WELCOME to the “Hermon A. MacNeil” — Virtual Gallery & Museum !
~ This Gallery celebrates my great Uncle, Hermon Atkins MacNeil an American classic sculptor of the Beaux Arts School. He sculpted Native images and American history: ~ World’s Fairs, statues, monuments, coins, and more… ~ Over 300 stories (25 per page) in 10 pages. (Click on Next Page >> at bottom). View thousands of photos from this virtual MacNeil Gallery. It stretches from New York to New Mexico ~ Oregon to S. Carolina. ~ 2016 marked the 150th Anniversary of Hermon MacNeil’s birth. ~ Hot-links ( lower right) lead to works by Hermon Atkins MacNeil. ~~Do you WALK or DRIVE by MacNeil sculptures DAILY! ~ TRAVEL DIGITALLY to my Uncle Hermon’s works here!
Daniel Neil Leininger, webmaster
DO YOU walk by MacNeil Statues and NOT KNOW IT ???
I stopped in St. Joe, MO on May 18, 2025 and took this picture.
~~
I was surprised to see finished repairs as I stopped in St. Joe, MO on May 18, 2025. All four faces of the base appeared newly repaired and engraved after 85 years of deterioration. See old photo ==>>
The Pony Express statue was Hermon MacNeil’s last public monument when unveiled in 1940.
It marks the first station on the westward mail route route to Sacramento, California filling the gap where the railroad was still under construction.
The Pony Express Monument has welcomed residents to Downtown St. Joseph on Frederick Avenue since it was first constructed in 1938, but decades of exposure are causing the massive granite slab that holds the bronze statue to deteriorate, compromising the entire structure.”
I was surprised to see finished repairs on May 18, 2025. They first thought that the base needed to be replaced and repairs would take up to 2 years.
St. Joseph, Missouri continues to embrace Hermon MacNeil’s “Pony Express as its symbol.
Once Again, St. Joseph, Missouri embraces “The Pony Express” by Hermon A. MacNeil. This time is makes the “cover page” of the city’s current Visitor Guide.
As I was traveling through Missouri recently, I saw this Visitor Guide for “St. Jo Mo.” Thelittle webmasterin my mind said,
Hermon MacNeil turned 74 that February 27th. He posed for newspaper photos sitting on the statue base.
The statue appears to be un-mounted on its massive pedestal base.
Was this photo taken at the foundry before shipping?
Or maybe at St. Joe before being erected on the pedestal base?
WE don’t know!
BUT the sculptor seems proud and relaxed aside his historic tribute!
The authentic saddle & mail bags were consistent with Dr. S. M. Strong’s replicas which were Hermon patterns. And of course , “Poncho Villa”, the Doctor’s rescued rodeo mustang. after.
Twenty years later (1960), was the Centennial of the first Pony Express ride. That year the US Post Officeissued a Commemorative4 Centstamp, as pictured below: ⇓
Because the PONY EXPRESS became an established ICON and growing legend.
St. Jo, MO took the iconic “horse and rider” as a SYMBOL for the city itself.
They have continued that identity to the present day, though 164 years have passed.
RIDE ON, O’ symbol of American history. Your sculptor has brought you to life at your starting gate of iconic legend.
By William Henry Jackson – SOURCE: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4051p.tr000013/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10111804
The “Pony Express“ ran for only 18 months, but has become an
“AMERICAN ICON.”
Hermon MacNeil’s “Pony Express”
is ALSO an ICON
marking Saint Joseph, Missouri, as “Station One.”
on the 1900 mile route of 190 Stations
stretching to Sacramento, California.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<=<= <= AAA World
<=<=travel magazine.
This summer features a Missouri State Travel Ad with Hermon’s Statue of “Pancho Villa” the outlaw Dakota Mustang of Bill Cody’s Wild West Rodeo!
AND ⇑LAMBERT’s (home of ‘Throwed Rolls’) in Branson, Missouri a special place to eat
ART OF ALL ARTS – (ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM) ~ Saint Louis Art Museum ~ MacNeil’s Center Panel above the Main Entrance
“ART OF ALL ARTS”
was Hermon A. MacNeil’s Centerpiece panel above the entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts at the
1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In 1913 a permanent reconstruction was made as the
Saint Louis Art Museum.
“Dedicated to Art and Free to All”
The SLAM Website comments: “Ironically, the most inconspicuously placed of MacNeil’s sculptures for the fair has become his most enduring contribution to the Art Museum. Ars Artium Omnium, or The Art of All Arts, is a series of three panels above the doorways of the Museum’s north facade. Originally crafted in plaster, it was later carved in stone and given a gold mosaic background thanks to funds provided by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company of 1913.” [https://www.slam.org/blog/the-art-of-all-arts/ ]
The MacNeil sculpture above the main entrance of the Saint Louis Art Museum is a fine example of the Beaux Arts style of World Fairs of this era. (http://www.slam.org/).
The Figure of Beauty is enshrined in the center panel is adored by the figures in the other panels left and right.
Hermon A. MacNeil was an up-and-coming younger American sculptor at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. At the fair, his Fountain of Liberty and four other sculpture groups were placed along the Main Cascade. Three additional MacNeil works were much admired inside the Fines Arts Palace, now known as the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Sculpture Hall.
Ironically, the most inconspicuously placed of MacNeil’s sculptures for the fair has become his most enduring contribution to the Art Museum. Ars Artium Omnium, or The Art of All Arts, is a series of three panels above the doorways of the Museum’s north facade. Originally crafted in plaster, it was later carved in stone and given a gold mosaic background thanks to funds provided by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company of 1913.
In the right hand-panel the figures of architecture and the allied arts; Ceramic and the kneeling figure typifying the discovery of the beauty from the earth.
Hermon A. MacNeil, American (1866-1947); Ars Artium Omnium (The Art of All Arts), 1914; stone relief panels with gold mosaic; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company 158:1913
Ars Artium Omnium draws from a familiar series of motifs based on ancient and Renaissance art. In MacNeil’s own words:
In regard to an interpretation of the bas-relief of the facade of the City Art Museum, the attempt was made to produce a figure of beauty, as the central figure in the milled panel – “an apotheosis” – if you will, enshrined. On either side of her (is) St. Louis – with the city seal – out of her abundance, paying homage to the beauty… On the right, you have allegorical figures representing Sculpture, Painting, Music, and the fourth figure introduced (that could) go by any name… On the opposite side are the figures of architecture and the allied arts; Ceramic and the kneeling figure typifying the discovery of the beauty oftentimes dug from the earth that has been produced in past ages. You will notice in the grouping (that) the two side panels lead toward the central figure.
“Dedicated to Art and Free to All” are the words above MacNeil’s three Panels at Saint Louis Art Museum entrance
Jo Davidson – about 1911 [Bates College of Arts: detail from Young Artists of the Modern School]
Hermon Atkins MacNeil about 1916
~ JO Davidson ~ Adventurer ~
~ Hermon MacNeil ~ Monument Man ~
1903 – 1910
For Jo it was …
WANDERING ~~ ROVING ~~ SEARCHING
“Always moving“ ~~ He learned “moving” first at home.
Early memories of “moving” became a life theme.
He had decided to become a SCULPTOR, BUT he searched and roved for nearly a decade to discover
his ownINNER SCULPTOR, the talent within.
JO DAVIDSON ~~ Adventurer
WANDERING PENNYLESS to St. Louis. When Jo Davidson finished up at the MacNeil Atlier, he decided to go to St. Louis to find work as a sculptor at the World’s Fair — the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. He carried with him a letter written by Hermon Atkins MacNeil recommending this young sculptor assistant to Mr. Zolney, the sculptor in charge.
The problem was, he had no money to travel or live on. He took a sales job selling wafers for ice-cream sandwiches. That got him to St. Louis, but when he presented his letter, Mr Zolney had NO JOBS left. He needed no more sculptors. Jo wandered the Fair midway destitute. He slept on boxes at night hiding from the Fair police who cleared the grounds of closed the gates.
Making Pyrography to Live. To survive Jo resorted to his old skills of making portraits —burning them into wood and leather goods. Showing samples of his work, he connected with a vendor and offered to do portraits and monograms on leather cushions. Now he could eat, stay alive, and gain some income. Even Geronimo, the Apache Chief, came to sit for him.
JO Becomes a Cossack. One day two Russian Cossacks in full regalia passed by the booth where Jo worked. He thought they were showfolk from the Pike, but when he used the only two Russian words that he knew to hail them…
“They wheeled around, and practically fell into my arms, jabbering away. I did not understand a word, but I could see that they were in trouble. There was one solution: the Russian Westinghouse exhibition was in the same building. Surely the man in charge could speak Russian. I took them there and they wept as they told their story.” Between … p. 19-20
Their goods had been stopped in government customs, at the fault of their interpreter who also absconded with some of their money. The Westinghouse people cleared it all up. The Cossacks hung onto Jo insisting he “had saved their lives.” They gave him a steady job promoting their booth and silver inlaid wares. In time off, he had the run of the fare, carrying his sketchbook filling it with drawings of everyone and everything he saw. His adventures continued through the summer until the Fair closed in November of 1904.
