Joe Magarac

Object number79.2

Artist Frank Vittor (1888 - 1968)

Datec. 1950

Mediumplaster

Credit LineGift of Reverand Bernard Hrico

DescriptionPlaster cast. A steelworker figure stands beside two bessemer convertors pouring molten steel which pool to form a third stream. The three streams represent the three rivers of Pittsburgh. Relief sculpture around base portrays various ethnic and labor groups with tools of the steel making trade, as well as the seal of the city of Pittsburgh.Dimensions36 in. (91.4 cm)
Historical NotesPlaster cast made as a proposed design for a Point State Park monument. Despite a public campaign in support of it, the statue was never erected. The piece came to be known as "Joe Magarac," the mythical steelworker of Pittsburgh lore, but when the maquette was first produced it was known as "The Steel Worker." A June 5, 1951 article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette used the name "Joe Magarac" to describe Vittor's piece, but it does not seem that Vittor himself ever titled it. The figure resembles steel worker figures in his early pieces, including "Spirit of Steel" from the 1926 Sesquicentennial in Phialdelphia and "Steel," the bas-relief on the Westinghouse Memorial Bridge. In other newspaper accounts about this 1951 piece, it is titled simply "The Steel Worker."

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