Stone Age in America

John J. Boyle received his first major commission in 1880 – a request from a Chicago patron for a group of American Indian figures. An American Indian Family was exhibited in his studio in Philadelphia before being shipped to Chicago, and it came to the attention of Association for Public Art (then known as Fairmount Park Art Association). The Association confirmed its interest in acquiring an American Indian grouping for Fairmount Park and resolved in 1883 to give Boyle a commission.

The resulting sculpture, Stone Age in America, received considerable local and national attention. Upon its arrival from France, it was shown at the American Art Association exhibition in New York City. When it arrived in Philadelphia in 1888, it was exhibited at the Haseltine and Company gallery by consent of the Association. It also stood temporarily outside the post office at 9th and Chestnut Streets until it was installed near Sweetbriar Mansion in West Fairmount Park. At the artist’s request, the sculpture was sent to Chicago for exhibition at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, and then it returned to the Sweetbriar Mansion area until 1985, when it was relocated to a grassy plot just south of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial. At its current site, Stone Age in America takes its place with other sculptures “emblematic” of American history.

Notably, the sculpture was created the same year as the Dawes Act or General Allotment Act of 1887. The law authorized the U.S. government to confiscate reservation lands and divide them into individual allotments, which was “instrumental in breaking up Native American reservations in this country,” says Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, artist and professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He notes that if you look closely at Stone Age in America, “you’ll see a bear cub at the Native American woman’s foot, but in effect, you have to look at her threats being governmental and military. The least of her worries would be a bear.”

Other works in Philadelphia by John J. Boyle include John Christian Bullitt outside of City Hall, and the seated Benjamin Franklin on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.

Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.