FAIR ENDS: Jo rambles around then arrives at HOME with a Black Eye. When the fair ended, Jo felt a tragic sense of loss — something had died. The exploits were over. Time to move again. He wandered on to Chicago, with the Cassocks, then Atlantic City. Jo wanted no part of “shop work.” He ventured on the Boardwalk and began drawing profiles of tourists. His motto: “Your Portrait, … No Likeness, No Pay.”
He met many people, made many drawings barely scraping by. In hope of better days, he accompanied a reporter to Philadelphia looking for a job drawing with a newspaper (but that fell through when he asked for a contract). Jobless and penniless, he wandered the streets of Philadelphia. He told his story to strangers. They offered to pay him for drawing them; but when he did, they laughed and refused to pay. A fight ensured. They gave Jo a black-eye for his troubles.
Three blocks later, he met up TOM FIELD, a friend from the Boardwalk. He asked about the black-eye. Then Tom gave Jo his hotel room, bought him dinner, and left town before Jo awoke. A warm breakfast was brought to the room with a warmer note from Tom. The note contained a railroad ticket to New York City, a five dollar bill, and advise to use both as soon as possible. Jo ate and followed Tom’s advise.
JO’S FIRST COMMISSION …
NEW YORK AGAIN! “The Art Students League gave me a room which was used by the modeling class at night,” Jo said. “In return I agreed to teach the summer class.” Several years earlier, he had sketched an idea for a work to be called “David” slinging a stone at an invisible Goliath. The sketch received honorable mention. Wanting to start the small figure, he went to his old friend Mr Partee, who liked the sketch and agreed to commission it as a two-foot high bronze statue. Jo started the work with enthusiasm but kept doing and undoing each day’s work until he became quite discouraged. Edward MacCarten, an earlier student of MacNeil, would stop by occasionally. Seeing Jo’s dilemma he offered some helpful advise.
“One day he said, “Jo, here’s an idea. When you come here tomorrow go to work as if this is your last day on earth and you have to finish your statue before you die.” This struck home. The next day I went to work with new energy. I didn’t die that night, nor did I finish the “David” that day. But as I look back, MacCarten’s advise was one of the greatest contributions that I ever received from a fellow artist.”
That advise would also become a pathway to Jo’s future as a sculptor. With it, Jo completed the work. Partee was so pleased he offered to pay for a second bronze casting. Jo sent his “David” to a jury (MacNeil was probably on that jury). The statue was accepted for the 1905 exhibition of the Society of American Artists. The day of the show Jo borrowed an ill-fitting Prince Albert coat from his uncle and with his sister, Ray (Rachel), they entered the Fine Arts Building adjoining the League.
“We walked up the few steps and entered the the great gallery all crowded with people. I must have been a very funny sight in that Prince Albert coat, but I was walking on air, completely unconscious of my clothes. We went around looking for my “David.” There he was in bronze — on exhibition with the works of real artists, sculptors, and painters. I felt timid about looking at it. I pretended to be interested in everybody else’s work but my own. We ran intoMacNeil.”
JO andHERMON meet athis “DAVID”
PUPIL AND TEACHER SHARE A PROUD MOMENT.
So Jo, the studio boy, and Hermon MacNeil, the sculptor, meet again. This time not in that College Point Studio, not “mixing a little clay”, but in the great exhibition hall and in the presence of his beloved sister. Fifty-years later Jo still remembers what Hermon asked:
MacNeil: “How do you like the way we placed your ‘David’?”
Jo’s recollection: I would have liked it no matter where they placed it. I do not think I have ever felt that way since.”
Of all the sculptors that would have been at the Exhibit at that moment, Jo mentions only Hermon MacNeil’s solicitation about the piece. Obviously, MacNeil gave some thought to the placement and setting of Jo’s “David” slinging toward that invisible Goliath. Hermon probably felt warm pride at Jo’s David, possibly even recalling Jo’s first attempt to make a Corinthian capital that first day in the College Point Studio. Whatever the former Teacher and the former “studio boy” were feeling as they met, the moment had become indelible enough for Jo to include it a half century later in his autobiography after his teacher’s death, Jo certainly sculpts the story with excitement and pride both in that moment and in recalling it in his life’s “Sittings.” Between Sittings, (p. 25).
PLEASANT MEMORIES OF HERMON: One can not help but smile imagining the reunion of the QUARTET: sculptor, the sister and teacher with the “David” in the great gallery of Art. It must have been smiles all around. And I suspect that these smiles had nothing to do with ill-fitting Prince Albert jackets. Jo was excited. MacNeil was pleased. Jo’s recounting and recording of this moment with his teacher seem to radiate a growing pride in the bonds of creativity, shared work, and talent, between sculptors. PLEASANT MEMORIES from 50 years ago.
“BAH!” — JO’S FATHER stings,
After the Exhibition Jo delivered the “David” to Mr.Partee. When the second bronze copy was finished, Jo recalls:
“I took it home and placed it on the mantelpiece in our front room. The next day when I came home from the League, I found my father looking intently at my “David.” He was unconscious of my presence. Then he turned and saw me, and with a disapproving gesture of the hand, said “Bah,” turned on his heel and left the room. Father had had other ambitions for me.”
HERMON and JO’s FATHER. In Jo’s telling of his life story, the contrasts of Hermon MacNeil, his sculptor teacher, and Jacob Davidson, his father, could not be more glaring. Jo’s Father had plans and ambitions for his Son. He was the MILLION from birth! He was Jacob’s winning Lottery Ticket. The lucky blessing for the devoted faithful prayer. Jo even entitles Chapter 1 of his autobiography, “THE MILLION!” So that was a life-long moniker from his family of origin. Lois Harris Kuhnin her book,The World of Jo Davidson,explains it to her young readers in this way:
“No one was ever to know for certain what it was that Jacob Davidson thought that having a son meant. Whatever it was, it was obvious — almost right away — that Jo was unlike anyone his father had expected. In Fact, Jo was like no one else. He asked far too many questions. He made pictures of everything he saw. He was so filled with life and laughter that everyone around him responded to it. Everybody — everything — small or large — interested Jo.! It was a good thing for a boy that his mother, Haya, understood him completely.” [ Kuhn, The World of Jo Davidson, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, Jewish Publication Society, New York, 1958. p. 4.]
Jo does not make comparisons, he just shares memories and interactions. Any reader of Jo’s recollections or descriptions of his life, however, can not help but see stark emotional contrasts between Jo’s father, Jacob Davidson, and Hermon MacNeil. Moreover, the difference in two sets of recollections appear quite awkward.
CONTINUING at HOME and the ART STUDENTS LEAGUE.
Jo Davidson’s bust of Haya Davidson, his proud mother and most willing model. [Between p. 55a]
While at home in New York, Jo modeled a bust of his “intensely proud” Mother who most willingly posed for him. He was spending entire days at the “League” with other students.
“Those were gay days: music, dancing and parties. To those parties at the League, I brought my sisters Ray and Rose and it was not long before I brought the League to my house. We were then living on West 111th Street overlooking the Park. It was a top-floor railroad flat, but nobody minded climbing all those flights of stairs. Mother’s strawberry jam, Rose’s singing, and Rachie’s warm and vivacious charm pulled people right up to the top floor.”
Jo’s sister Rose recalls those days with a bit of free verse:
“Like a flock of homing pigeons,
Nostalgic memories flapped their wings,
And rouse the slumbering past.
A victrola,
And listing to the Sextet from ‘Lucia’ —
Zenbrich — Scotti — Caruso —
Talking about victrolas — the first phonograph — New York
111th Street top floor — front room —
An olive green velour curtain separating it from the rest of the railroad flat,
And endless tea parties,
Schubert’s ‘Serenade,’
Sam Halpert, tears running down his cheeks …”
Jo fell hard for “Flossie”, Florence Lucius, the tall Junoesque monitor of his class. [They would later come together in the later half of their lives.] He’d hike to her home in Brooklyn. With her father’s approval he accompanied her and Grace Johnson, another art student, on a hiking trek through the Swangum Mountains in New Jersey. Taking a Hudson River boat to Kingston, NY, walking all day, stopping at farmhouses, along the way, They would entertain their hosts by singing, playing the family organ, Jo’s mouth organ, and “doing a little jig”. Many of these families had never traveled further that a few miles from home. Jo, Flossie and Grace were something of a New York traveling trio. “It was all a wonderful new experience.” They returned a week later with blistered city feet, but feeling healthy and sunburned as they rested on the Hudson River boat back home.
A STUDIO OF HIS OWN.
Early in 1906 Jo rented a studio in an old brownstone on East Twenty-third Street. Small, on the top floor, with just enough room for a couch, the skylight made a young sculptor feel right at home. Many other painters and artists filled the brownstone and the neighborhood. Jo made friends easily. He went one evening on an adventure to Upton Sinclair’s Colony in Englewood, New Jersey called Helicon Hall . The escapade was the idea of Sadakichi Hartmann, an art critic and poet, who often stopped by the studio. With his sculptor’s eye, Jo described him as a curious-looking person — tall, gaunt, with a face like a Japanese mask. One day Sadakichi described a recent trip to Helicon Hall where he met socialists, anarchists, making many friends. Jo was working on a figure and had a girl posing for it. The model chimed in to say she too had friends there.
