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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II

sculpture by Barbara Hepworth in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 28, 2025
Entity authorityQ60752321 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II, or simply Ancestor II, is a 1970 bronze sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, installed outside the Columbus Museum of Art, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The approximately 8-foot (2.4 m) sculpture has four cubes stacked on top of one another. The Smithsonian Institution describes the artwork as abstract and allegorical, representing family. It was gifted by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company to commemorate the museum's 125th anniversary.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II” is sculpture by Barbara Hepworth in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Family, Figure and Ancestor, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Family, Figure and Ancestor is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “sculpture by Barbara Hepworth in Columbus, Ohio, U.S” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q60752321. Authority coordinates are 39.965, -82.988. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II primary sources, The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II archive and Family research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.