The untold tale of the MUSC frog

Imagine a couple of tired first-year pharmacy students, trudging alongside the Basic Science Building towards Bee Street after studying late one night. They glance wearily to their right, then back to their phones. Suddenly, they stop dead.

Wait. Was that… was that a giant frog?

They rub their eyes, wondering if maybe that fifth cup of coffee was one too many. They look back over to their right. Yep. There is a giant, anthropomorphic frog leaning on his cane. With, to top things off, an egret standing on his back.

And he’s not alone! There’s a half-dozen giant frogs strewn decorously about the MUSC campus. Two of them are right next to the new pharmacy building, which is connected to the front of the Basic Science Building (BSB).

The egret-toting amphibian next to the BSB is the pioneer of MUSC’s colony (or army or knot) of frogs. He was donated to campus by Charles Smith, a former MUSC employee who left behind a Ph.D. in engineering to follow his artistic star in 1974. He began sculpting dancers and clowns in copper overlaid with brass. Working from a home studio on John’s Island and showing his art on Seabrook Island, he met a patron who suggested he make a frog.

“He made a frog and the patron bought it,” said son Beau Smith, who inherited the frog-sculpting mantel when Charles Smith passed away last September. “He found that every time he put one out, it sold. He had stumbled into a niche.”

Beau Smith, an artist in his own right, still makes and sells the frogs at www.beautiful.frog.com. Smith frogs have been installed all over the world, and he estimates he’s made hundreds of large ones like MUSC’s.

The frogs have been a hit with students, faculty, and patients for more than a decade. There’s something endearingly goofy about frogs (the animal), with their giant, smooth-lipped mouths and their gangly shanks and the absurd sound of their very noun. The sculptures’ elegant, old-fashioned air creates a delightfully-comic contrast.

MUSC landed the frogs thanks to the efforts of Robin Smith (no relation), head of grounds for the enterprise. She worked with Charles Smith to install each of the statues the campus currently boasts, along with several others he lent MUSC to fill gaps in the campus’ statuary footprint.

"The addition of the frog sculptures to campus brings a joy to our patients, staff and visitors," said Robin Smith. "Creating spaces that are interactive, light hearted and colorful is what the Grounds Department loves most."

Beau Smith has continued the partnership started by Charles Smith, with plans to donate a frog installation in honor of his father somewhere on campus.

“The frogs give the MUSC grounds a nice artistic identity,” said Philip Hall, dean of MUSC College of Pharmacy. “Who doesn’t love a giant frog?”