Off the trio went on a snowy day arriving at dinner time. The Sinclairs invited them to sit and share dinner. Afterward Mrs. Sinclair sat down in a wicker rocker and Jo sketched her portrait. She told them they didn’t have a room to spare for the night. Jo gave her the sketch and went off to discover that Sadakichi was berating Edwin Bojorkman, a reporter for the New York Sun. In a huff, Sadakichi announced, “We are leaving.” They trekked back several miles into the snowy night. Sadakichi was nursing a bottle of whiskey most of the night and dancing in the snow. They found a shed, started a small fire and thaw out. Warmed and rested, The wrinkled trio all caught the first train out. Sadakichi called up several papers telling his side of the story and advised them to call Jo Davidson for further details. More stories and editorials continued. Jo thought he would never live down the sagas of their trek to Helicon.
PARIS — Adventuring Artist arrives on the LEFT BANK
At age 24, Jo felt compelled to go to Paris. John Gregory, another MacNeil student, had just returned from that center of the Art World and his stories fired up Jo’s imagination. Subsequently he moved to Paris in 1907 to study sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. After borrowing $150 from his old benefactor, Mr. Pardee, Jo the Adventurer purchased a second-class ticket and arrived in Paris with $40 left — but NO scholarship and NO support.
Edward McCarten, another MacNeil student, met him at the Gare Saint-Lazare (train station). Edward had already rented a studio next-door for him, but became appalled to learn Jo had no scholarship or support. “How are you going to live?” Jobs were scarce and Jo didn’t speak French.
“At any rate MacCarten introduced me to his bakery and his creamery, and every morning a loaf of bread and a quart of milk were left at my door. It was extraordinary , the trust, the confidence that existed in Paris in pre-World War I days. Broke as I was, I never went without a meal. It may have been meager, but I didn’t starve.” [Between … P. 33-34]
Growing up in the Lower East Side of NYC, Jo was no stranger to hunger. At the St Louis World’s Fair he again learned how to live with hungry. He had to live, eat, and sleep on exposition grounds and dodge the Fair police at night when everyone was supposed to leave. Jo was a talented survivor who used those skills to launch whatever might be his next adventure.
Now in Paris he soon entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts paying $16 of his last $40 for tuition. But after just three weeks, he the decided that the adventuring-artist-within-him was not going to find his dream there.
“The instructions there were made up of the same things I had heard at the Art Students’ League in New York. I was looking for life. They gave me antiquities. SO I left the Beau Arts and decided to work out my salvation my own way. I began to hustle for myself. [Griffin, 14753-4.]
The next months were storm and stress. The poverty was hard, the rebellion he felt in the clay was even harder. He would visit the Louvre, view the great masterpieces, wait for something to happen inside of him. Nothing happened. “He had not yet found himself, and he knew it.”McCarten helped him find work giving English lessons. He earned three dollars a week. He visited the cafes meeting other artists, poets, derelicts. He would sit over a cafe creme for an hour or two. He met Jerome Blum, a painter from Chicago. Jo began cooking for both he and Jerry to stretch their pocketbooks.
One night they came out of a poker game and saw a Great Dane lying on a bench. The waiter said the dog was lost. Jerry approached but got a snarl. Being an expert on hunger in animals, Jo asked the waiter for a bowl of milk and bread. Giving the dog food, he ate. When they turned to leave, the Dane followed. The Great Dane filled a gap of loneliness for Jo who immediately named him Sultan. He was also a great introducer as people would approach the magnificent animal. Jo’s full head of hair and black beard along with Sultan’s stately stride made a striking pair as they strolled the arty neighborhoods of Paris. [Between … p. 38.]
Also, relief came from home. Jo’s sister, Rachie, knew of all his ups and down through their lively letters. Through mutual friends she learned of the Hallgarten Scholarship Fund. Rachel, the teacher, succeeded to secure a grant of scholarship for Jo amounting to thirty dollars per month for one year. Jo’s assessment, “Then I was on East Street.”
The WALK to LUCERNE – vöyagueurs à pieds
FRENCH PEASANT by Jo Davidson
After another rejection of a life-sized sculpture of a boy that he had worked on diligently, Jo too felt rejected. He decided to take a vacation from studio work. So on a sunny morning with a knapsack on his back and Sultan by his side, they started out to walk to Switzerland and Lucerne. In the fresh air he did a lot of thinking on the road. He slept at Inns or farmhouses. Sometimes his drawings would pay for his board. The issue of the failure of his work was always churning over and over in his mind.
He and Sultan caught up with a French Peasant driving an oxcart. They chatted along roadway and the driver stopped to share cheese, bread, and wine from his lunch basket. Jo asked where he could sleep overnight in the next town. The driver told him he was foolish to sleep out of doors and explained to him “the law of the land” regarding travelers on foot — vöyagueurs à pieds. He should go to the mayor of the next village and ask for lodging as a vöyagueurs à pieds. The mayor would give him a permit assigning him to a family for hospitality. After the drivers advise, the traveler fretted no more about traveling on foot. [Griffin, 14753-4.]
J. D. FERGUSSON by Jo Davidson
Working like a “madman”
After travels and “tall thinking” on the road, Jo’s found that his ideas of making art had changed. Returning to his Paris studio he fell in with a group of “Post-Impressionists.” In particular he made a close friend of John Duncan Fergusson, a Scottish painter. They walked and talked about everything. John stirred Jo’s energies and hopes. A portrait bust of Fergusson was the first thing that Jo completed. The work broke with all of Jo’s academic training. He decided to become a master of his own medium. Expressing his thoughts of sculpting as fast as they came, he “worked like a madman.” He made portrait busts of everyone he knew, sometimes two in a day.
“At last I did it, and made a portrait bust of a Swiss girl which satisfied me. I was so pleased that I went around telling everyone what a wonderful thing I’d done. I told Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney about it, and she came to my studio to see it and bought it. That encouraged me a lot.” [Griffin, 14753-4.]
Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney was better known as Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. She bought the “Head of a Swiss Girl”, but more importantly became a patron and lifelong friend of Jo. In following weeks, Jo sent his “Violinist” to the autumn Salon of 1908, and it too was accepted.
Continued Success and on to U.S.
The next spring he had three pieces accepted in the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, the new society. He continued exhibiting in Paris and London through 1909 with dozens of pieces. Finally, by December 1909 Jo felt that he had enough accumulated enough pieces to come back to New York City to hold an exhibition. He did return and his US Exhibition brought him instant success in NYC, his home town.
REGARD 1909 [detail] marble, Signed: Jo Davidson 14 1/2x9x6 inches, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Binder. Source: Conner and Rosenkranz, Discoveries… p. 12.
Joel Rosenkranz describes this period of Jo’s successes in these words:
“The Baillie Gallery of London presented the exhibition Modern Illustrators and Statuettes by Jo Davidson in the summer of 1909. On Davidson’s copy of the catalog, which lists Fourteen terra-cottas and one plaster, a single work is marked “sold.” It is a modest beginning, but only three months later, January 1910, Davidson’s first one-man show opened at the New York Cooperative Society, where he exhibited thirty-three terra-cotta and bronze sculptures and twenty-eight drawings. The show proved a success, for Davidson sold several works and received a portrait commission.”
“Just before the New York show opened, Davidson married Yvonne de Kerstrat, a beautiful French actress he had met in Paris in 1909. Their son Jacques was born in July 1910 and that year was was unusually productive for Davidson.” [Conner and Rosenkranz, Discoveries… p. 14.]
Meanwhile the years from 1903 to 1910 back at College Point, Hermon MacNeil continued his various statues and monuments. Since building his studio there, he had procured a succession of commissions for various monumental works.
He worked with young sculptors sought to develop their talents in the Beaux Arts tradition in which he trained and preserved.
BELOW are Listed the Monuments completed and initiated between 1903 and 1910 by Hermon MacNeil;
CLICK on these hot links for photos and information:
“The Pony Express” heads West into the setting sun. MacNeil loved to study the site and setting for his works so he could place them into their unique Horizon as this dramatic shot highlights.
On first viewing, the sculptures of Hermon MacNeil express amazing beauty and gracefulness. A second and third viewing reveals MacNeil’s careful inclusion of unique details connected to the subjects, objects and historical periods that he sought to portray in bronze and stone.
In sculpting a befitting monument to the “Pony Express” in 1940, Hermon MacNeil showed his abiding attention to detail. Studying this “last” public monument reveals a series of actions he completed in preparing and perfecting his final product:
He found a suitable “stallion” as his model.
The charger he found was a rescued “wild mustang” from the plains of the North Dakota (Teddy Roosevelt country). The steed was used as a rodeo “bucking bronco” and named after the Mexican outlaw, Poncho Villa.
