Restored and reinstalled in the center of Philadelphia—the city of Brotherly Love—in 1976, Philadelphia’s LOVE sculpture is one of many around the world.
Versions of Robert Indiana’s work are found all over the United States: Maine to Florida; Arkansas to Arizona. Copies are found from South Korea to Kyrgyzstan, suggesting that LOVE is universal, all year round.
But in Philadelphia, it seems, there's an extra special, deeper connection.
On October 18, 1681, William Penn, the Quaker founder of the British colony, wrote a letter to the “Kings of the Indians in Pennsylvania” in which he uses the idea of love freely:
this great God hath written his law in our hearts, by which we are taught and commanded to love and help, and do good to one another, and not to do harm and mischief one to another.
…I desire to enjoy [this place] with your Love and Consent, that we may always live together as Neighbours and friends…
I have great love and regard towards you, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship, by a kind, just, and peaceable life, and the people I send are of the same mind…”
He signed the letter
I am your loving friend, William Penn.
As if he needed to clarify his position in November 1682, Penn wrote again:
We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. Let us try what love will do… Force may subdue but love gains.
You might say that Philadelphia has a 337-year old love affair with “love.”
Philadelphia's LOVE sculpture (reinstalled yesterday in time for Valentine’s Day) stands in the center of a redesigned LOVE Park, where there’s an even deeper connection between place, past and meaning.
Standing by LOVE, one cannot escape noticing that it's on the grand axis of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a powerful through line that begins a block to the southeast with a thirty-eight foot statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia City Hall and runs through the northwest quadrant of Center City, terminating at the so-called Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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