Santa Barbara. For this reason and others, this statue is frequently mistaken for San Nicoleño Chumash woman, Juana Maria, mythologized in Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960). We know that this statue is Sacagawea because it was in a series of casts made by artist Harry Jackson, whose signature, along with the cast signature and date is found at the base.
This Tour is a Thematic Tour or Heritage Trail.
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This tour was created by the History & Relevancy Project of the UC Santa Barbara History department to explore Santa Barbara's public art and commemorative monuments
Art and History
