Signing of the Treaty

The first sculpture was designed by Karl Bitter for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It depicts Robert Livingston, standing, James Monroe seated, and Francois Barbe-Marbois signing the treaty by which the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, commonly known as the "Louisiana Purchase" and Missouri became the second state formed out of this purchase. The second sculpture is the "Fountain of the Arts and Sciences. These fountains, designed by Robert Aitken, are characterized by their dignity and simplicity. He believed that the Arts and Sciences were the guardians of the welfare of the state. The third sculpture if the Fountain of the Centaurs. The large figures in this fountain are mythological half animal, half human creatures knows as centaurs. They are seen wrestling with serpents and giant fish to represent the wildness of the West, The smaller figures are sea urchins. They are spraying water of the centaurs with their fish to represent the playfulness of the small animals of the West. The fourth sculpture of the Ten Commandments was a stone marker presented to the state by the Missouri State Aerie Fraternal Order of Eagles on June 28,1958.