Bryant Park - Photo #37 - Bryant Park Free Open-Air Library

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bryantparklibrary1930s3
Image: US National Archive and Records Administration WPA Records Negative # 15381-D, via Brent McKee, LND.
Bryant Park's free open-air library, somewhere between 1934 and 1937, funded and staffed by the WPA. The sculpture on the left is of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe[1]; it has no known New Deal connection as yet, but the Parks Department notes that "the Metropolitan Museum of Art [displayed it] until 1932, when it was moved to Bryant Park. The fragile artwork was replaced with a more durable bronze casting following its installation at the park." It does not say when the replacement took place, but if it was in the 1934-1943 timeframe, it might well have been the PWAP or WPA group of Karl Gruppe that made the copy.
Reference
  1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - History, Parks Department website (accessed 5 May 2018).