From "An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn", by Francis Morrone:

The German-born Carl Paul Jennewein (1890-1978)...designed the gilded, shallow reliefs on the giant curving piers [2-jpg, 3-jpg] on either side of the entrance—so shallow that if they weren't gilded they might not register to the eye. The reliefs' theme is the evolution of art and science...

The bronze screen [2-jpg] was the work of sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones...The left column, from top to bottom [ed. note: the Rube's picture contains only the top three rows] features Hester Pyrnne from Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", Babe the Blue Ox from the Paul Bunyan stories, Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle"...The center column features...archie and mehitabel...Hiawatha, Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby...the right column features...Meg from "Little Women", Jack London's White Fang, James Fennemore Cooper's Natty Bumpo...