Skip to main content
Advanced Search
overall
"Lucy", Metal Elephant. Margate City, New Jersey

"Lucy", Metal Elephant. Margate City, New Jersey

Former Title"Lucy" Metal Elephant at Former Motel, Margate, near Atlantic City, NJ
Artist Jim Dow (American, born 1942)
Date1972
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 8 × 9 15/16 inches (20.32 × 25.22 cm)
Mount and mat: 11 × 14 inches (27.94 × 35.56 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2018.51.32
SignedSigned on mount recto, lower right, in pencil.
InscribedTitled, dated, and editioned on mount recto, lowe right, in pencil: "FORMER MOTEL, MARGATE NEAR ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY. MARCH 1972. #1/25"
Markingsnone
Edition/State/Proofed. 1/25
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionImage of a building in the shape of an elephant with windows in her torso and a small covered structure on her back; many of the boards are broken or missing. A small fence surrounds the elephant.Gallery Label

In March 1972, Dow photographed Lucy the Elephant, a well-known tourist destination near Atlantic City, New Jersey. For more than eighty years, the six-story colossus stood overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Its novelty made it a popular subject for numerous postcards.

 

By the 1960s, Lucy had fallen into disrepair and was slated for demolition until a group of concerned citizens raised money to rescue her. Gradually, the ninety-ton creature was refurbished. Dow’s photograph shows the creature in a decrepit state just prior to renewal, strips of sheet metal “skin” peeling away from the steel frame.

Provenance
The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2018;   
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.
Copyright© Jim Dow
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.