Archive for February, 2023
#6 ~~ A “Brooks-by-MacNeil” Portrait closes Brooks~MacNeil Month ~~ Feb. 27, 2023
Posted by: | Comments“HAPPY BIRTHDAY
UNCLE HERMON”
HE WAS BORN 157 YEARS AGO TODAY
FEBRUARY 27TH, 1866
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (American, 1866-1947) CAROL BROOKS MACNEIL, N.D. Bronzed plaster 14 1/2″ x 8″ x 7 1/2″ Signed: H. A. MACNEIL. Photo by JOEL ROSENKRANZ 1986 (#5430)
THIS UNDATED CLAY PORTRAIT BUST OF
“CARRIE” BY HERMON
“Brooks-by-MacNeil” Portrait
closes Brooks~MacNeil Month ~~ on Feb. 27, 2023
Thanks, Joel Rosenkranz
This photo was included in an email to Jim Haas, MacNeil biographer, and myself from Joel Rosenkranz.
Hi Jim & Dan:
The upcoming exhibition on A.F Brooks in Kenilworth prompted me to go through photos I took in 1986 when I first visited descendants and purchased a variety of work including this portrait of Carol Brooks by Hermon.
It is plaster with a colored bronze surface.
I sold it in 1987 and have no idea where it is now but at least there is this record.
Best, Joel
So on this the 157th Anniversary of Hermon MacNeil’s birth, this portrait seems an appropriate “Last Look” for our Brooks~MacNeil Month of 2023.
Sculpted in clay, finished with bronze patina, the piece radiates a lot of love and care. Bearing no date by Hermon clay-portrait Bust of Carol (Carrie) Brooks MacNeil
NO DATE? Made by her husband, Hermon MacNeil at an unknown date.
WHAT Features might date it?
- it appears to be a “young Carrie” Possibly, dating to her early days before marriage?
- clay, but finished lovingly in a bronze patina;
- but never cast in bronze, which is an expensive process.
- seems to come from a period of a young sculptor, with more talent and more love than cash.
- preserved in unknown hands for 80+ years
- photographed and purchased by Joel Rosenkranz in 1986
- then sold in 1987
- NOW IN A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SOME WHERE, but
- HERE on //HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com FOR ALL TO ENJOY
ALL Offered to you NOW as a celebration of Carol “CARRIE” Brooks MacNeil.
AS OUR FINALE TO THIS
“2023 MACNEIL-BROOKS MONTH”
On the 157th Anniversary of
“Uncle Hermon MacNeil’s birth
February 27th, 1866.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Appeal:
If you have any history or insight about this piece
by Hermon MacNeil, PLEASE COMMENT HERE
or email us at HAMacNeil@gmail.com
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#5 ~ A ‘Supreme Secret’ from the MacNeil Family ~ The “Tortoise and Hare” ~ Feb. 2023
Posted by: | Comments#1. A “Tortoise and Hare” are hiding at the Supreme Court
That’s no FABLE, Aesop!
They’ve been there for 91 years. Hiding on back of the building.
Can you see them there?
The ‘Hare’ of Aesop’s fable as to ‘Slow but Steady’ Justice.
The ‘Tortoise’ of Aesop’s fable as MacNeil’s Finale of Justice.
Maybe this
HELPS?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Plus #2 the
‘Supreme Secret’
from the Family …
MacNeil.
Guess, WHO SCULPTED the Tortoise and the Hare on the East Pediment?”
NOW, just this week,
Carolyn Saul (‘Carrie’ MacNeil’s grand niece)
shared a MacNeil family story, 3 generations old.
“I was always told that
Hermon let one of his sons
design the tortoise and the hare.
Have you heard that?
[Yes, I heard that “tender tidbit” years ago
but it never became a story on this site.]
WHICH son, Claude or Alden? This bit of MacNeil Lore does not say. Claude worked in aviation. Alden was an architect, who formally studied art at Fountainbleu.
The brothers are described in the March 1928 Obituary of their younger sister Joie Katherine MacNeil as follows:
She leaves behind her parents, two brothers, Alden a recent graduate of Cornell University and now a student in the famous Fountainbleu art school, and Claude, an aviator and mechanical engineer on the staff of the Sikorsky Aircraft Manufacturing Company at College Point. Source: The Daily Star, Queens Borough, Tuesday Evening, March 20, 1928. Page 4, column 7.
Alden seems the more probable
of Hermon’s sons to assist in the 1932
rendering of the East Pediment pair
of the Tortoise and Hare.
