Archive for Massachusetts
Merry Christmas – 124th Anniversary of Hermon and Carrie Brooks MacNeil’s Wedding Day.
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By The original uploader was TonyTheTiger at English Wikipedia.(Original text: en:User:TonyTheTiger) – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3588095
Carrie as a young girl. Ink drawn portrait by HW Bucknell in 1892 for her parents.
They had a wedding reception in the Marquette Building in the Studio of Hermon Atkins MacNeil.
The Brooks of Winnetka, Illinois hosted the reception for Carol (“Carrie” to her friends) and the “happiest man in the world” – her new husband – “Hermon Atkins MacNeil”.
Carrie’s father and mother, Alden F. and Ellen T. (nee, Woodworth) Brooks lived at 518 Elder Lane, Winnetka. He was a portrait painter for whom President William McKinley once sat. Hermon would later sculpt the memorial statue of William McKinley at the Columbus, Ohio Capitol Building. McKinley was assassinated in 1901 at the Buffalo Worlds Fair.
Carrie preferred sculpture to painting, though she grew up in her parents home with a great awareness and appreciation of the arts and Chicago community, and the Chicago Art Institute.
A 2019 photo of the home where Carrie Brooks parents lived when he died at 93 years of age in 1932. The home still stands at 436 Elder Lane and Woodlawn avenue, in the north shore Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois. The neighborhood appears very original and well maintained even today. They lived elsewhere in Hyde Park when they hosted the wedding reception for Carrie and Hermon 124 years ago.
Happy Christmas Memories
Merry Christmas
and
Happy Anniversary
( X 124) to the MacNeil Sculptor Couple
our favorite Christmas Coupe Today!
Invitation below…
↓
Here is the printed invitation for the Brook’s Christmas Day reception for Carol (Carrie) and Hermon MacNeil at the Marquette Building
Etching of Carol Louise Brooke MacNeil
Posted by: | Commentsby William Harry Warren Bicknell
William Harry Warren Bicknell was an American artist born in 1860 in Boston Massachusetts. His etching of Carol Brooks MacNeil (below) is on paper and framed behind glass. It measures about 8”x9.5” (etching) frame is 12.25” x 14.5”. The etching is dated 1897 (note signature block on bottom photo).
The work was obtained from the estate sale of Walter Pratt, first cousin of Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Carol Brooks was a sculptor and artist in her own right. She was one of the “White Rabbits” who worked on the 1893 World Columbian Exposition (Chicago World’s Fair). In addition, on Christmas Day of 1895, she married Hermon Atkins MacNeil designer of the Standing Liberty Quarter.
Another similiar sample of the work of William Harry Warren Bicknell is offered below. Most of his works on the Smithsonian American Art Museum website are “Untitled” Click Here
Stay tuned to HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com for more on Carol Louise Brooks MacNeil and the other women sculptors called the “White Rabbits” of 1897 Chicago Worlds Fair.
Related posts:
- Hermon MacNeil at the 1893 Columbian Exposition ~ ~ ~ THE CHICAGO YEARS ~ ~ (5) CHICAGO YEARS: Partners and Colleagues When Hermon MacNeil came home to the…
- ~ ~ ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hermon A. MacNeil ~ Success & Marriage! (5) 1895 Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947) MacNeil’s bronze of…
- The MacNeil’s Chicago Wedding – Christmas Day 1895 (5) I sit here in Chicago during this Christmas Season, imagining…
- MacNeil – Brooks 120th Anniversary (1895-2015) (5) On Christmas Day one dozen decades ago, Hermon A. MacNeil…
- Marquette Statue in Chicago (4) Today we took a short trip south from our daughter’s…
- Lorado Taft offered praise for ‘promising Native works’ of Hermon Atkins MacNeil in 1903 (4) In the early 1900s, because of his knowledge and authorship…
A never before seen or documented bronze piece from Hermon MacNeil’s earliest years as a sculptor has surfaced through a recent email message. The surprise came the other day to the website as a one line description and a surprising question.
