1893 – Bust of Judge Douglas Broadman ~ Cornell Univerity
ByJudge Douglas(s) Broadman became the first Dean of the Cornell University Law School in 1887 when Hermon MacNeil was on the faculty. After the Judge’s death in 1891, MacNeil was commissioned to sculpt a bust of Professor Boardman for the University. This was one of MacNeil’s earliest works in marble. At the time he was residing in Chicago working on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
MacNeil taught modeling of sculpture at Cornell from 1886-89. He would have known Broadman who came to teach Law in 1887 after a distinguished career on the bench
According to Cornell Archives:
Douglass Boardman graduated from Yale in 1842 and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1845 and practiced law in Ithaca, New York. From 1848-1851 he served as District Attorney of Tompkins County, New York, and from 1852-1856 was County Judge. In 1856 he and Judge Francis M. Finch formed a law partnership which continued until 1866 when Boardman was elected a justice of the Supreme Court for the 6th district. He was a director of the First National Bank of Ithaca from its organization in 1864 and became its president in 1884; became a trustee of Cornell University in 1875; and was appointed Dean when the Cornell Law School was organized. Judge Boardman retired from the Supreme Court in 1887, and died in 1891. [ http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM01622.html ]