The Legend of the Angel Gabriel Weathervane 

By: Alyssa Thiede, Curator

October 1, 2025, updated December 17, 2025

"A creature strayed from the heavenly realm, the beautiful Minneapolis Gabriel still carries an aura of celestial mystery." – Dr. Karal Ann Marling, professor emerita of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota 

An effigy of the angel Gabriel, a divine messenger of the Abrahamic religions, this weathervane ironically cannot tell us his true origin nor even which way the wind is blowing. As such, historians and curators have struggled to separate fact from folklore to establish its provenance for many decades. The myth of Gabriel has grown to span two continents, three centuries, and establishes the weathervane as the first example of public art in what is now Minneapolis. (Fig. 1) 

Legend says that in 1846 the gilt sheet iron Gabriel was cast in Lyon, France by an unknown artist. Then, in 1853, Gabriel was displayed in the French exhibition at the World's Fair in New York City. The weathervane's whereabouts are not accounted for again until 1857, when James Winslow, a hotelier in the Minnesota Territory, purchased it from a fur trader in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Winslow then had it installed at his namesake hotel to attract tourists. 

When it opened in 1857, the Winslow House was advertised as the largest and finest American hotel west of Chicago. It stood on the east bank of the Mississippi River next to St. Anthony Falls in the village of St. Anthony, the forerunner of Minneapolis. The palatial five-story building offered impressive panoramic views of the only waterfall on the Great Mississippi, and the burgeoning urban environment that surrounded it. With 200 guest rooms, a dining room, billiards room, ballroom, and indoor plumbing with both cold and hot water, the Winslow House was the height of luxury in the Minnesota Territory. (Fig. 2) The installation of Gabriel added to the glamour of the Winslow House. According to newspaper accounts, the "art treasure from Europe" was "gazed at with wonderment by all visitors" and "settlers for miles around came to view the figure as though it were the eighth wonder of the world." 

The Winslow House closed in 1860, but Gabriel remained with the building which mostly sat empty for over a decade. In 1874, it was used by Macalester College until the school relocated to St. Paul, and from 1881-1886, Minnesota College Hospital utilized the building until it was razed to make way for the construction of the Industrial Exposition Building. 

According to local lore, when the Winslow House was demolished, Gabriel "was placed irreverently on the ground and temporarily forgotten" and "no one seemed to consider it of any value." Across the street from the site was a fire station, and "the abandoned pride of French artistry incited the pity of the firemen" who spirited away Gabriel "for the future posterity of Minneapolis." When construction of the Exposition Building was completed later that year, the firemen then presented Gabriel to the contractor, who placed it on a flagpole on the 275-foot tower of the building, where Gabriel once again triumphantly blew his trumpet for over fifty years. (Fig.3) 

Robert S. Leighton, president of First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Minneapolis, purchased the Exposition Building and razed it in 1940. Leighton had the foresight to save Gabriel from a second round of demolition and put the weathervane on display in the bank's lobby. Around this time, Joseph Zalusky set his sights on Gabriel. Zalusky was the executive director of Hennepin History Musuem, then known as Hennepin County Historical Society, and had pursued Gabriel for ten years before successfully arranging for the donation from Leighton in 1947, marking his proudest acquisition for our museum. (Fig. 4)

While in HHM's collection, Gabriel has often been prominently displayed. From 1998 to 2020, Gabriel's image was even adopted as the museum's logo. In 2007, Gabriel was a highlight of an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts called Wind and Whimsy: Weathervanes and Whirligigs from Twin Cities Collections. Curator Christopher Monkhouse asserted that Gabriel was "the first outdoor public sculpture in the Twin Cities and is, you could argue, where the Walker Sculpture Garden and the institute's Target Park, to say nothing of those sculpture parks in St. Paul, all come from." 

Now, Gabriel is in the spotlight again, back on display at the museum for the first time in five years as part of the exhibit, Winston: A Woman's Fight for Freedom in Minnesota. And this brings Gabriel's legend up to the present. However, this author feels compelled to revisit Gabriel's origin story once more. 

Given that James Winslow installed the weathervane at the Winslow House hotel as a publicity ploy, it is possible that the hotelier embellished its European provenance to add to its intrigue. Or perhaps it was the "fur trader" who sold it to him that fabricated the story to increase its value. Either way, the beginning of the legend is dubious. We'll never know for certain, but some historians, including this author, assert that Gabriel was likely cast in the United States, specifically New England, not in France. 

Though weathervanes are obviously an ancient invention, they were especially popular in America in the nineteenth century. Many were produced in New England, where noted metalsmiths cast weathervanes similar to this one. Their popularity has since solidified their place in Americana and them a highly collectible type of folk art. 

There are other similar American examples of Gabriel in private collections today. The most well-known is from 1840 by the New England metalsmith firm of Gould and Hazlett for a Massachusetts church. A watercolor of this weathervane went on to be featured in the Index of American Design, a Works Progress Administration project that commissioned paintings of art objects from the colonial period to 1900 that exemplified a distinctly American design aesthetic. (Fig.5) 

Beyond Gabriel's creation, or whether he was actually displayed at the World's Fair, there is even disagreement about his installation at the Winslow House. Earlier newspaper accounts say the weathervane was mounted on a pole in front of the hotel, but more recent accounts place it firmly on top of the cupola on the roof. Interestingly, none of the many photographs and drawings of the building show Gabriel in either location, except for one lithograph from 1874; and nineteenth century birds eye lithographs are not historically reliable sources as the creators often took artistic license. (Fig.6)

In the end, the task of establishing the truth in Gabriel's legend, while a noble endeavor, is likely an impossible one. An even more important task, and one far easier for this museum to accomplish, is to preserve the weathervane and its legend, both the facts and the folklore. Today, looking at Gabriel in person, without his shining gold plating, and at eye level rather than high in air, he may seem unimpressive, but the epic journey this sculpture may have taken to arrive at this small local history museum is impressive in it of itself.  

Selected Sources: 

• Abbe, Mary. "Minneapolis Institute of Arts curator Christopher Monkhouse heads to the Windy City," Star Tribune, June 3, 2007. 
• "The Angel Gabriel Now on Display," Star Tribune, September 8, 1940. 
• "Last St. Anthony Relic Once Was Paris Treasure," The Minneapolis Journal, December 7, 1919. 
• Marling, Karal Ann, and Corine Wegener. 2007. Wind and Whimsy: Weathervanes & Whirligigs from Twin Cities Collections. Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Institute of Arts 
• Potter, Merle. "First Art Piece Here Still Shows How Wind Blows," The Minneapolis Journal, September 28, 1930. 
• Thompson, Ruth. "Adventures of an Archangel," Star Tribune, August 25, 1947. 
• Wright, Bruce. "Object Lesson: Celestial Sounds," Hennepin History, Winter 1998, Vol. 57, No. 1.