Photo: Susan Lundrum, findingnyc.com, 2017
References:
- NYC Parks Department press release 30 May 1941: "Peter Stuyvesant, last and most famous of the Dutch Directors General of Manhattan, lying in a vault beneath the walls of the old St. Marks Church in the Bowery, is honored by the erection of a statue in nearby Stuyvesant Square Park, Manhattan ... Early in 1936, Commissioner of Parks, Robert Moses, agreed to cooperate with a committee of the Foundation in this enterprise. Mrs. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the sculptress, was commissioned by the committee to execute the work and Mr. Aymar Embury, Consulting Architect, represented the Department of Parks. Completed just prior to the opening of the World's Fair, it was decided that the statue should first be seen by visitors to the Netherland Exhibit." Does this mean he did the pedestal? Whitney (Cornelius Vanderbilt's daughter and not only a sculptor but also patron of the arts) and Embury were friends and collaborators on many projects, so who knows.