Bethesda Fountain sits at the heart of Central Park, crowned by Emma Stebbins's Angel of the Waters, the city's first public sculpture by a woman. The statue commemorates the 1842 opening of the Croton Aqueduct, which ended New York's cholera epidemics by delivering clean water to thousands of homes. Stebbins modelled the angel's face on her lover, Charlotte Cushman, a celebrated actress who played both Romeo and Juliet in her career and died of breast cancer despite seeking water cures abroad.

The fountain rises from what architect Calvert Vaux considered his greatest achievement, the Bethesda Terrace. Walk beneath the roadway here and you'll find the only ceiling in the world decorated with Minton tiles, typically used for British kitchen floors. Above ground, Jacob Wrey Mould's decorative work blends Italian, Gothic, Celtic and Moorish elements.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the fountain's place in the park's design and explain how Stebbins turned private grief into a public monument, connecting the angel's lily of purity to the healing waters of a biblical pool.