Name/Title
Peace SymbolEntry/Object ID
0000.1357.0001Description
Multiple works by Robert Engman can be found on Penn’s campus. Peace Symbol, located just outside the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, has had a meaningful and dramatic history.
The brushed stainless steel sculpture was designed and welded by Engman and eight University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts students. Installed in 1969, the sculpture served as a symbol of student protest activity during the Vietnam War. Students would often gather at the Peace Symbol and hold antiwar demonstrations and petitions to confront the University’s lack of an official stance toward the war.
The Peace Symbol was later the site of a tragic death; in 1996, the political activist Kathy Change committed suicide through self-immolation in front of the sculpture. Annual memorial events have occurred at the site ever since.Type of Sculpture
Free StandingArtwork Details
Medium
Steel, Stainless SteelMade/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Robert EngmanAttribution
Under supervision ofRole
SculptorArtist
StudentsRole
SculptorArtist
David LindquistRole
SculptorDate made
1969Dimensions
Dimension Description
SizeHeight
104 inWidth
156 inDepth
3 in