I was thinking more about objects on Penn’s campus that have meaning to students, but not beyond that. The LOVE statue came to mind, as it has meaning in the greater Philadelphia area, but less meaning to the rest of the world. I found some interesting articles about the its history and the closeness that people from Philadelphia feel to it.
From the Philadelphia Encyclopedia, “the sculpture commonly known as “the LOVE statue,” first placed in Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy Plaza for the 1976 Bicentennial, was not the only sculpture of its kind—by the twenty-first century, it was not even the only sculpture of its type in Philadelphia. Yet LOVE, by Robert Indiana (1928-2018), came to be embraced by Philadelphians and the city’s promoters as a distinctive icon for the City of Brotherly Love.”
Foundations of Art, Design, + Digital Culture 