Scientist of the Day - Robert Berks
Portrait bust of Enrico Fermi, bronze, by Robert Berks, 1966, Linda Hall Library (Linda Hall Library)
Robert Berks, an American sculptor, died May 16, 2011, at the age of 89. He is best known for his monumental portrait bronzes; a large bust of John F. Kennedy in the foyer of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; a larger-than-life statue of Albert Einstein at the National Academy of Sciences, also in Washington (third image), and a natural-sized bronze of Carl Linnaeus collecting plants at the Chicago Botanic Garden (fourth image).
Portrait of Robert Berks, with bust of FDR, undated photograph (wikipedia.org)
Berks has also done quite a few bronze portrait heads of presidents and other public figures; in a photo of President Biden in the White House in 2021, that is a Berks rendering of Robert Kennedy on the table beside him, a sculpture that Biden borrowed from the National Gallery of Art on his first day in office (fifth image).
Sculpture of Albert Einstein, bronze, by Robert Berks, 1979, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. (Wikimedia commons)
Sculpture of Carl Linnaeus, bronze, by Robert Berks, 1982, Chicago Botanic Garden (chicagobotanic.org)
President Biden in the White House, Feb. 2021, with a sculpture of Robert Kennedy, by Robert Berks, on the side table, New York Times (www.nytimes.com)
But before Berks sculpted these famous pieces, back in 1965, he was visited by Milton McGreevy, a trustee of the Linda Hall Library. Berks had his studio in Orient, Long Island, on the eastern tip of North Fork. Mr. McGreevy liked what he saw in Berks' studio, and he arranged for the library to commission an original bronze sculpture of Enrico Fermi from Berks. The bust was received by the library in 1966. For many years, it stood in the foyer to the exhibit room in the Annex. Now it rests on its pedestal in the reading room of the History of Science Collection (first image). The Fermi bust is life-size, and is much more appealing, to my taste, than the larger-than-life sculptures of Kennedy and Einstein. Our sixth image may show more detail – it is certainly better lighted than my iPhone snapshot (first image).
Portrait bust of Enrico Fermi, bronze, by Robert Berks, 1966, Linda Hall Library (photo by Jon Rollins)
Our library received the first casting of the Fermi bust; Berks was authorized to make ten in all. I do not know if he cast any more – I have been unable to locate any other than ours. There are lots of images of Berks’ Einstein and Kennedy on the web, but only one, before today, of his Fermi, one that I put up long ago when I wrote a post on Fermi. We have six bronze busts of scientists in our Library; it would be nice if professional photos of all of them were added to our website.
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
