Visual art
Marshall Fredericks
1908–1998 · sculptor
Sculptor of The Spirit of Detroit, the city's best-loved statue, who lived and worked in the Birmingham area for more than sixty years.
- Born
Rock Island, Illinois- Died
Birmingham, Michigan
aged 90- Birth name
- Marshall Maynard Fredericks
- Detroit years
- 1932–1998
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Fredericks studied with Carl Milles in Stockholm, and in 1932 Milles invited him to teach at Cranbrook and its schools in Bloomfield Hills. He taught there until he joined the armed forces in 1942, and afterward made metro Detroit his permanent home, living in Birmingham and keeping studios in Royal Oak and Bloomfield Hills. His first major Detroit work was the Levi L. Barbour Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle (1936), a leaping gazelle surrounded by native Michigan animals. For Northland Center in Southfield he made the playful Boy and Bear, now in the Southfield Public Library. His best-known piece is The Spirit of Detroit (1958), a 16-foot seated bronze figure holding a gilded sphere and a family group, placed at the entrance of what is now the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. It has become a civic mascot, dressed in the jerseys of Detroit teams during playoff runs. He also designed the Wayne County seal and is buried in Birmingham.
Highlights
- The Spirit of Detroit (1958), Coleman A. Young Municipal Center
- Levi L. Barbour Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle (1936)
- Boy and Bear (1954), first made for Northland Center
- Designed the seal of Wayne County
- Taught at Cranbrook, 1932–1942
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1955–1958
The Spirit of Detroit
His 16-foot bronze at the entrance of the city-county building, Detroit's most familiar civic symbol.
Worked here · 1936
Levi L. Barbour Memorial Fountain, Belle Isle
His gazelle fountain on Belle Isle, ringed by four native Michigan animals.
Worked here · 1954
Boy and Bear – Southfield Public Library
Made for Northland Center in 1954 and moved to the library lobby after the city bought the mall in 2016.
Buried here · 1998
Greenwood Cemetery (Birmingham)
His burial place in his adopted hometown.