It remains a rare material artifact of a fair centerpiece since lost to time, and a clue to the importance of her high-profile commission for American culture and Black artistry.
Standing at 16 feet in height and one of only two works by African American artists featured in the exhibition, Savage’s plaster sculpture took its name from James Weldon and J. Rosamond Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn of particular meaning within Black communities. Savage modeled the piece after themes found in the song—unity, perseverance through faith, and pride, all of which are reflected in her musical scene. The harp’s form is defined by a long arm and hand cradling 12 singers in choir robes, their strong stance and the folds of their garments evocative of strings. A young man kneels in the lead holding sheet music and carrying a pensive expression on his face, uplifted (we imagine) by the beautiful melody and the image the eponymous hymn’s words recall.
“The Harp,” as it became known, was a major achievement for Savage. Born Augusta Christine Fells in Green Cove, Florida, February 29, 1892, she was raised by a Methodist minister who opposed her creative interests. Over her father’s objections, Savage returned again and again to sculpture throughout her youth and—after marrying, having a child, and becoming widowed by her early 20s—committed her focus to the arts and moved to New York City with less than $5 in her pocket. Savage quickly became a recognized talent in the art world and a vocal advocate for equal rights, generating media attention when an American selection committee revoked her award of a summer study-abroad scholarship to Paris because of her race. Defying these obstacles, Savage self-funded and completed a 4-year arts degree at The Cooper Union in 3 years, fundraised for her own trips to France to exhibit at prestigious sites like the Salon d’Automne and Grand Palais, and earned an array of accolades ranging from a Carnegie Foundation travel grant to the distinction of being the only African American member admitted into the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. By 1937, the 1939 New York World’s Fair Board of Design reached out to her with the idea of a large-scale sculpture symbolizing the legacy of African American music.
Though 44 million guests had the chance to witness and admire Savage’s triumph at the 19-month exhibition, unfortunately the work was destroyed when the fair ended, a scenario not uncommon for temporary works and pavilions. Promotional postcards and documentary photos like the one in McKay’s book, however, paint a picture of the song and sculpture’s true impact and continued resonance. Today, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is still widely celebrated as the “Black national anthem” (recently and memorably performed at “Beychella”) and metal replicas of Savage’s 1939 tribute—a testament to the inspirational power of the Black church and indomitable nature of the human spirit—are held in collections such as those of the Schomburg Center in Harlem and Columbus Museum in Georgia.
– Carlos Ascurra, FIU Humanities Edge curatorial intern
Archive for Life Events
INDEPENDENCE DAY ~~ 247 Years !!!
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil’s Commander-in-Chief
George Washington on Arch in NYC
General George Washington with Flags (U.S. and POW/MIA) ~ Washington Arch Greenwich, NYC (Photo courtesy of: Gibson Shell – 2011)
Hermon MacNeil was a Red-White-and-Blue Sculptor of American History.
click BELOW for MORE.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
~ ~ ~ ~ 0 ~ ~ ~ ~
Images of
Happy 4th of July
from Dan Leininger, Webmaster
The Stars and Stripes fly day and night at the home of Webmaster Dan Leininger in South Dakota. They are illuminated dusk to dawn by automatic lighting. (The tie, however, only waves on special occasions like July 4th.)
Related posts:
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- MacNeil Month ~~ February 2016 ~~ 150 Years (6) The year 2016 marks the sesquicentennial of the birth of…
- Hermon MacNeil at the 1893 Columbian Exposition ~ ~ ~ THE CHICAGO YEARS ~ ~ (6) CHICAGO YEARS: Partners and Colleagues When Hermon MacNeil came home to the…
- More “Confederate Defenders” Protests; AND Ten Years Ago on this Website. (6) Sunday (July 12, 2020) saw continued protest at the Confederate…
- Hermon MacNeil and Hamlin Garland ~ ~ Connections Through the Years – Part 3 (6) Hermon MacNeil met Hamlin Garland in Chicago. Hermon MacNeil Hermon…
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As mentioned in the previous post [on May 5, 2023] Savage applied for a summer art program at the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in France.[9] She was accepted, BUT THEN rejected because she was BLACK.
Sculptor, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, wrote a letter of protest to W.E.B. Dubois, then Hermon invited Augusta to study with him. She later cited Hermon as one of her teachers.”
All of that took place in 1923,
THEN, 15 YEARS Later . . . the
1939 New York World’s Fair
premiered her work —
“The Harp”
OR
“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
HEAR THE HISTORY OF THE ANTHEM . . .
As you ~ ~
“Lift Up Your Voice, And Sing”
–
1939 WHITE WORKMAN landscape around the “HARP” as it towers above them. Source: The Body is Memory: An Exhibition of Black Women Artists. Retrieved on May 1, 2023 at [https://sites.smith.edu/afr111-f19/the-harp/ ]
SOURCES:
- “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_Every_Voice_and_Sing_(sculpture)#Replicas.
- Book page, “Sculpture by Augusta Savage, evocative of Negro music; commissioned by the New York World’s Fair,” from Harlem: Negro Metropolis, 1940
- Augusta Savage (American, 1892–1962), author
E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc., New York City, publisher
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design, New York City, XC2019.02.1.12- The Body is Memory: An Exhibition of Black Women Artists. Retrieved on May 1, 2023 at [https://sites.smith.edu/afr111-f19/the-harp/ ]
- Claude McKay, Harlem: Negro Metropolis, 1940. A narrative history of Harlem and its most notable African American residents. The book includes photographs of works by Black artist Augusta Savage in the early 20th century.
Hermon MacNeil Supported Black Sculptor: Augusta Savage: ~ 1923 ~~ Part #1
Posted by: | CommentsMacNeil wrote a letter in 1923 advocating for
Miss Augusta Savage
who had been denied a scholarship because of the
color of her skin.
