Celestial Sphere Woodrow Wilson Memorial

It differs from these in that the Sphere is supported upon the backs of four tortoises, taken from his models for the gates to the New York Bronx Zoo, which in turn rest upon a stepped socle bearing a cast representation of the Chinese "celestial sea" (Hai Shui Jiang Ya).

Thus the star, Aldebaran, which represents the eye of Taurus, dictates the character of the design, as is also the case of Regulus, Leo's Heart, and so with all the constellations.

After that the inter-relationship of the constellations was designed to create a harmonious ensemble.In a letter written by Ham Armstrong to Arthus Sweetser dated 30 June 1935, we read that the building committee considered the Celestial Sphere, which they had seen in Paris, superb, not only in originality of conception, but in delicacy of execution and in spirituality of meaning.

The team included such famous names as Angelo Colombo, Giuseppe Massari, and Richard Pousette-Dart, the renowned painter who collaborated with Herbert Kammerer on the sphere's lettering.

Bearzi cast the sphere's elements from these plaster moulds using a cire-perdu process from a bronze/zinc high-tin alloy with added lead.

Even though Manship designed it for the Court of Honour in front of the Assembly Hall, the question was raised in 1937 whether this space should be left completely open for a full panorama.

The sphere was installed in its present location, in the Court d'Honneur of the Ariana park of the Palais des Nations by the Bearzi Atelier in August 1939.

In the words of the artist it was designed "so that it would rotate slowly" around an axis turned to the Pole star, and it was intended to be illuminated at night.

In the files of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the following brief description was found: "A complex silence and solitude reigned; the great ceremony of dedication, with the 30th Assembly in session, had become impossible: only an occasional chance visitor and a few especially interested Americans watched the Italians putting the great sphere, representative of universal comity, into its place of high honour."

The alloy used by the Bearzi Atelier contracted so sharply during the winter that a considerable amount of water could and did enter the hollow constellations.

Today the Celestial Sphere stands in the Court d’Honneur of the Palais des Nations, itself an important landmark of the City of Geneva.