The department of sculpture was placed under the direction of one of the
most distinguished sculptors in the country. Karl Bitter, of New York,
whose death from an automobile accident took place a few weeks after the
Exposition opened. He gathered around him an extraordinary array of
co-operators, including many of the most brilliant names in the world of
art, with A. Stirling Calder as the acting chief, the man on the ground.
Though he did not contribute any work of his own, he was active in
developing the work as a whole, taking special pains to keep it in
character and to see that, even in it its diversity, it gave the
impression, of harmony.
Calder welcomed the chance to work on a big scale and to carry out big
ideas. With Bitter he visited San Francisco in August, 1912, for a
consultation with the architectural commission. Minutely they went over
the site and examined the architectural plans. Then they picked the
sculptors that they wished to secure as co-operators.
In December, 1912, Bitter and Calder made another visit to San Francisco
for further conferring with the architectural commission, bearing
sketches and scale models. Bitter explained his plans in detail and
asked for an appropriation. He was told that he should be granted six
hundred thousand dollars. The amount was gradually reduced till it
finally reached three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.
It was at this period that Calder submitted his plan for the Column of
Progress. He had worked it out in New York and had the scale models made
by MacNeil and Konti. It won the approval of McKim, Mead & White, who
declared that it made an ideal feature of the approach from the bay side
to their Court of the Universe, then called the Court of the Sun and
Stars.
The next few months of preparation in New York meant getting the
sculptors together and working out the designs. The first meeting of the
sculptors took place in January, 1913, in Bitter's studio, with a
remarkable array of personages in attendance, including D. C. French,
Herbert Adams, Robert Aitken, James E. Fraser, H. A. MacNeil, A. A.
Weinman, Mahonri Young, Isidore Konti, Mrs. Burroughs and several
others. In detail Bitter explained the situation in San Francisco and
outlined his ideas of what ought to be done. Already Henry Bacon had
sent in his design for his Court of the Four Seasons and sculptors were
set to work on its ornamentation, Albert Jaegers, Furio Piccirilli, Miss
Evelyn Beatrice Longman and August Jaegers, a time limit being made for
the turning in of their plans.