Hermon referred to the animal as “glorious horse flesh”. This was the musculature that he immortalized in bronze. For the last 80 years it’s been heading West out of downtown Saint Joseph, Missouri, just a few blocks from the Pony Express Stationof the 1860’s.
The back story of “Poncho Villa” this outlaw mustang from North Dakota by way Madison Square Gardens is a prime example
He became friends with a physician nicknamed the “cowboy doctor”.
The man was Dr. S. Meredith Strong of Flushing, NY, a neighboring community to College Point where MacNeil lived and had his studio.
Dr. Strong was devoted to the preservation of “wild mustangs” from the prairies.
Strong was president of the American Rough Riders,“an organization devoted to the preservation of the horse, and especially the native wild pony.”
MacNeil studied the history of the Pony Express.
He did this by visiting St. Joseph, Missouri where the Pony Express Museum is located and by evaluating the site designated for the monument.
He also had Dr. Strong’s interest, knowledge and fervor to instruct him.
Theatrically, MacNeil had his own fascination fueled by attending the “Buffalo Bill Wild West Show” at the Chicago Worlds Fair (Columbian Exposition). Buffalo Bill Cody included a re-enactment of a Pony Express ride as a regular dramatization during his shows. He himself claimed to be a rider, though some dispute that assertion.
The photos below show the actual clay modeltaken from his studio after his death in 1947. The broken forelegs and head show the wire structure that the clay was modeled on.
I took these photos in the archives of the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, IN. MacNeil built a wire frame on which he constructed his clay model of the horse.
Swope Art Museum has remnants of H. A. MacNeil’s small clay models of larger statues salvaged from his studio and storage after his death.
Wire frames were a standard practice for constructing clay statue figures of larger proportions.
FOR EXAMPLE: His Manuelito Statue in Gallup, NM was made in 1895 of cement over a wire frame. It has been restored.
NOTE: I have yet to visit Gallup and see the restored Manuelito statue.
MacNeil was a natural talent as an artist. His training helped him perfect those innate skills. By their nature sculptors must be talented artists. Those skills start early in life. They include
a visual attention to detail.
Visual imaging and proportions.
an ability to capture and reproduce the essence of a object and form.
From there the process becomes quite meticulous. Phases involved can be described as including:
Model of a Pony Express saddle similar to Dr. Strong’s collection and what MacNeil depicted on his Monument. (Compare actual photo of MacNeil’s work below:)
detailed observation;
research;
historical accuracy;
design and balance;
construction;
inclusion of details and symbols.
The Long Island Star heralded “Poncho Villa”, his rescuer, Dr. Strong, and Hermon MacNeil’s mastery of sculptural detail in the following narration:
“Watch Out. Pard! Dr. Strong acquired Poncho from the rodeo after it broke up in New York, just as he did his last “pet.” The outlaw put six men in the hospital before the physician was able to gain its confidence after months of patient work. But even today the pony is a one-man animal. He is a gentle as a lamb when the doctor is around, but let a stranger come near – if you don’t care what happens to the stranger!
Fittingly enough for a horse that modeled for the Pony Expressstatue, Poncho has red, white and blue markings. The gun, holster, spurs, belt and other accessories sculptured in the replica are all relics which Dr. Strong brought from New Mexico.” (From the Long Island Star, Tuesday November 19, 1940)
Details of the mail bags as MacNeil modeled them after Dr. Strong’s authentic Pony Express gear from the 1930’s.
Saint Joseph, Missouri was the starting point for the Pony Express. From April 1860 to October 1861, the Pony Express delivered mail westward to Sacramento California.
The Pony Express
More than 1,800 miles in 10 days! From St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California the Pony Express could deliver a letter faster than ever before. In operation for only 18 months between April 1860 and October 1861, the Pony Express nevertheless has become synonymous with the Old West. In the era before electronic communication, the Pony Express was the thread that tied East to West.
SOURCE: [ https://www.nps.gov/poex/learn/historyculture/index.htm ] as of June 8, 2019
MacNeil’s “The Pony Express” at Saint Joseph, Missouri
Today, Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s last public monument, sculpted in 1940, commemorates that brief history of westward expansion.
A blackened bronze Pony Express rider with a bandanna over his face heads west over the dusty trail to the next station. What awaits him there will be another fast pony ready for the rider and his bag of mail to hop into the saddle. Thus, the next leg of the continuous trek across the prairies, rivers, plains, foothills and mountainside goes westward.
A bronze miniature of this sculpture has been obtained recently. The piece was originally cast in 1940 by the Jennings Brothers Manufacturing Company of Bridgeport, Conn. The seller notes:
Replica miniature Statue copyrighted by HAMN in 1940.
“Never cleaned in original condition. No damage or repairs, Never molested never used as a book end!!! the statue is approx 5 1/2″ in width and approx 6″ in height.”
Tag on bottom of the statuette identifies it.
The seller comments:
“I am offering an unmolested example of a reproduction of the Pony Express rider of an exact copy of the statue erected in St. Josephs MO.
This single statue was given to “Nora Finch ” Office manager to the owner of Loges department store NYC April 20 th 1940. Upon her retirement. Original tag on bottom. felt is also original. This is as original as one could find. Not many of these around. Design and copyright by Hermon A. MacNeil “C” H.A.M.N. JB on the front where the “Pony Express” located… Good luck USA sales only”
Ezra Cornell statue at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY was dedicated in 1918 after WWI.
Geo Rogers Clark, Confederate Defenders, Lawyer Abe Lincoln, General George Washington
Dwight Moody, WWI Monument – Flushing NY; Portland – Chief Multnomah – Coming of the White Man.
US Supreme Court Building
Images of Dan Leiningers article in the Galley of Spring/ Summer 2014
Hermon Atkins MacNeil – American Sculptor – (1866-1947)
MacNeil Clan history, like all family history, is filled with people we have never met. One MacNeil who has always fascinated me is Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Researching “Uncle” Hermon has also led me to another amazing man, Robert Lister MacNeil. Both men were present when the Clan MacNeil Association was formed ninety-three years ago.
MacNeil kinsman.
On May 26, 1921, the Clan MacNeil Association of America was organized in New York City. Central to that moment were Robert Lister MacNeil, (The MacNeil of Barra – 45th Chief of the Clan), and Hermon Atkins MacNeil, a sculptor, who served as the clan’s first president. At that time, Robert Lister was 32 years of age, a practicing architect in New York City, and a veteran of the First World War. He had succeeded to the chiefship of the Clan MacNeil just six years earlier. His dreams of the Isle of Barra and restoring Kisimul Castle (as told in his book The Castle in the Sea) were but faint hopes that would await decades and the efforts of many MacNeils for their accomplishment.
Dan “Neil” Leininger in a MacNeil kilt at Kisimul Castle, Isle of Barra, Scotland 2014. WHAT A TOUR it was!!!
His other kinsman was Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Hermon was the older of the two, an accomplished sculptor, also practicing in New York City, he had already created a myriad of statues, sculptures, monuments, as well as, the U.S. Standing Liberty Quarter first minted in 1916. Although these two MacNeils were 23 years apart in age, they were both trained in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a school for architects and sculptors in the Classic Greco-Roman styles. A lasting bond between them formed through their shared artistic talents, professional skills, and years of Clan MacNeil activity.
Hermon MacNeil designed a bronze plaque that was unveiled and dedicated on May 28, 1928 on the campus of Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, NC. The plaque commemorated the 1735 landing of Neil MacNeil of Jura, Scotland with 350 followers. This group made up mostly of clan members landed at the Cape Fear Settlement in North Carolina. The plaque was placed on a red granite stone and marked another clan project shared by these two men.
In his later years, Robert Lister stated: “Hermon was an outstanding sculptor and one of my dearest friends all the rest of his life.” In 1970, six years after publishing those words, Robert Lister MacNeil died at the age of 81. Twenty-three years earlier (in 1947), Hermon Atkins MacNeil had died, also at the same age of 81. All of the above was discovered as I “searched for Uncle Hermon.” I never met either of these two MacNeil men. The more I learn of them both, the more striking I find the parallels in their lives.
MacNeil roots. The third MacNeil man that I never met was my own grandfather, Tom Henry McNeil (1860-1932). Whenever my mother spoke of her father or of her “Uncle Hermon,” I would see a certain smile on her face and a sparkle in her eye. Emotionally, recalling her McNeil memories seemed to take her to “a very pleasant place.” On the MacNeil family tree, her father and Hermon MacNeil were first cousins. But “Uncle Hermon” was what the whole family always called him and what he always considered himself to be. Though she did not share them often, my mother’s stories instilled in me a sense of “wonder” about these two “MacNeil” men.
Genetically, my mother gave all of us six children her MacNeil biology, but when I first realized that my parents also gave me the middle name of “Neil,” I felt some extra portion of my Scottish ancestry. That feeling has only grown as I get older. My grandfather McNeil died before I was born. I was just two years old when Hermon MacNeil died. Now as an old man myself this MacNeil heritage and my memories of the sparkle in mother’s eyes have expanded my interest in these three MacNeils, and in the many other MacNeils that I have yet to meet.
