BPL’s Untitled ‘Eagle’ project
Library seeks new name for beloved bird statue roosting at Central Branch
BY COLIN MIXSON
It won’t be “the Brooklyn Eagle”
for long.
Bookworms with the
Brooklyn Public Library are
asking readers to vote on a
new name for the historic eagle
statue currently perched
in the lobby of the book lender’s
Central Branch, which
once nested on the Brooklyn
Daily Eagle’s Dumbo headquarters
until the newspaper
closed in 1955 after a century
in print.
Local readers can choose
one of fi ve monikers proposed
by a team that included librarians,
members of the book
lender’s literary society the
Brooklyn Eagles, and experts
from the Brooklyn Historical
Society.
The names up for a vote include:
• “Ingersoll,” after former
Borough President Raymond
Ingersoll, who secured funding
for the library’s Central
Branch in Prospect Heights.
• “Winged Wonder,” in
reference to an inscription
adorning an exterior wall of
the Central Branch, which
reads, “Here is enshrined the
magic word that winged wonder
starts.”
• “Dodger,” after the Brooklyn
Dodgers Major League
Baseball team, which represented
Kings County until the
club’s traitorous move to Los
Angeles in 1957.
• “Harmony,” because
Brooklyn should represent
harmony, of course.
• “Emily,” for Emily Warren
Roebling , the heroine behind
the Brooklyn Bridge,
who shepherded construction
of the legendary span to completion
after her husband was
crippled by Cassions Disease,
or the bends.
The mascot of the former
Brooklyn Daily Eagle — which
bears no relationship to the
current periodical of the same
name — sat atop the newspaper’s
old Washington Street
headquarters until its demolition
in 1955, when the statue
was handed off to the Long Island
Historical Society, now
Brooklyn Historical Society.
The copper-cast creature
dwelt in the lobby of the society’s
Pierrepont Street headquarters
COURIER L 20 IFE, DEC. 7–13, 2018 M B G
in Brooklyn Heights
until the 1960s. But the historians
eventually loaned the
eagle to the Brooklyn Museum
from 1966 to 1987, and then in
1997 loaned it to the Brooklyn
Public Library, where it
has roosted in the Central
Branch’s lobby ever since.
And in October of this year,
Brooklyn Historical Society
made its loan a permanent gift
to the book lender.
Library patrons have until
Dec. 13 to vote for their favorite
name via the book lender’s
website, and reading-room offi
cials will announce the eagle’s
new title before the end of
the year.
But not every local is ready
for the Brooklyn Eagle to get
a new name. The founder and
former owner of this newspaper’s
sister publication, the
Brooklyn Paper — who once
coveted the legendary moniker
for a planned offshoot of
his hyper-local broadsheet —
said library leaders shouldn’t
try to rename history.
“It’s a terrible idea,” said
Ed Weintrob. “It’s a key piece
of history — why would they
want to rename it?”
But the naming contest
isn’t about changing the past
— it’s about getting people to
care about the historic statue
in the present, according to
head of the Brooklyn Historical
Society.
“When people do contests
like this, part of it is getting
people to stop and pay attention
to something they may
not have thought about before,”
said Deborah Schwartz.
“It’s a playful way to use the
internet and get people engaged
in history.”
BIRD IS THE WORD: The soon-to-be-renamed eagle. Gregg Richards