Augusta Savage (left) with her portrait bust of James Weldon Johnson, another Black Harlem activist/leader and supporter of Augusta Savage. c. 1920s
HER BACKGROUND
“Savage arrived in New York (in 1921) with $4.60, found a job as an apartment caretaker, and enrolled at the Cooper Union School of Art [Ironically, this was 61 years after Abe Lincoln’s famous speech at Cooper Union against the expansion of slavery].
She completed the four-year course at Cooper Union in just three years.
During the mid-1920s when the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak, Savage lived and worked in a small studio apartment where she earned a reputation as a portrait sculptor, completing busts of prominent personalities such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, [James Weldon Johnson and other NAACP leaders].
Savage was one of the first artists who consistently dealt with black physiognomy.”
Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum; https://americanart.si.edu/artist/augusta-savage-4269
In 1923, she had submitted a scholarship application to attend the inaugural artistic summer school at Fontainebleau, near Paris, France. (where Alden MacNeil would later study)
W.E.B. DuBois, [prominent historian, sociologist, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist] wrote a letter of support for her entry.
Savage was awarded a full scholarship.
Unfortunately, the scholarship was withdrawn by the French selection committee on account of her color – reportedly, because white American students from Georgia would not share rooms with an African-American.[2]
The rejection was reported in a number of newspapers.[2] The incident got press coverage on both sides of the Atlantic. Since W. E. B. Du Bois had supported the application, Hermon A. MacNeil chose to write this letter.
MacNeil was the sole member of the selection committee to disagree with the withdrawal of the scholarship.
MacNeil began his career studying, traveling, and immersing himself in Native American culture. Hermon one time had shared a studio in Paris with African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner.
After writing his letter, MacNeil choose to invite Augusta Savage to study with him at the College Point studio. Savage accepted! Later in her life, she cited MacNeil as one of her influential teachers.
Early Life of Augusta Savage
“Augusta began making figures as a child, mostly small animals out of the natural red clay of her hometown.[2] Her father was a Methodist minister With over a dozen children. His theology strongly opposed his daughter’s early interest in art. “My father licked me four or five times a week,” Savage once recalled, “and almost whipped all the art out of me.”[5]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Savage
She continued to work in the US, and eventually gathered sufficient funding to study in France at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière from 1929, exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne in 1930, and at the Salon de Printemps and the Paris Colonial Exposition in 1931.[2]
Throughout the 1930s, Savage sculpted portrait busts of African American leaders, including NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, who wrote the lyrics of the anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” CLICK to hear NPRs 7 min lesson on this song.
When the 1939 New York World’s Fair commissioned Savage to make a sculpture she produced a monumental work called Lift Every Voice and Sing.A souvenir version of Savage’s 1939 sculpture The Harp, which was inspired by “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” 1939 World’s Fair Committee. [See #3 below]
World’s Fair officials changed the name creation to The Harp. “The strings of the harp are formed by the folds of choir robes worn by 12 African American singers,” Ikemoto explains. “Then, the soundboard of the harp is formed by the hand of God.” The singers, then, become instruments of God. Five million visitors saw The Harp and it became one of the Fair’s most photographed objects — you can see more photos of it here.
Sixteen feet high, made of painted plaster, Ikemoto says it was destroyed — smashed by clean-up bulldozers — at the end of the fair.
Now, only pictures and many miniature souvenirs remain!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SEE MacNeil’s 100 year old letter
with my transcription and comments BELOW
Retrieved from digitalcommonwealth.org/ on 3/23/1923. See citation below.
William E. B. DuBois
70 31th Ave
New YorkMy Dear Mr. Burghardt:
Yours just received regarding Miss Savage. I have been entirely out of touch with the committee of which I am a member for several weeks as I have been more or less away and so this case of Miss Savage’s application I knew nothing about when it came up.
I am extremely sorry that a story of this kind should have gotten about as I know the gentleman of the committee are men of the broadest vision and are trying to do the very best possible. It may be that her work was not very high in quality. Whether that was the reason or conditions may be such for the traveling and living conditions that it would have been unpleasant for a colored person, I do not know.
Personally I have no greater joy than seeing the advancement of the colored race for I believe [in] that advancement will be the gradually era[c]ing of one of our very difficult problems here in the United States. I personally have friends of the colored blood whose friendship I prize as high as any of my associates. In the meantime please believe me.
Sincerely yours, H. A. MacNeil
Webmaster’s Comments:
MacNeil’s phrasing conveys the biases of white culture in phrases such as:
- “It would have been unpleasant for a colored person” and “
- I have friends of the colored blood”
However, MacNeil was the only one sculptor taking public action and making opportunity for Augusta Savage to groom her many talents and mastery of art.
Namely:
- He gave her one year of experience in his studio;
- Which was much more than the “summer” she sought at Fontainebleau.
- Later in her life, she claimed Hermon MacNeil as one of her teachers.
- MacNeil’s choices contrast those of the committee.
- His actions transcend the racial biases of the 1920s
- MacNeil’s actions speak well for his love of sculpture and teaching sculptors.
REFERENCE NOTES:
-
Letter from Hermon A. MacNeil to W. E. B. Du Bois
- Retrieved from digitalcommonwealth.org/ on 3/23/1923.
[ https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:9s162k540 ]
- NPR https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/740459875/sculptor-augusta-savage-said-her-legacy-was-the-work-of-her-students
- “Till Victory Is Won: The Staying Power Of ‘Lift Every Voice And Sing'” By Claudette Lindsay-Habermann; Heard on Morning Edition;
- https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/?s=Tanner
#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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#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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