MacNeil pursuits. So I am pursuing my MacNeil Clan interests in several ways. In 2010 I formally began searching for “Uncle Hermon” by building a “digital gallery” of the life and work as a sculptor. I built HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com, a website dedicated to making his sculpture and career available to the world. A web search of the name “Hermon MacNeil” will take you there. His sculptures, statues, monuments are scattered from Washington, DC to Portland, Oregon, and from New York City to Gallup, New Mexico. Now this virtual gallery features over 500 photos and 125 stories of Hermon MacNeil’s life and work. There you can see his statues of George Washington from Washington Arch, NYC; Ezra Cornell at Cornell University, William McKinley at Columbus, Ohio; Abraham Lincoln at Champaign, Illinois; Pony Express at St. Joseph, Missouri; Pere Marquette in Chicago; and monuments in Philadelphia, Charleston, Albany, and Flushing, and dozens of other cities.
In 2013 I became a member of the Clan MacNeil Association of America. I did not know its existence until I saw the 1928 news story of the MacNeil plaque dedication in Red Springs. For the last three yearsI have shared “MacNeil stories” at our annual family reunion of my siblings and our children and grand children. In August 2013 I went to my first Highland Festival. My nephew in Colorado told me about the attended the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Fest in Estes Park. What a great celebration of Celtic pride and heritage.
Donna and I have booked our spots on the 2014 MacNeil Clan Tour of Scotland. We reserved our passage before I received the Fall/Winter issue of The Galley with Rory MacNeil’s invitation to the World Gathering of the Clan MacNeil on the Isle of Barra from August 4-7, 2014. We hope to meet some of you there this summer.
I joined Clan MacNeil Association I have attended the 2013 Estes Park Highland Fest
I have booked spots for Donna and I on the 2014 MacNeil Clan Tour of Scotland
Hermon A. MacNeil Commemorative sketched by Artist Charles D. Daughtrey as the seventh work in his Series of Coin Designers is available at http://www.cdaughtrey.com/
AND THE 10th Year of my Search for “Uncle Hermon” for whom this website is dedicated.
This website also is inspired by the memory of my mother, Ollie McNeil Leininger.
I remember my mother telling me about her “Uncle Hermon.”
She handed me some “Liberty Standing Quarters” from her grocery change and showed me the little “M” at the left foot of Lady Liberty.
She showed me “The Sun Vow” statue in the Saint Louis Art Museum. We also visited “The Pony Express” statue in St. Joseph, Missouri. I grew up with a sense of pride and quiet fascination with mom’s “Uncle Hermon”
I never met “Uncle Hermon”
Hermon A. MacNeil died on October 2, 1947 at the age of 81 years, 7 months, and 8 days. On the day that he died I was just two years-old.
To read the whole article, Click and open in a separate window
My own Mother died years later in the winter of 1985. At that time, I wrote:
With her passing a warm, safe feeling faded from my world. I was the “baby” of her six children. Her death ushered in feelings of being a midlife orphan who would soon turn forty. Darkness seemed to creep in from the far corners of my life. A strange fearful child inside of me said, “Who will take care of me now?”
As the years passed, I would think of mom, and occasionally, of her “Uncle Hermon.”
By the turn of the 2K millennium, computers and the internet had become household items. This allowed people to hunt, find, and save data. I found fascinating stories about Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Virtually anything from anywhere could be researched.
In 2010, I met Dan DeBlock. He is a retired Army Chaplain and Lutheran Minister who builds websites for churches. It started as a hobby interest and became Leiturgia Communications, Inc. The Host and Tech Support for this website.
One day I asked Dan DeBlock, “Could a website be built as virtual gallery of the sculpture of Hermon Atkins MacNeil?”
Nine years and 170 stories later, “HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com” is the answer to my question and Dan’s hosting.
In that year (2010), I seriously began my “Searching for Uncle Hermon.”
That journey continues. This is story # 171 – A Birthday Present for Hermon Atkins MacNeil.
This Gallery celebrates Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American sculptor of the Beaux Arts School.
Last Saturday while traveling home to South Dakota, I made an unscheduled stop at Reed Chevrolet in St. Joe, MO. As I took the exit ramp off I-29 at Frederick Ave., the red light on my Chevy Silverado dash told me that the alternator was failing.
I was planning to stop at Hazel’s Coffee to get some of our favorite beans to bring home, but I drove a block farther into Reed Chevrolet for emergency repairs.
While waiting for repairs, I met Lou Schreck, sales team member there. He gave me test drive in a new 2017 Red Silverado.
We drove downtown as Lou gave me his sales low down on Chevy’s 2017 Silverado line. I drove the very red 2017 that felt like a tall limo.
Lou Schrenk and “Poncho Villa”, Hermon MacNeil’s model for “THE PONY EXPRESS”
I gave Lou a history of the PONY EXPRESS statue in downtown St. Joe, Missouri and took his picture as MacNeil’s bronze mustang soared above.
Webmaster Dan in St. Joe again for the Ump-teenth time
I enjoyed meeting this friendly Chevy man and exploring the Silverado and St Joe again. Lou got a snapshot of me also with our Pony Express friends.
For more Pony Express stories that I told to Lou, click on this link:
Dan Leininger holds the “Galley” for Summer 2014 with MacNeil’s “Pony Express” statue on the cover and an 8 page feature story inside.
“Clan MacNeil Connections and Hermon Atkins MacNeil”
The current issue of the Clan MacNeil Association of America magazine has a feature story on Hermon Atkins MacNeil by webmaster, Dan Leininger
The Galley edited by Vicki Sanders Corporon titles Dan’s story as “Clan MacNeil Connections and Hermon Atkins MacNeil.” The feature and photos fill 8 pages in the “Galley” issue for Spring/Summer 2014.
Ezra Cornell statue at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY was dedicated in 1918 after WWI. Page 19 of the “Galley” (This Photo from Cornell University is Courtesy of Chris Carlsen).
Page 20 of the “Galley” for Summer 2014
The featured photos include the East Pediment of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. (with a detail close-up of Moses, Confucius, and Salon); The George Rogers Clark monument in Vincennes, IN at the site of his victory over the British in 1779; Confederate Defenders of Charleston, SC; the Young Lawyer Abraham Lincoln in Champaign, IL; General George Washington on the Washington Arch, NYC, NY. Also in this article are photos of the grouping Coming of the White Man in Portland, OR; The WWI Angel of Peace Monument in Flushing NY; and a bust of Dwight L. Moody (who MacNeil sketched during the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair.
Following-up the previous post of April 23, 2013, I offer this fascinating link to a great lecture on the colorful legend of the Pony Express. Author Christopher Corbett [ CLICK HERE ] spoke about his book “Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express” His 54 minute YouTube video shares humorous stories of Buffalo Bill, Pony Express, and research findings. The presentation includes questions from the audience, as well.
The Pony Express at St Joseph, Missouri. Dan Leininger, webmaster, has visited it many times as a small boy. Now it is part of his ongoing research on Hermon MacNeil.
Hermon MacNeil’s last sculpture was the Pony Express Rider erected in 1940 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. A skit of the Pony Express was a feature of every show given by Buffalo Bill Cody. We can thank Buffalo Bill for infecting American History with the Pony Express legend. He even infected world history with images of the Pony Express. Hermon MacNeil became captivated by the images of the Native American Indians (Black Pipe and others) in head. He was first introduced to those visions in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show outside of the front gates of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. After this MacNeil traveled to the Southwestern United States. That experience affected him profoundly. From then on, he produced sculptures and returned to those images of Native Americans and Indian themes throughout his life.
In 1890 Buffalo Bill rode his troop around Vatican City for the Pope. I never rode with the Pony Express, and neither did Buffalo Bill, though he was the right age to do it in 1860 (He did ride as a courier as a very young boy). However, I almost got a Pony Express ornament for my 1939 LaSalle in 2012 (see below). The statue is MacNeil’s. The LaSalle is mine. (The trailer belongs to Chris Carlsen.) The location is Saint Joseph, Missouri. Enough foolishness, already. Below are more Pony Express images from St. Joe.
Details of the mail bags as MacNeil modeled them after Dr. S. Mededith Strong’s authentic Pony express gear, spurs, saddle, mail bags, from the 1930’s.
Since 1940, Hermon A. MacNeil’s “Pony Express” has galloped westward out of Saint Joseph, Missouri, on the 10 day mail run to Sacramento, California. The statue was modeled on the wild mustang, “Pancho Villa”, an outlaw stallion captured on the North Dakota prairie and bucking off rodeo cowboys all the way to Madison Square Garden in NYC.
The LAST STOP of Pony_Express_Rider outside Harrah’s at Lake Tahoe. Appears similar to MacNeil‘s sculpture in St. JO, MO. [ Photo Credit to XP-Rider — http://www.xphomestation.com/ ]
The Hermon A MacNeil statue of of the “Pony Express” in downtown St. Joe will point the way as it has daily for 73 years, of “heading west, young man, heading West!”
