The Experience
The greatest hits of the famed 19th-century sculptor are all here – bronze casts of Eternal Springtime , The Gates of Hell , The Burghers of Calais , and, of course, The Thinker .
Bold, energetic and emotionally intense, these works are set in a temple-like building down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which administers the collection.
Many of the sculptures are displayed outdoors in a formal garden or near the reflecting pool — offering one of Philadelphia’s most romantic settings.
The History
The collection was brought together by Jules Mastbaum, an early film exhibitor in Philadelphia, who began assembling the works in 1913 with the idea of eventually donating them to the city.
Mastbaum hired Jacques Greber, the French landscape architect responsible for the layout of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and his collaborator Paul Philippe Cret, to design the elegant gardens and the building in which the works are now housed. He died before the project was completed in 1929.
Getting There & Parking
Limited metered parking is available on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, N. 21st Street and N. 22nd Street.
Parking is also available at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Parking Garage, located across from the main building on Anne d’Harnoncourt Drive.
