Carved high above the towering main entrance, nine enrobed figures stand vigil and greet visitors to the historic General Hospital. Completed concurrently with the building’s construction in 1933, these nine sculptures were designed by Italian American artist Salvatore C. Scarpitta. Six of the statues represent important medical science innovators and researchers, and together, they symbolize nearly 2,500 years of Western medical science history. On the viewer’s left Louis Pasteur (1822-1895, French microbiologist who invented pasteurization), Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564, Belgian physician and author of a seminal book on human anatomy), and William Harvey (1578-1657, English doctor who was the first to correctly describe the circulatory system) stand. In the grouping on the viewer’s right we see Hippocrates (460-370 BC, Greek physician considered one of the founders of medical science), Galen (129-200 AD, Greek physician who wrote extensively about human anatomy), and John Hunter (1728-1793, Scottish surgeon famous for his advocacy of rigorous scientific experimentation). Each of these six sculptures has distinct facial features and holds a slightly different pose. In the center group are three allegorical statues: an elderly man and a woman holding a child stand on either side of a benevolent angel whose wings are outstretched and whose hands are folded in prayer.

Salvatore Cartaino Scarpitta (1887-1948) was born in Palermo, Italy. After graduating from the Instituto di Belli Arti in Palermo and Rome, he moved to the United States in 1910. Primarily a sculptor, he exhibited works in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and other museums. He executed a bust of Benito Mussolini that Il Duce placed in Rome, and a replica was made for the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. At the time these busts were created Mussolini was still popular at both home and abroad for bringing order to Italy following World War I. Scarpitta, awarded a prize by the American Institute of Architects for the three panels over the entrance of the Stock Exchange, also designed a marble relief over the entrance to the Stock Exchange's board room and the bas relief over the entrance of the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The text has been provided courtesy of Michael Several, Los Angeles, June 1998.