MacNeil’s model for this work was a wild stallion from North Dakota that ran in the rodeo circuit as a ‘outlaw’ horse named “Poncho Villa.” The untamed bucking bronco put six men in the hospital during his rodeo career. Dr. S. Meredith Strong acquired the stallion from the rodeo as it was breaking up after its last performance in Madison Square Garden. (Click on “Star” news article below).
While you are in St. Joseph be sure to stop at Patee House Museum (CLICK for photos) and the Pony National Express Museum (CLICK for More). And see MacNeil’s statue for his muscles of “Poncho Villa” captured in bronze. The statue has lasted much longer than the Pony Express in its 78 week history. (April 3, 1860 to Oct 24, 1961 ).
The 2013 Re-ride will offer beautiful horse flesh again this year. This 10-day, 24-hour a day, non-stop event by over 600 riders and horses travels over the 1,966 mile route of the Pony Express National Historic Trail from Missouri through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada to California. (Not “instant messaging”, but an amazing feat of daring by teenage riders like Buffalo Bill Cody.)
The 2013 Annual Re-Ride of the Pony Express Trail conducted by the National Pony Express Association starts in St. Joseph, MO and goes to Sacramento, California, June 17 – 27, 2013. It is the longest event held annually on a Historical trail in the nation.
That is Hermon MacNeil seated on the “Pony Express” monument. An actual wild stallion from North Dakota named “Poncho Villa” was his model for the historic piece. CLICK on Article TO READ & ENLARGE.
The event commemorated the 1860-1861 Central Overland and California Pikes Peak Express Company which carried letters and telegrams for 19 months to prove the Central Route through Salt Lake passable year round. The owners hoped to win a federal mail contract on that route. Pony Express history is preserved in the federally designated Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service, in museums, Pony Rider monuments, books, and the annual recreations by the NPEA.
Dr. Strong, who tamed the original “Poncho” that MacNeil modeled for his sculpture, was the president of the American Rough Riders, a organization devoted to the preservation of the American horse, especially the native, wild pony. The saddle, saddle bags, reins, and mail pouches were all modeled after Dr. Strong’s collection of authentic Pony Express gear. While Strong managed to gain Poncho’s confidence, the animal remained but a one-man horse. He was gentle as a lamb around Dr Strong, but when a stranger appeared, he became a fierce wild stallion again. He certainly was of the breed that the Pony Express fostered in their brief 18 month history.
The Re-riders will also carry Commemorative Letters in a Mochila, Pony Express style. The 2013 cachet will be a vignette of Pony Express history in Utah and will be available for purchase by NPEA members, historians, and philatelists. The envelopes will show they were carried by the Pony Express and the first class postage will have a special US Postal service cancellation. Only the number of letters purchased will be carried. Every year Ham Radio plays a very important part of the Re-Ride by providing communications over parts of the trail where communication by other means is not available. This gives those personnel responsible for that part of the Re-Ride information as to where the rider is and if the mail is on time. Communications between Riders and Ride Captains will be provided by amateur radio operators in the states of California, Nevada, Utah, eastern Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas.
Ranked among the most remarkable feats to come out of the 1860 American West, the Pony Express was in service from April 1860 to November 1861. Its primary mission was to deliver mail and news between St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco, California. Hermon MacNeil’s Statue in St. Joseph, Missouri, marks the beginning point of the trail.
The Missouri Capitol burns after being struck by lightning the evening of Feb. 5, 1911, in Jefferson City. City firefighters, state penitentiary inmates and fire crews from Sedalia, Mo., who rushed by train to assist from more than 60 miles away, fought the blaze, but the building was a total loss. ¦ AP Photo/Missouri State Archives
Hermon A. MacNeil Commemorative portrait by Artist C. Daughtrey is available at http://www.cdaughtrey.com/
On February 5, 1911 lightning struck the Missouri Capitol in the evening. Responders included local firefighters, state penitentiary inmates and even fire crews from as far as sixty miles away in Sedalia, Missouri. Many came by train to help. But the building was a total loss. The resulting fire had entirely destroyed the state’s historic building complex (see the ‘day after’ photo below).
After the public saw the devastating results of the fire, donations began to come in for restoration. School children collected coins, the public sent gifts, and private funds contributes as well. All helped to rebuild the the Jefferson City capitol with new sculptures and new art making it more spectacular that before.
Hermon A. MacNeil was one of the many famous American sculptors commissioned for sculptures and art for the new Missouri Capitol after the tragic fire. Other renowned sculptors commissioned for work on the re-built state structure include: James Earl Fraser, Robert Aiken, Alexander A. Weinman, Karl Bitter, and Alexander Stirling C(see photo below)alder.
In this photo provided by the Missouri State Archives, people walk around the ruins of the Missouri Capitol on the day after. (AP Photo/Missouri State Archives) Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/image_8158f625-1596-5d61-8c0a-b210ee48de6f.html#ixzz1s4tJIm8l
Portion of the North Allegorical frieze, “Missouri, the Mother of the West,” Hermon MacNeil – Sculpted in 1924. Note the sculptor’s name appearing along bottom left corner. [ Photo Credit: SIRIS -Smithsonian Institute Research Information System. ]
Stay tuned for more on MacNeil’s work there in Jefferson City.
Here are a few images ofIndependence from Hermon Atkins MacNeil for this 237th Fourth of July Day in the United States of America.
1) From Vincennes, Indiana at the George Rogers Clark National Monument, Here is a hero of the American Revolution:
MacNeil’s “George Rogers Clark” in the rotunda of the National Monument in Vincennes, Indiana (Photo credit: Dan Leininger – webmaster)
The ranger at the monument commented on the proud dignity that MacNeil’s work conveys in the face and stance of this 26 year-old Virginia patriot, Col. George Rogers Clark. (Photo: Dan Leininger ~ webmaster)
On a recent visit to the monument, the National Park Ranger commented on the pride and confidence that Hermon MacNeil placed in his rendering of Clark’s gaze and pose for this sculpture. Clark, a Virginia Militia officer, won the approval and support of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, to conduct a daring attack on the British in the Western frontiers. Clark crafted, trained, and commanded a special force of two hundredfrontiersman, militia, and Kentucky sharpshooters. Their loyalty to the cause and Clark’s strategy of surprise resulted in capture of the British fortifications on the Western frontiers along the Mississippi, Ohio and Wabash Rivers at Vincennes, IN; Cahokia, IL; Kaskaskia, IL Enduring severe winter hardships, starvation, and sickness their monumental military achievement resulted in British withdrawal from the West and the surrender of territories east of the Mississippi in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. These are due in part to Clark’s Victories. He was the oldest of a family of famous brothers. In 1804 his brother William Clark, along with Meriwether Lewis,would explore the Louisiana Purchase west of the Mississippi for President Jefferson.
2. From New York City, Washington Square Arch. ~ “George Washington, Commander in Chief” by Hermon A. MacNeil.
1916 Photo of the installation of the MacNeil statue. Thia appears to have the statue sitting in the right hand leg of the Arch. The left leg is where it was permanently installed. Photo Credit: John Gomez, NYC.
General George Washington with Flags (U.S. and POW/MIA) ~ Washington Arch Greenwich, NYC (Photo courtesy of: Gibson Shell – 2011)
In 1916 the northeast statue pedestal received its Washington statue after being empty for over 20 years.
The other shelf of the Arch remained empty until 1918 when Alexander Stirling Calder’s “Washington as President” was installed. The installation on the right is a bit confusing. This photo was salvaged from a NYC flea market in June 2012 by John Gomez and used with his permission. John purchased this and other photos of interest to this MacNeil researcher and has graciously allowed their use by webmaster. This ‘strange’ photo shows the MacNeil statue resting on the right-hand side of the Arch where the Calder statue would be placed two years later. (The ladder, rope and pulleys suggest “Men at Work.” Compare the 2012 photo to its left.)
For MacNeil this event took place the same year as the first issue of his sculpture for the U.S. Mint’s “Standing Liberty Quarter.”
3. From Philadelphia, PA. “The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Monument.” Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Jim Haas, author and College Point native, sent this Philadelphia shot of Hermon MacNeil’s Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. That is a rare shot of Jim himself, taken by Lynne, his director of public relations. : ) Jim is a Friend of HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com and a generous researcher for the website. CLICK HERE for Jim’s Books
The second half of the American Revolution (the preservation of the Union) is commemorated in this pair of 60 foot monuments on either side of the parkway entrance.
The back of the monuments read:
~~ “ONE COUNTRY, ONE CONSTITUTION, ONE DESTINY” ~~
~~ “IN GIVING FREEDOM TO THE SLAVE,
WE ASSURE FREEDOM TO THE FREE.” ~~
HEAR & VIEW PHILADELPHIA’S PRIDE IN THIS MACNEIL ART AT:
So said Aesop in the fable of the “Tortoise and the Hare.” And those are the two last figures that Hermon A. MacNeil placed as ‘bookends’ on either end of the East Pediment of the US Supreme Court Building. On our recent visit to Washington, D.C., we slowlymade our way to the Supreme Court Building, we walked steadily around to the East Pediment (back side) passing the barricades for all the current landscape construction.
