1.5.2023 ff, ♣ NYC: Central Park

Public art in Central Park, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_art_in_Central_Park: … Until recently, depictions of real (as opposed to imaginary) humans have been men, whereas depictions of women have been either mythological characters (angels or goddesses) or characters from literature. The installation in 2020 of the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument, depicting three female activists, was a first step in addressing this oversight …

Central Park, www.britannica.com/place/Central-Park-New-York-City: largest and most important public park in Manhattan … 840 acres (340 hectares) … extends between 59th and 110th streets (about 2.5 miles [4 km]) and between Fifth and Eighth avenues (about 0.5 miles [0.8 km]) … one of the first American parks to be developed using landscape architecture techniques … In the 1840s the increasing urbanization of Manhattan prompted the poet-editor William Cullen Bryant and the landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing to call for a new, large park to be built on the island … A plan was devised by the architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux that would preserve and enhance the natural features of the terrain to provide a pastoral park for city dwellers … During the park’s … construction millions of cartloads of dirt and topsoil were shifted to build the terrain, about 5,000,000 trees and shrubs were planted, a water-supply system was laid, and many bridges, arches, and roads were constructed. The completed Central Park officially opened in 1876 … The Metropolitan Museum of Art is in the park, facing Fifth Avenue …