The Lion Kings
New York Public Library
The main branch of the New York Public Library, dedicated to Stephen A. Schwatzman, the philanthropist who funded its latest round of renovation work, is another unmissable part of a tour around Manhattan. One of its most distinctive features are the two lions that flank the Library’s 5th Avenue entrance; the Library even uses a lion as its official logo and the statues have been called 'New York’s most beloved public sculptures'. It should come as no surprise, then, that the two marble beasts have names. When the Library was first inaugurated in the 1910s they were called Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, after the surnames of the founders of the Library; then, during the 1930s mayor Fiorello La Guardia nicknamed them Patience and Fortitude to symbolize the two virtues that would carry New Yorkers through the Great Depression, and the names stuck. Facing the Library entrance today, you can see Patience to the South (on your left) and Fortitude to the North (on your right).
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