Spirit of Communication, Sculpture in Dallas, US

Spirit of Communication is a gilded bronze sculpture of a winged male figure in an outdoor plaza of the AT&T Discovery District in Dallas. Standing on a small sphere, the man rises on his toes with one arm up and the other holding thick cables around his body.

The sculpture was made by Evelyn Beatrice Longman and installed atop the AT&T headquarters at 195 Broadway in New York in 1916. After leaving that rooftop, it moved to Madison Avenue, then to New Jersey, and later to Dallas, where it arrived in 2009.

The figure is widely known by the nickname “Golden Boy” and has long served as a corporate symbol for the Bell System and its successors. Visitors often notice how the raised arm and lightning bolts echo old representations of Zeus, linking a modern communication company to classical imagery.

The sculpture stands outdoors and can be viewed from close range at the south end of the Discovery District, near the intersection of Wood Street and South Akard. A walk around it shows different details of the wings and cables, best seen in daylight when the gold surface reflects the sun.

Although now fixed in one spot, this gilded figure has moved across several company headquarters over the decades. Its first rooftop position in New York allowed it to be seen from far below, but today it stands at ground level, where passersby can see the individual gold leaf pieces covering the bronze.