NOW, Carolyn’s comment validates that idea from
MacNeil-family-lore
through three generations.
~ ~ ~ ~
The MacNeil’s SUPREME COURT statues
“JUSTICE THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY”
Are the most viewed pages on this website.
Here’s just two days of page views to sample from MacNeil Month:
| Page Titles viewed on Feb. 10, 2023 |
Views | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ Moses Revisited ~ ~ ~ | 6 | |
| 2. Home page / Archives | 5 | |
| 3. Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court
TOTALS: |
2
13 |
| Page Titles viewed on Feb. 16, 2023 | Views | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Home page / Archives | 4 | |
| 2. Tortoise and Hare taken to Supreme Court | 3 | |
| 3. Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court | 1 | |
| 4. NSS_Presidents1929~HAM-JEF-AAW-DCF-HA | 1 | |
| 5. Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ Moses Revisited ~ ~ ~ | 1 | |
| Total views of posts on your blog | 10 |
#4 ~ Presidents Day 2023 – MacNeil-Brooks Month
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil’s 3 Sculptures
for Presidents Day
2023
Presidents Day honors the February birthdays of
George Washington (Feb 22nd) and
Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12th)
Presidents’ Day, officially Washington’s Birthday, in the United States,
(third Monday in February)
popularly recognized as honoring
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
The day is sometimes understood as a celebration of the
birthdays and lives of all U.S. presidents.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
View MacNeil’s Presidents yourself > > > >
George Washington – Postings of MacNeil’s
George Washington as Commander-in-Chief
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Abraham Lincoln – Postings of MacNeil’s
Abraham Lincoln – Prairie Lawyer
William McKinley – Postings of MacNeil’s
William McKinkey
HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY 2023
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BACK ROW (lt. to rt.) George Maher, Elizabeth Brooks Maher (I always called her Aunt Bess. I was 16 when she died.), Carrie, Arthur Wyld (my grandfather) and Hermon. On the front row, Frances Brooks Wyld (my grandmother), Ellen Woodworth Brooks (my great grandmother) and Alden Finney Brooks (my great grandfather).
After contacting
Carolyn Saul,
I sent her a family photo
of MacNeil-Brooks faces
that I thought
she could recognize.
~ ~ ~ ~ 0 ~ ~ ~ ~
and sure enough here’s what she said …
In the back row (left to right) Carolyn named her relatives :
- George Maher and
- Elizabeth Brooks Maher (Carolyn’s Aunt Bess)
- Carol Brooks MacNeil (Carolyn’s Great Aunt ‘Carrie’)
- Arthur Wyld (Carolyn’s grandfather)
- Hermon MacNeil (Carolyn’s great uncle by marriage)
Seated in the front row:
- Frances Brooks Wyld (Carolyn’s grandmother),
- Ellen Woodworth Brooks (Carolyn’s great grandmother) and
- Alden Finney Brooks (Carolyn’s great grandfather)
CAROLYN CONTINUED WITH:
Thanks for the photo, too. You probably already know, but the people in the area photo are George Maher, Elizabeth Brooks Maher (I always called her Aunt Bess. I was 16 when she died.), Carrie, Arthur Wyld (my grandfather) and Hermon. On the front row, Frances Brooks Wyld (my grandmother), Ellen Woodworth Brooks (my great grandmother) and Alden Finney Brooks (my great grandfather).
I received the last medallion, thank you! I loved The Galley issue you sent. I appreciate you including it. You have a long way to drive from South Dakota to Virginia! I would love to meet you the next time you come through this way.
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Our 1st Serendipity. In December 2022 an order came in for three (3) MacNeil Medallions.
In eight years of offering these commemoratives, no one has ever asked for three. I was so surprised, that I mistakenly shipped 2 medals.
Duuh ...
The buyer pointed out my error; and I apologized and sent a third medallion.
The 2nd Serendipity. In corresponding with the buyer, I asked,
“Are you a SLQ (Standing Liberty Quarter) collector or a
MacNeil enthusiast?”
The answer below surprised and pleased me greatly
“I am the great niece of Carol (Carrie) MacNeil. Alden Finney Brooks was my great grandfather. I have been corresponding with Jim Haas for many years. Your medallion is beautiful.“
While these medallions have reached over a hundred people I’ve labeled: “Friends of HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com”; I have never knowingly found a MacNeil relative. In the second mailing included an article I wrote for The Galley (the Clan MacNeil Magazine) to make amends.
The buyer, Carolyn Saul, added:
“I have been looking at your website. You have a treasure!