There, hidden high on the seldom-seen back side of **Cass Gilbert’s last architectural achievement, rests the eleven marble figures of Hermon A. MacNeil’s tribute to “Justice: The Guardian of Liberty.” Unless you walk around the building you will miss this massive work of art.
Moses, Confucius, and Solon represent three great world civilizations. Moses (receiver of Hebrew Ten Commandments) is in the center. To his right is Confucius (Chinese philosopher and teacher). To Moses’ left is Solon (Athenian lawmaker, statesman, and poet). MacNeil explained his work as follows:
“Law as an element of civilization was normally and naturally derived or inherited in this country from former civilizations. The ‘Eastern Pediment’ of the Supreme Court Building suggests therefore the treatment of such fundamental laws and precepts as are derived from the East.”
This trio of law makers are framed on left and right by three pairs of allegorical figures. The rest of the grouping is as follows:
“Flanking this central group – left – is the symbolical figure bearing the means of enforcing the law. On the right a group temperingjustice with mercy, allegorically treated. The “Youth” is brought into both these groups tosuggest the “Carrying on” of civilization through the knowledge imbibed of right and wrong.The next two figures with shields; Left – The settlement of disputes between states throughenlightened judgment. Right – Maritime and other large functions of the Supreme Court inprotection of the United States. The last figures: Left – Study and pondering of judgments.Right – A tribute to the fundamental and supreme character of this Court. Finale – The fableof the Tortoise and the Hare.“
** NOTE: “Gilbert, Sr. died in 1934, one year before the completion of the Supreme Court Building by his son, Cass Gilbert, Jr. MacNeil and Gilbert first collaborated in 1904 at the Saint Louis World’s Fair. That “Palace of Fine Arts” on Art Hill now houses the St. Louis Art Museum.”
The three MacNeil sculptures above the main entrance of Cass Gilbert’s ‘Palace of fine Arts’ are examples of the Beaux Arts style of World Fairs of this era. (http://www.slam.org/).
Since 1940, MacNeil's "Pony Express" has galloped westward out of Saint Joseph, Missouri, on the 10 day mail run to Sacramento, California. The horse was modeled on a wild mustang from North Dakota, named "Pancho Villa."
MacNeil modeled the saddle, spurs and rider's accessories after Dr. Strong's collection of authentic western gear .
The bronze “Pony Express” horse and rider galloping out of downtown Saint Joseph, Missouri, since 1940, is Hermon A. MacNeil’s immortalizing of “Pancho Villa.” The sculptor modeled the monument’s “glorious horse flesh” after an actual “outlaw” wild mustang from the North Dakota prairies, named “Pancho Villa” (after the Mexican outlaw). (See the original 1946 ‘Long Island Star – Journal” story below).
‘Pancho Villa’ put six rodeo cowboys in the hospital before he allowed Dr. S. Meredith Strong, a Flushing physician, to tame and ride him. The ‘cowboy doctor’ (as he was called) bought the animal after its last rodeo performance in Madison Square Garden, New York City. Originally, “Pancho Villa” was captured from the North Dakota prairie where he ran with a herd of wild horses.
Spurs and saddle detail
Dr. Strong, who died in 1946 (see obituary below), was the National President of the American Rough Riders Association, a group devoted to the preservation of the wild mustangs. He traveled thousands of miles as a lover-of-horse-flesh seeking to preserve this western heritage. He and MacNeil must have had some interesting conversations. (The newspaper photo below shows Hermon MacNeil seated on the statue).
I am grateful to James E. Haas,(author, researcher, and Hermon-MacNeil-enthusiast) for this resource find. Jim has become this website’s “official research detective” and a true benefactor of history on Hermon A. MacNeil. Through his detective work over 150 digital sources have been given to me as webmaster. His books on College Point history can be found at his website. CLICK HERE (http://www.jimhaasbooks.com/).
Hermon MacNeil' "Pony Express" monument is modeled on an actual wild stallion from North Dakota named "Poncho Villa." The man seated on the statue base by the sculptors signature is Hermon MacNeil himself.
In related news the National Pony Express Association will conduct its annual Re-Ride over the 1,966 mile route of the Pony Express National Historic Trail from California, through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas to Missouri, June 12 to 23, 2012. Like the statue, this annual event preserves this history that Dr. Strong and Hermon MacNeil so loved.
“Giddy-up Poncho”
The "Long Island Star-Journal" published this obituary of Meredith Strong on February 4, 1946. Twenty months later, Hermon MacNeil died as well.
The Sun Vowis certainly Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s most visible and famous sculpture. If you ever have a chance to see it, please do so. (Even our best pictures on this website cannot do justice to the detail of this sculpture or to the creativity of the artist.)
Gibson Shell, sent us some “Sun Vow” photos from his recent excursion to NYC. These photos do provide detail and a truer sense of MacNeil’s careful presentation of these figures and the Sun Vow ritual.
Hermon MacNeil's "Sun Vow" graces over a dozen museums including the MMA in NYC.
These “Sun Vow” poses are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (73″ – Rogers Fund 1919). The backgrounds have been removed to present MacNeil’s composition without distractions.
Gib is a long-time Beaux Arts photographer — an amateur in the best sense of a ‘devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of any Beaux Arts sculpture.’ Gib has been a generous friend of this website. Dozens of his photos are featured already. Hundreds more will be seen in future posts.
MacNeil made the “Sun Vow” in Rome as his final requirement for the Roman Rinehart Scholarship. The sculpture is signed with ‘RRS’ designating that commission of the piece. His typical signature “H. A. MacNeil Sc” (Sc for Sculptor~ See Gib’s photo below).
The size of this piece (72-74 measured variously) is the same of those in major museum collections. Several links on this website (see below and also “MUSEUMS: with MacNeil Art” section in lower right) connect to these “Sun Vows.” Possibly a dozen of these exist, publicly and privately.
His typical signature "H. A. MacNeil Sc" (Sc for Sculptor). Underneath the initials "RRS" (for "Roman Rinehart Scholarship," his sponsor of study) and the Location of casting "ROME"
Herman Atkins MacNeil often placed “Sc” behind his signature on sculptures (as seen above, and in other photos on his signature on this website.
According to McSpadden, an article on MacNeil in the Craftsman stated,
“In The Moqui Runner, The Primitive Chant, The Sun Vow, The Coming of the White Man, and many others of his Indian statues, MacNeil always gives you the feeling of the Indian himself, of his attitude toward his own culture of the Sun Vow that MacNeil has memorialized, are a compounded and profound statement of the power of art and artists. vanishing tribes, and his point of view toward the white race which has absorbed his country. It is never the Indian of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, trapped out for curiosity seekers, but the grave, sad, childlike man of the plains, faithful to his own tribe, once loyal to us, though now resentful; and always a thinker, a poet, and a philosopher.” (McSpadden lists the following source: “The Art of MacNeil,” Craftsman. September 1909).
( See also: Florence Finch Kelly, “American Bronzes at the Metropolitan Museum: An Important Collection in Process of Formation.” Craftsman, 1907: Volume XI, February 1907, Number 5, pp 545-559.)
Dr. Andrew Walker, an associate curator at the St. Louis Art Museum, has written a chapter in “Shaping the West.” MacNeil’s ‘Sun Vow’ was chosen for the cover photo of that publication by the Denver Art Museum. Walker’s essay there is entitled: “Hermon Atkins MacNeil and the 1904 World’s Fair: A Monumental Program for the American West.” Walker has written and presented extensively on MacNeil.
It is all in the faces - the ideals passed to a new generation.
While highlighting the work of Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Dr. Walker illustrates how the 1904 World’s Fair included a monumental sculpture initiative. He does this with narrative and photo description of the major sculptures that formed the grounds, fountains, waterfalls and buildings of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis. The current St. Louis Art Museum (where Walker is a curator) was the “Palace of Fine Arts” conceived by Cass Gilbert, architect of the fair grounds (and later the US Supreme Court Building). Over a century later, Mac Neil’s three sculpture relief panels still look down from their vantage point above the three sets of doors at the main entrance.
The 'Sun Vow' at the MMA - NYC - with Daniel Chester French's "Angel of Death" in relief in background (See also Webmaster's <= Comment at left.
The more I study this sculpture (as other MacNeil pieces?) the more new details I find in MacNeil’s creations.
The photo at right shows MacNeil’s Sun Vow with Daniel Chester French’s “Angel of Death” in the background. French and MacNeil were colleagues and collaborators. The Angel of Death has grasped the hand of the sculptor. See more of this DCF piece HERE.
Webmaster’s Comment: The beauty and ‘irony’ of the two sculptures together, long after the death of the two sculptors and the vanishing of the culture of the Sun Vow that MacNeil has memorialized, are a compounded and profound statement of the power of art and artists.
SOURCES:
SHAPING THE WEST: American Sculptors of the 19th Century. With additional essays by Alice Levi Duncan, Thayer. Tolles, Peter Hassrick, Sarah E. Boehme, and Andrew Walker.
Florence Finch Kelly, “American Bronzes at the Metropolitan Museum: An Important Collection in Process of Formation.” Craftsman, 1907: Volume XI, February 1907, Number 5, pp 545-559.)