“Black Pipe the Sioux” a small 6″ high, bas relief with the initials H M. 94.
Can you tell me more about Black Pipe?”Carol Miles
The request came from Massachusetts not far from where Hermon MacNeil was born and grew up in Chelsea (Everett, Malden). It included this photo: 
Thus began an email correspondence with Carol Miles that linked Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947) with Henry Turner Bailey (1865-1931).
Link #1: Henry Turner Bailey — Both Bailey and MacNeil graduated of Massachusetts Normal Art School. They were classmates for at least three years until MacNeil graduated in 1886 followed by Bailey in 1887. Both began studies there in their late teen years.
According to Carol: “Henry became the first Supervisor of Drawing for the State of Massachusetts, and later Dean of the Cleveland School of Art. Henry’s papers are housed at the Univ. of Oregon Archives, Eugene. There is correspondence between the two men there.”
Link #2: Black Pipe sculpture –This bas relief of Black Pipe was acquired by Henry Turner Bailey, the grandfather of the current owner. It has been handed down through the family ever since.
I have found no previous mention or photo of this piece. I have seen another photo of a different sculpture of Black Pipe by MacNeil in the Smithsonian Institute collections online
MacNeil’s bronze of Black Pipe, a Sioux warrior he befriended in 1893 (source Smithsonian Archives)
( http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=MacNeil&start=20 ).
The story of Black Pipe is told in dozens of stories on this site. A search brings up 14 posts that can be viewed at this link. Only six stories appear on each page. Be sure to view all three pages.
BLACK PIPE link — BLACK PIPE in 14 STORIES
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/?s=Black+Pipe
:::::
The Smithsonian Collestions data base offers the following info on the photo of Black Pipe. See: [ http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=MacNeil&start=20 ]
The Soiux Brave Blackpipe [sculpture] / (photographed by A. B. Bogart) digital asset number 1
ARTIST:
MacNeil, Hermon Atkins 1866-1947
PHOTOGRAPHER:
Bogart, A. B.
TYPE:
Photograph
NOTES:
On photo mount label: H. A. MacNeil. Blackpipe the Soiux. Bogart. Classification number: 282. Accession: 4747[cropped].
TOPIC:
Ethnic–Sioux
Figure male–Head
IMAGE NUMBER:
SSC S0001642
SEE MORE ITEMS IN:
Photograph Archives
DATA SOURCE:
Archives and Special Collections, Smithsonian American Art Museum
2016 ~ A Double Anniversary Year for Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Posted by: | Comments1886-2016
150th Anniversary of the Birth of
Hermon A. MacNeil (click here)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1916-2016
100th Anniversary of the Minting
of the Standing Liberty Quarter (click here) Dollar sculpted by
Hermon A. MacNeil
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (b. 1866 – d. 1947)
2016 marks the anniversary of two events:
Hermon MacNeil’s Birth: (click here)
He was born in Chelsea (Plattsville, Everett, Malden), Massachusetts. The area went through many changes of names, annexation, and incorporation from 1860-1900. [ CLICK HERE FOR MORE on MacNeil’s Birth ]
The Minting of the Standing Liberty Quarter: (click here)
Issued from 1916-1930 the Standing Liberty Quarter (SLQ) sculpted by Hermon A. MacNeil. [ CLICK HERE FOR MORE on SLQ ]
From MacNeil’s Standing Liberty Design was one of the first US Coins designed by an sculptor.
Bust of Dwight L. Moody, Evangelist, made by MacNeil in 1920 for the Mount Hermon Academy in Northfield, assachusetts
At age 78 Hermon MacNeil wrote an autobiographical sketch in June 1943 from his home in College Point. A copy of it is in the MacNeil Papers at the Cornell Library Archives. My sister, Melba, found a copy in mother’s family files.