I have been to Brookgreen Gardens to see Hermon’s statues and to the Columbus Capitol to see his work there. Well and the Supreme Court Building. I was always told that Hermon let one of his sons design the tortoise and the hare. Had you heard that?
The ‘Tortoise’ of Aesop’s fable as MacNeil’s Finale.
The ‘Hare’ of Aesop’s fable as to ‘Slow but Steady’ Justice.
While I heard that “tender tidbit” years ago, it slipped from my memory, and never became a story on this site. NOW, Carolyn’s comment validates it as MacNeil-family-lore through three generations. It makes a fitting “punch line” to Hermon’s “humor” of framing the East Pediment with a Greek (Eastern) fable.
Definition: Serendipitous – occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way, “a serendipitous encounter”
Stay Tuned for our 3rd Serendipity in next post.
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#1 Post ~ 2023 “MacNeil~Brooks” Month
Posted by: | Comments‘MacNeil Month’ becomes ‘MacNeil~Brooks Month’ in 2023
Hermon A MacNeil about 1895
Carol ‘Carrie’ Brooks about 1895
Each February is MacNeil Month.This year it is MacNeil~Brooks Month
<- Two Sculptors made a young looking pair ->
From their first meeting at the
Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893,
to the Eagles Nest**
[a summer artist colony in Oregon, Illinois.]
then the Reinhart Award of 1895;
Hermon and Carrie knew what they wanted next. So…
Hermon MacNeil and Carol ‘Carrie’ Brooks
were married on Christmas Day 1895.
Here’s Hermon and Carrie nestled with some visiting MacNeils.
Left to right: Hermon, Carrie, Alice MacNeil (Hermon’s sister), Wilbur MacNeil (Hermon’s younger Brother), and Elizabeth Louisa Barlow (Wilbur’s wife). The child is Claude (son of Hermon and Carrie. Location: Side porch of MacNeil home at College Point, N.Y. [Credit: Photo courtesy of James Haas, MacNeil biographer].
James Haas, Hermon MacNeil biographer ==>
Jim dates the photo above as 1903. After identifying Hermon, Carrie, and Alice, he adds:
“The child sitting on his (Wilbur’s) lap is probably his nephew Claude, born in France in 1900. The woman to his left is Elizabeth Barlow who Wilbur had married in California in 1901. After earning a Master’s degree in Agriculture at Cornell where Hermon had taught, he moved to California to teach science in Petaluma high school. There he met and married Elizabeth Louisa Barlow a teacher in the Petaluma elementary school. In 1903 they left California for Honolulu; the photo likely taken prior to their departure. For the rest of his life Wilbur taught science at Oahu College later called Punahou School. During a visit in 1911, Hermon modeled a portrait bust of Elizabeth Barlow found on page 162 in Hermon Atkins MacNeil: American Sculptor in the Broad, Bright Daylight. During the visit, Hermon gave Wilbur a tour of the Poppenhusen Institute. He admired the building’s architecture, looked in on classes and was introduced to school head John Gyger Embree as well as faculty members and other Institute Trustees. Wilbur died in 1937, a highly regarded educator. The couple had no children.
Then Jim adds a 21st Century surprise:
a MacNeil ~ Obama connection!
If Punahou School sounds familiar, it was from this school that Barack Obama graduated.
Barack Obama (Class of ’79) was the 44th President of the United States. He attended Punahou from 5th grade until graduation. (’79), Harvard Law Review editor, U Chicago lecturer on Constitutional Law, Nobel, Grammy and Emmy winner, author, state basketball champion, US Senator, Elected 44th US President in 2008 and 2012.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SOURCE: Brooklyn Daily Star, March 15,1911 [Courtesy of James Haas]
Wilbur MacNeil also visited
his brother Hermon in 1911.
Wilbur MacNeil toured the Poppenhusen Institute in College Point, Queens, NYC. (See news clipping)
Wilbur MacNeil was a distinguished visitor touring the Institute. He was escorted by two trustees of the Institute, namely, Dr. Hugh Gray and Hermon MacNeil (Wilbur’s older brother)
Jim Haas adds that “Dr. Hugh Gray was a physician in College Point between 1905 and 1915. His wife Geretrude was the daughter of Hermon Pratt, whoise sister was Mary Lash Pratt MacNeil.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hermon MacNeil was born on February 27, 1866
Hermon’s older cousin, Tom Henry MacNeil (my grandfather),
was born on February 29th, 1860.
So February is MacNeil~Brooks Month in several ways.
This is the first of several postings that will celebrate this theme.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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