Commissioned to honor the Pennsylvania Railroad employees who died in World War II, Walker Hancock’s heroic bronze presents the Archangel Michael, angel of the Resurrection, lifting a lifeless soldier in his arms.

Anthony J. Drexel was a powerful Philadelphia financier and philanthropist. He founded Drexel University and served as the first president of the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art).

Considered a pioneering figure of minimalism, Tony Smith is best known for his abstract, modular sculptures. This hulking open cube of welded steel, painted black, can be walked through but also create a boxed-in feeling.

Atmosphere and Environment XII is a product of the mature style of Louise Nevelson, one of the most influential artists of the decades following World War II.

This war memorial by sculptor Charles Rudy is dedicated to the University of Pennsylvania faculty, students, and alumni who died in military service.

R. Tait McKenzie’s portrait of a young Benjamin Franklin was seen as an appropriate example to the students of the University of Pennsylvania, a school that Franklin helped to found.

Dedicated in November 2003, 125 Years by artist Jenny Holzer recognizes the anniversary of 125 Years of Women at Penn (celebrated November 1-2, 2001).

This bronze bust of a Black woman by artist Simone Leigh references Batammaliba architecture from Benin and Togo, the teleuk dwellings in Chad and Cameroon, and the restaurant Mammy’s Cupboard in Mississippi.

The Sardinian artist Constantino Nivola was building sand castles with his children on a Long Island beach when he conceived a new kind of sculpture: bas-reliefs that would be molded in damp sand and then cast in concrete.

Artist Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Burggen, collaborated on the Split Button, which has become a familiar part of the University of Pennsylvania campus environment.

A sculpture of Philadelphia’s beloved Benjamin Franklin given to the City by Justus C. Strawbridge and later donated to the University of Pennsylvania.

The Eternal Mother is seated with arms outstretched. Flanking her are two standing female figures: one representing Compassion and another that personifies Death. In 2019, Social Consciousness was relocated from the West Entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1985 this majestic bronze came to the University of Pennsylvania campus on extended loan from the parents of a Penn student.

Fredenthal was fascinated by patterns made by simple geometric objects. These four interpenetrating pyramidal forms of black painted steel depict the shape of an asymmetrical evergreen tree.

Sitting on a bench with a newspaper in hand and a pigeon at his side, this sculpture was a gift from the University of Pennsylvania’s class of 1962.

A giant, angular composition of tubular red steel intended to convey a feeling of unity and spiritual participation.

A series of stainless steel pavilions, tables, and concrete benches on the edge of campus create a social space for the University and community.

Originally commissioned by a Washington newspaper publisher, the sculpture pays tribute to the heroine of “The Old Curiosity Shop.”

The abstract bronze Striving was described by the artist, Charles Searles, as “symbolic of African American peoples’ long and continued journey forward toward a better and higher level of existence and achievement in the United States.”

Light is captured and reflected by thousands of dichroic glass panes attached to stainless steel mesh, creating a shimmering effect within the atrium of the University City Science Center.

NEW: Read our interview with Soo Sunny Park (2024)