Midway Sprite

These Sprites, as the sculptures by Alfonso Ianelli were called, originally adorned Wright's Midway Gardens complex in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. When the facility was torn down in 1929, the Sprites were assumed to be lost forever. (As a side note, Wright had constructed Midway Gardens so solidly that tearing it down drove the demolition company into bankruptcy.) Years later, in the 1940's a number of the Sprites were discovered on a farm in Wisconsin and returned to Taliesin. The ones at the Arizona Biltmore hotel are copies - Olgivanna Wright, Frank's widow, allowed molds to be pulled from the originals and poured copies were given to the Biltmore. The one in this photo is an original Chicago Sprite. Of all of Wright's sculptures, the Sprites are pretty much my favorites. Fuji F70EXR