Lorann Jacobs is among York County's most prominent sculptors

Editor’s note: James McClure adapted a story that he wrote with Jamie Kinsley on Witnessing York.com into the following column. An expanded version and a catalog of sculptor Lorann Jacobs’ work can be referenced on the Witnessing York site, an initiative that calls attention to historically critical places and diverse people. Lorann Jacobs is Jamie Kinsley’s grandmother.

This is a story about how a sculpture of a baby in love with turtles inspired a 9-year-old girl in love with books.

The 9-year-old girl went on to sculpt great art of her own.

But as big as she made her popular monuments and statues, she continued to craft small sculptures - some about the size of the turtle-loving baby.

The story begins when William and Salome Baker Stauffer honored their father by funding a children’s wing at York’s Martin Library.

Their gift unknowingly influenced the York art scene for generations to come, and this chain of events shows how communities and libraries work.

Part of that 50- by 60-foot addition dedicated to John E. Baker in the 1950s featured a bronze figure that became known to countless youngsters - the “Turtle Baby.” Noted architect William Dize designed an oval pool and fountain that became the setting for Edith Parsons’ bronze sculpture, artwork that has inspired legions of children.

Lorann Jacobs, the 9-year-old girl visiting the library, was one of those taken in by the sculpture.

She’d visit the children’s wing of Martin Library as a child, gazing up at the magnificent work.

“As a kid, I loved that,” Jacobs said. “I thought that’s the most beautiful thing I [had] ever seen. I never dreamed I could do something like that.”

But years later, Lorann Jacobs, in fact, sculpted something like “that,” meaning art akin to her “Turtle Baby” role model. Indeed, she molded hundreds of bronze sculptures - baby- and giant-sized - that have helped shape York’s streetscapes and brightened gardens in York County and the region.

More: Historian connects York County families with North Carolina homeland

More: York County recovers from polio, Depression, then came Pearl Harbor attack

You might be unfamiliar with her name, but you likely know Lorann Jacobs’ sculptures: “The Tinker” near the York County Judicial Center, the Vietnam War memorial at the York Expo Center Fairgrounds, Lafayette at the Plough Tavern, Continental Square’s World War II monument, Brooks Robinson at PeoplesBank Park, and war dog Pal along the rail trail.

The inventory of Jacobs’ monuments goes on and on, but it took a lot, especially for a woman, to break into York County’s art scene.

Jacobs crafts with metal

Jacobs started working with metal at a foundry in Lancaster in the late 1980s. She remembers a few of her male coworkers coughing in her face or calling her derogatory names.

Even worse, some would intentionally sabotage her work. As she walked past them carrying a piece of art, they’d push doors open, hitting her and hoping the piece would break on the ground.

After seven years of torment, she left the foundry to pursue art full-time. “It never relented,” Jacobs says. “Once I got out of there, I didn’t have to deal with them anymore.”

Her break came when she created “The Workers of York” at the York County History Center’s Agricultural and Industrial Museum as part of the county’s 200th anniversary in 1999.

“Didn’t get paid a lot for that,” she said, “but I did it to prove that I can do it.”

Eventually, she found smaller galleries and then outdoor shows to sell her art.

“It’s hard to find out where to go,” she says. “Other artists wouldn’t tell you. But now you can go to the internet and can find out anything. With Facebook, everyone knows where everyone is going.”

Without a network of support, “women were just passed over,” Jacobs says. Creating bronze sculptures used to be a space reserved mostly for men. What used to be blocked to women like Jacobs is open to all who can get through the judging panel to make it in an art show.

It’s still a competitive field, but with some luck, some support, and a lot of hard work, women can now create and display their sculptures.

The sculptor’s York legacy

Some people today pause and wonder about the heart, mind and hands behind the Jacobs’-made bronze public sculptures around York and beyond.

Who created these public art pieces that serve as signatures on York’s streetscapes? What was the occasion for the making of a sculpture? How much do these monuments weigh? What do they say?

We ask those questions today, and because these statues are made of bronze with its durability, people living 50 years from now might wonder about the same things.

How could we make such a prediction? Well, we do so today with the distinct buildings that the York-based Dempwolf firm designed. In Harrisburg, architect Charles Howard Lloyd’s buildings command the same curiosity, as does C. Emlen Urban’s designs in Lancaster.

So if Dempwolf buildings help define York’s skyline today, might we conclude that Jacobs’ public sculptures will remain a major force in shaping York’s streetscapes in 2071?

Further, many of Jacobs’ public sculptures were made at the time – the late 1900s to early 2000s – that another large-scale art form by women artists in York became very public. Marion Stephenson painted the “Farm to Table” outdoor mural and Connie Burns Watkins produced “The Four Chaplains” panel in the Murals of York program. Justine Landis and Mary L. Straup adapted Lewis Miller’s work to mini-murals in Cherry Lane.

Certainly, women were part of York’s art community in the 20th century. The work of Margaret Sarah Lewis, for one, was well known in the community. But public art with size and visibility by women artists in York was rare until Jacobs and the muralists set to work.

To put a finer point on it, public art pieces by women who sculpted were simply not found in York County before Jacobs’ “Workers of York” was made. So Jacobs can be seen as a key influence in the emergence of the many prominent women artists in York County today.

Two figures, together

The smiling “Turtle Baby” inspires children in the Martin Library “Sensory Garden” today. Actually, the small sculpture stands for a moment in the library’s atrium to get out of the way of renovation underway in the children’s area.

The baby is joined by a bronze of a smiling girl holding flowers and wearing an expression of delight. In 2005, Jacobs made that sculpture for Martin, and her creation initially stood near the storybook cottage in the children’s wing.

Later, she was moved to the Sensory Garden. In that small space, two figures in this story met. There she joined the “Turtle Baby,” the sculpture that inspired the sculptor who created the smiling girl with her flowers.

Maybe someday another youngster visiting the library’s garden will fall in love with the sculptures of the baby holding turtles and the girl hugging flowers.

And be inspired to create great art, big and small.

Jim McClure is the retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored eight books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Lorann Jacobs is among York County's most prominent sculptors