Pigs On Parade: Golden Sow

Pigasso

Centennial Swine

Puzzle Pig

Hugely Pigtacular

Pigs at the Market

by Mindy Hardwick

PEOPLE SAY THAT IF YOU rub the snout of Rachel, the Pike Place Market's piggy bank, it will bring you good luck. If you've ever been to Seattle, Washington's hundred-and-one-year-old Pike Place Market, you've seen Rachel at the entrance where she welcomes visitors and accepts donations. Each year, Rachel collects nearly $9,000 that helps support the Market. Now that is a piggy bank!

     Piggy banks aren't a new idea for saving money. In fact, piggy banks have been with us for more than five-hundred years since a time known as the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages, also referred to as the medieval period, is the time in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in A.D. 475 up to about 1400. The Crusades, King Arthur legends, and feudal manors were all part of this time.

     In the Middle Ages, many dishes and pots were made of a type of clay called "pygg." When people wanted to save their coins, they dropped them into one of these clay plots. This was called a "pygg bank." However, as the years passed, people forgot that "pygg" was clay. In the 1800s, when people requested pygg banks, potters made banks shaped like pigs.

     As time passed, the idea of pigs and money continued to make an economic difference to people in the United States. For example, in the early 1900's, a ten-year-old boy, Wilbur Chapman, helped start the "Pig Bank Movement." Wilbur raised and sold a pig to help support a boy suffering from leprosy. A plaque dedicated to Wilbur can be found in White Cloud, Kansas.

     So, how did Rachel, the Pike Place Market Pig, find her way to Market? The story goes back to August 17, 1907, and the opening of Seattle's Pike Place Market. Middlemen had driven the cost of onions from ten cents to a dollar, and Seattleites wanted to meet the farmers who grew their produce. Consequently, the Market was created as a place where people could buy fruits and vegetables directly from the farmers. On the Market's opening day, eight farmers brought their wagons to the corner of First Avenue and Pike Street. That very same spot is where Rachel the Pike Place Pig greets visitors today.

     There is, however, more to Rachel's story. In 1971, the historic Market was threatened with being turned into a parking lot. The people of Seattle protested and voted to save both the Market and ensure social services for low-income people. These programs, however, needed money. So, in 1986, the Market Foundation held a contest and asked local artists to submit drawings of piggy banks. The Foundation hoped that a piggy bank could help raise money to support the Market's social services, including a senior center, childcare center, preschool, food bank, and medical clinic.

     About thirty entries were received, and the proposals were put on display at the Market. Eventually, the Pike Place Market Foundation selected Georgia Gerber, a Washington artist, to create a life-sized bronze piggy bank. "At first, a committee chose a proposal other than mine," says Gerber. "But for one reason or another that choice did not work out so the competition was revamped. This time three specific artists were invited to submit proposals, and again, I was not one of them. However, determined to be a part of the competition, I wrote a number of times to advocate for myself. The selection committee finally recognized my determination and invited me to participate in the second round."

     Gerber's design was inspired by a real pig named Rachel who lived a couple miles from her home on Whidbey Island. The real Rachel weighed in at 750 lbs! The bronze Pike Place Market pig, however, weighs two-hundred pounds less at 550 lbs. To get the commission, Gerber made a small clay model to bring to the committee presentation. Later that day, the committee called to tell her they had chosen her to create the Market pig.

     Gerber first sculpted Rachel in clay, then made a bronze cast at her studio and foundry. "I probably spent about five weeks sculpting her and then a couple months finishing the casting," explains Gerber.

     Now, Rachel the bronze pig had a job to do at the Market-collect money! In order to do this, she needed to have a money box which fit inside the bronze sculpture. Rachel's box was made by blacksmith, Jim Garret who also had been one of the final artists invited to submit a proposal in the competition. The Market Foundation committee wanted some way to safely collect the money each day. To do that, they had two boxes made so they can be switched daily.

     "The raised place on Rachel's back where the money is inserted is also a handle with a keyhole right next to it," says Gerber. "When it is unlocked, you can lift out a small section of the back which is connected to a steel cash box. At this point, the second cash box is then inserted and the one with the money is taken away."

     Now that you know the story of Rachel, next time you're at Pike Place Market, feed her a coin and help save a piece of Washington's history.

 

Pigs on Parade

RACHEL the bronze piggy bank isn't the only pig working to raise money at Seattle's Pike Place Market. During the summers of 2001 and 2007, fiberglass pigs took over the streets of Seattle as a public-art fund raiser called "Pigs on Parade." The 2001 fund raiser featured one-hundred seventy pigs that graced the streets of Seattle. In 2007, the Parade was scaled back to one-hundred pigs in order to have the number of pigs equal the number of years in the Market's history. In order to have multiple fiber glass pigs for artists to decorate, artist Georgia Gerber sculpted two full-sized clay poses of Rachel, one sitting and one standing.

     "The sculptures had to be simpler than the original Rachel," explained Gerber, "with softened features so the molds would allow fiberglass copies to be made." Once Gerber cast the large bronze pigs, they were sent to Spokane for the fiber glass molds to be created. When the fiber glass molds returned, Seattle artists decorated the pigs. The pigs lined the streets of Seattle from June to September and then were sold at auction to raise money for the Market's Foundation programs including a senior center, preschool, food bank and clinic.

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Author Mindy Hardwick has loved pigs and art ever since she she was old enough to recite the nursery rhymne "This Little Piggy Went to Market." She lives and writes in Lake Stevens, Washington. 

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