Eight bronze children dance around the lower tiers of the Depew Memorial Fountain in front of you, completed here in University Park in 1919. Bronze figures rise from a five-tier Stony Creek pink granite base with three basins. Look closely: fish and eight children dance around the lower tiers, while a woman crowns the topmost tier dancing and playing cymbals.
The whole composition measures approximately 25 x 45 x 25 by 45 feet (7.6 m × 13.7 m), a generous island of bronze and pink granite in the park. On the south side of the large granite basin a memorial plaque declares: "Depew Memorial Fountain. A gift to Indianapolis from Emma Ely Depew in memory of her husband Richard Johnson Depew M.D. whose long and honorable life was spent in untiring service to his fellow men.
The fountain was part of George Edward Kessler's 1914 redesign of University Park, and it appears here as an original component of that plan. The sculptural work is associated with Karl Bitter and Alexander Stirling Calder, and Henry Bacon is also listed among the artists. Notice the plaque on the south side naming this a gift to Indianapolis from Emma Ely Depew, in memory of her husband.