"The Coming of the White Man" ~ MacNeil posed Black Pipe, the Sioux Warrior in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show that he befriended after the 1893 Chicago Fair. (Antique Postcard courtesy of Gil Shell)
At the 1270 acre Forest Park location and the campus of Washington University the Fair was constructed and the Olympic Games were held.
“Fifteen major exhibition Palaces radiated in fan pattern from central Festival Hall in “setting of lagoons, boulevards, gardens, fountains and sculpture” (1,200 pieces of statuary). Electric light, sign of progress then, used “lavishly” for both decoration and illumination. Featured were motor car, aeronautics and wireless telegraphy–all at their earliest, most exciting stage of development; spotlight on auto which had traveled from New York City to St. Louis, then “an unprecedented feat and a hazardous journey.” Olympic Games held during Exposition in first concrete stadium built in U.S.”
For the event, MacNeil exhibited three sculptures: “The Moqui Runner,” “A Primitive Chant,” “The Coming of the White Man” (pictured here from period postcard showing the Portland, Oregon setting.)
On a prominent hill of the Forest Park location, Cass Gilbert designed and build the Palace of Fine Arts. This one permanent building remains 106 years later as the home of the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM).
It also became one of many collaborations of Gilbert and MacNeil over the next 30 year. The most famous of these would be the last in 1932 – the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.
Gilbert designed the front entrance of this Palace of Fine Arts to bear six Corinthian columns. The four central columns frame the three MacNeil reliefs sculptures above the three entrance doors. Inscribed on his center panel are the words “ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM “roughly meaning, “The art of all arts.”
That panel is pictured here.
"ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM" is a MacNeil creation for the 1904 St Louis Worlds Fair
This link below on the SLAM website also offers more detail images of all three panels and the building entrance:
The MacNeil work was a part of that “Palace of Fine Art” and his abilities in the Beaux Arts style seemed to seal his collaborative link to many projects grown from Cass Gilbert’s genius. The inscription “ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM” translates literally from the Latin as “the Art of all Arts.”
Above the columns of the Saint Louis Art Museum are inscribed the words, “DEDICATED TO ART AND FREE TO ALL – MDCDIII.” That Free to All spirit remains today in that admission is free through a subsidy from the ZMD.
Other works completed by MacNeil for the fair were the “Fountain of Liberty” and the massive sculpture “Physical Liberty.” The artist rendition below shows both. “Physical Liberty” is the large Buffalo sculpture on the right. A young woman on the other side accompanies the powerful beast. Detail photos of the fountain are difficult to attain. Hopefully, more to Come!
In the meanwhile, Enjoy!
Artists View of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition ~ Looking north from the Cascades. The Buffalo figure on the right is MacNeil's "Physical liberty." The Dolphins that stair-step down th the cascades are also MacNeil creations.
The MacNeil sculptures above the main entrance of the Saint Louis Art Museum is a fine example of the Beaux Arts style of World Fairs of this era. (Credit SLAM at http://www.slam.org/).
The MacNeil sculpture above the main entrance of the Saint Louis Art Museum is a fine example of the Beaux Arts style of World Fairs of this era. (http://www.slam.org/).
The Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries were filled with hundreds of World’s Fairs. Hermon Atkins MacNeil began his career as a sculptor in the 1890s. He worked on five of these events that were in the U.S. between 1901 and 1915. He helped design buildings, outdoor art, plazas, exhibits, and entered sculptures in many of these expositions.
MacNeil’s works were entered in the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo (1901); the Charleston Exposition in South Carolina (1902); the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis (1904); [MacNeil Sculpture “Meets Me in St. Louis” (7.3) On a recent trip to Saint Louis, Missouri to visit…] the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon (1905); and the Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in (1915)
In future postings we will gather information on these events and MacNeil’s involvement in expos that became extravaganzas of art and sculptures. So more on Chicago, Buffalo, Charleston, Saint Louis, Portland, and San Francisco fairs. Most of the fairs that MacNeil worked on were built in the peak era of the Beaux Arts style of architecture and sculpture in the U.S. He was part of a the American Renaissance from 1890 to 1920, the last phase of Neoclassicism in United States. (See also Beaux Arts link above).
Below is a Wikipedia list of World Fairs from 1700 to the present. Modern Expos tend to be held in outside of the USA in nations with developing economies and growing world trade.
List of World’s Fairs: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world%27s_fairs#1890s
On a rainy day recently I visited MacNeil’s Pony Express statue in Saint Joseph, Missouri. I took numerous photos. After posting about a half a dozen, I realized that I omitted one rather light-hearted composition from that drizzly photo session. It shows the horse and rider as an over-sized hood ornament on my 1939 LaSalle sedan.
“Lass,” the Webmasters 1939 LaSalle sizes up the 1940 MacNeil Pony Express Statue as possible hood ornament upgrade. Both metal art pieces are in their seventies.
NOTE: No ponies, Express Riders or LaSalles were injured in the making of this picture. No disrespect for the City of St. Joe, the Pony Express, the people of Missouri, the Cadillac Motor Division of General Motors (manufacturer of LaSalle automobiles from 1923 to 1940), or any other persons (living or deceased) is intended in the making of this picture. It was just a twitch of the finger that seemed a good idea at the time (just as posting it on a Wednesday evening at 10PM right now feels like the right thing to do! )
In the heart of downtown Saint Joseph, Missouri the “Pony Express Rides Again.”
The Pony Express - Saint Joe, Mo
Hermon A. MacNeil’s massive 1940 Sculpture has been heading ‘west’ out of town since its installation at the origin of historic Pony Express trail across Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, to California.
St Joe Missouri to Sacramento California in only 10 days
On a recent trip to Saint Louis, Missouri to visit family, I was met by not by “Louis” but by “Hermon”
For the last 106 years(since the Worlds Fair inspired the song “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis”)a sculpture by Hermon A. MacNeil has been quietly greeting visitors at the front door of the St Louis Art Museum. The piece resides high above the center doors at the main entrance of the building.
"ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM" is a MacNeil creation for the 1904 St Louis Worlds Fair
Saint Louis Art Museum main entrance. The MacNeil sculpture rests above the center doors recessed between the center columns.
The building itself represents one of MacNeil’s first collaborations of with renowned architect, Cass Gilbert. His last project with Cass Gilbert was the US Supreme Court Building in 1933.
The Cass Gibert Society website offers images of his lifetime of architectural achievements.
The Saint Louis World’s Fair of 1904 was formally known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. It was an international exposition commemorating the Louisiana purchase of 1803. It was delayed from a planned opening in 1903 to 1904 to allow for the full-scale participation by more states and foreign countries. The song, “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” was inspired by the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair.
The MacNeil work was a part of that “Palace of Fine Art” and his abilities in the Beaux Arts style seemed to seal his collaborative link to many projects grown from Cass Gilbert’s genius. The inscription “ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM” translates literally from the Latin as “the Art of all Arts.”
Above the columns of the Saint Louis Art Museum are inscribed the words, “DEDICATED TO ART AND FREE TO ALL – MDCDIII.” That Free to All spirit remains today in that admission is free through a subsidy from the ZMD.
The SLAM is one of the principal U.S.art museums, visited by up to a half million people every year. MacNeil’s art is among some of the first to silently greet them.
The Art Museum at Forest Park in Saint. Louis, Missouri at night. on 27 September 2008. (credit: Kitz000 - Matt Kitces at Wikipedia Commons ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StLouisArtMuseum.jpg
Here is ONE place to go to see sculpture of Hermon A. MacNeil & his students. Located in cities from east to west coast, found indoors and out, public and private, these creations point us toward the history and values that root Americans.
Daniel Neil Leininger ~ HAMacNeil@gmail.com
Hosting & Tech Support: Leiturgia Communications, Inc. WATCH US GROW
WE DESIRE YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS – Suggestions
1. Take digital photos of the work from all angles, including setting.
2. Take close up photos of details that you like
3. Look for MacNeil’s signature. Photograph it too! See examples above.
4. Please, include a photo of you & others beside the work.
5. Tell your story of adventure. It adds personal interest.
6. Send photos to ~ Webmaster at: HAMacNeil@gmail.com
I was surprised to see finished repairs as I stopped in St. Joe, MO on May 18, 2025. All four faces of the base appeared newly repaired and engraved after 85 years of deterioration. See old photo ==>>
Statue of the
<=<= <= AAA World
She handed me some “Liberty Standing Quarters” from her grocery change and showed me the little “M” at the left foot of Lady Liberty. 
in St. Joseph, Missouri. I grew up with a sense of pride and quiet fascination with mom’s “Uncle Hermon” 
Nine years and 170 stories later, “HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com” is the answer to my question and Dan’s hosting.
BELOW IS MORE OF THE LEGEND AS CAPTURED BY HERMON ATKINS MACNEIL
Moses, Confucius, and Solon represent three great world civilizations. Moses (receiver of Hebrew Ten Commandments) is in the center. To his right is Confucius (Chinese philosopher and teacher). To Moses’ left is Solon (Athenian lawmaker, statesman, and poet). MacNeil explained his work as follows: 