Only 13 typed pages in length, MacNeil’s Sketches provides brief reflections on his life and a listing of his sculptures. The list catalogues 42 pieces that he made in his nearly fifty years as a sculptor. One very brief entry says simply:
“D. L. Moody. Northfield University, Mass., 1920”
MacNeil’s mention of a sculpture of D. L. Moody was my first awareness that he had ever done such a piece.
Searching the internet I found TWO photos (one on the right and another larger one below). They both come from the Northfield Mount Hermon (Click HERE) website. The school is a merger of the two academies for poor and underprivileged children (one for girls and one for boys) that Moody founded in 1879 and 1881. A brief history of the school can be found on Wikipedia. [Click Here].
MORE below photo:
“Dwight L. Moody” 1920 – A bust by Hermon Atkins MacNeil now graces the campus of Northfield Mount Hermon academy in Massachusetts. The school is a merger of the two separate academies (one for girls and one for boys) that Moody founded in 1879 and 1881
While I await confirmation from NMH, this undoubtedly appears to be the work referenced by Hermon in his autobiograhical sketches as a 78 year old man. While finding ‘undiscovered’ works by Hermon MacNeil over the last 3 years, has been one recurring delight of building this website, I never cease to be amazed when I find one. This particular discovery seems amazing for several reasons:
- Both of my Parents (Rev. Louis Lee Leininger, Sr. and Ollie McNeil Leininger) attended Moody Bible institute in Chicago in 1926-28.
- I never heard my parents ever mention this sculpture.
- If my mother knew of “Uncle Hermon’s” bust of Dr. Moody, she would have mentioned it , repeatedly!
- To my knowledge, my parents never visited in Massachusetts, never saw, or ever knew of this piece.
- This is a one of a kind piece. Thus hard to find in a private school. Not known to the general public.
- I have no information on how it was commissioned, or how Hermon MacNeil became connected with this project.
STAY TUNED ! There has got to be MORE. I will let you know as soon as I find it.
ENJOY these lovely close-ups from the NMH website!!!
MacNeil Cousins ~ Hermon and Tom Henry
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Thomas (Tom) Henry McNeil (b. 1860 – d. 1932)
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (b. 1866 – d. 1947)
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947) and Thomas Henry McNeil (1860-1932) were cousins. They shared a common grandfather, Peter McNeil (1786-1847).
Hermon is the sculptor celebrated on this website.Thomas (Tom Henry) was my grandfather. My mother, Ollie Francis McNeil, always referred to Hermon as “Uncle Hermon”. Their parents wanted her (and her sisters and brother) to do that out of respect.
Hermon was more correctly their “first cousin, once removed”. But “Uncle” seems both easier and more respectful. Hermon would be my “first cousin, twice removed” [ see ancestry chart below ].
The MacNeil Cousins share a common grandfather, Peter MacNeil, who is my great-great-grandfather.
MacNeil of Barra tartan
Tom Henry was born in Missouri, near Burdette in Bates County. He graduated from the University of Michigan. He played football there as the first starting quarterback in consecutive seasons. He practiced as a lawyer for Kansas City Railways Company, and in later years, he was responsible for making accident reports to the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Public Service Commission of Missouri. He died in 1932.
Hermon was born in Everett (Chelsea, Malden) Mass. In 1886 he graduated from Normal Art School in Boston (now Mass Art). He moved to Cornell University, New York, until 1889, leaving to study in Paris as a pupil of Henri M. Chapu and Alexandre Falguière. He sculpted in Chicago from 1891-1895, at the Columbian World Exposition (1893 Chicago World’s Fair) meeting Carol Brooks (also a sculptor). They married on Christmas Day 1895 and sailed days later for Rome (1895-99). Following another year in Paris (1899-1900), they settled in New York City building a home and studio in College Point, Long Island. He worked and lived there until his death in 1947.
FOR MORE read:
Dan Leininger
Daniel Neil Leininger, webmaster, HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com
