Archive for Sculptures
Hermon MacNeil and Hamlin Garland ~ ~ Connections Through the Years – Part 3
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil met Hamlin Garland in Chicago.
Hermon MacNeil
H. A. Mac Neil
Hermon MacNeil came to Chicago in 1891. Preliminary work was beginning on the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 (Chicago Worlds Fair). He brought with him a Letter of Introduction to Phillip Martiny, a gift from Augustus Saint Gaudens of New York City.
“Martiny was one of the large team of decorative sculptors assembled to carry out details for the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, where he settled for a year to carry out the clay models for many somewhat facile decorative allegorical figures, cherubs, caryatids and the like. … The sculptures, which were carried out in staff, a weather-resistant plaster, were destroyed with the exhibition buildings, but the successful effect they produced led to further similar commissions at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York (1901) and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis (1904). His growing reputation led to his only medal, an award medal for the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia.” [4] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Martiny
“So MacNeil chose to settle in Chicago where this collosal World’s Fair was “being born.” This decision proved momentous in many ways. In his ‘Chicago Years’ he met people who would remain professional colleagues and friends for the next four decades. These included Frederick MacMonnies, Lorado Taft, his pupil, Carol Louise Brooks (who MacNeil was to marry in 1895), Daniel Chester French, as well as architects Daniel Burnham, Stanford White, and Charles Follen McKim. The rest of MacNeil’s career would become a repeated succession of partnerships with these colleagues on projects, monuments, buildings, and memorials that were joint efforts of many Beaux Arts trained scupltors and architects associated with the American Academy in Rome.”The rest story has been told on this website at: “The Chicago Years” [CLICK HERE].
Fifty years later, Hermon MacNeil, revisited these “Chicago Years” when he wrote out his thirteen page Autobiography. Here’s what he wanted us to know:
“St. Gaudens was then the great sculptor in America and in my brash way [ I ] went to N. Y. City and asked him for a job, that is, the privilege of being an apprentice. He was kind enough to give me a letter to Philip Martiny, a very able sculptor who had considerable work at that time designing sculpture for the coming exposition in Chicago. He rather doubtfully took me on. At the end of the first week he asked me what I thought I should have for pay. I had had no professional experience so I told him to set my stipend. I would have taken $2 or $3 a day if he said so but he asked me if $5 would be enough! I don’t think I showed any disappointment in my face and told him that was O.K. (O.K. was not used in those days however) So for a year I revelled [sic] in assisting in the professional work and learned a great deal. Had in Paris learned to model the figure but in the studio to use intelligently and decoratively that knowledge was another thing again. As a friend of Martiny’s said to me when looking at my work, “Don’t you know their is a great difference between a school study and a work of art?” It sunk in.” [ “AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH — HERMON ATKINS MACNEIL,” June, 1943, page 4. ] Cornell University Archives.
Hamlin Garland
Garland Garland came to Chicago in 1893.
Teen Writer. “Garland began to write poetry during his teens and published his first poem in Harper’s Weekly called Lost in a Norther which announced his close connection with the adventurous American spirit and the pioneering life that would characterize a large part of his fiction.” [ https://mypoeticside.com/poets/hamlin-garland-poems ]
Keen Observer. “It wasn’t until Garland was in his early thirties though that he began to achieve some success with a collection of short stories under the title Main Travelled Roads. He used this success to move to Chicago where he gave lectures on writing in a more realistic way and later also visited the ‘untamed’ west where he observed cowboys and made copious books of notes on the life of American Indians. It was these keen character studies that he would use in his fiction in later years.” [ https://mypoeticside.com/poets/hamlin-garland-poems ]
Scene Novelist. When Garland moved to Chicago in 1893, he wanted to experience the events and excitement of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. He was already considered “a significant figure in the Chicago Literary Movement” and “one of Chicago’s most important authors”.[8] He wanted to both participate and witness this global, cultural symbol of the emerging American Exceptionalism. Garland contributed some of the featured 6,000 lectures. In doing so he became friendly “with Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and Rudyard Kipling, as well as Edward Eggleston, Joseph Kirkland and E.W. Howe.” [3]
The Woodlawn neighborhood sprung up to house the explosion of workers, businesses, and commerce necessary to construct the “White City” He settled in Woodlawn at 6427 South Greenwood Avenue, an apartment just six blocks south of the Midway and its amusements.
Community of Artists. The White City consisted of gleaming, white Beaux Arts structures blending Classical, Renaissance, Romanesque, and other styles. The sculptors, architects, and artists interacted in the creation of fourteen Great Buildings. The Halls were dedicated to themes, including Electricity, Liberal Arts, Machinery, Agriculture, Administration, Machinery, Mining, Transportation, Horticulture, Fisheries, Womens Hall, Forestry, US Government, and Court of Honor.
The White Rabbits. The story of Larado Taft and his female assistants, The White Rabblts, has been told many times here on this website. They did more than finish the works of their male sculptors counterparts.
The Rabbits weren’t just responsible for realizing other people’s visions; several of them also contributed their own sculptures to the fair. Scudder created an allegorical female Justice for the Illinois building as well as a sculpture for the pavilion of her home state, Indiana. Taft’s sister Zulime Garland made Flying Victory and Learning. Julia Bracken Wendt, who was already the most talented assistant in Taft’s studio before the fair, sculpted Faith; Charity was undertaken by Carrie Brooks MacNeil, Maternity by Ellen Copp, and “Art” by Bessie Potter Vonnoh.
Friendships and Romance. While creating the these buildings and sculptures, there evolved a unique community of White City artists. The collegiality extended through the years. Several friendships evolved into marriage. Both Garland and MacNeil found their life partners in Larado Taft”s assistants, The White Rabbits. A recurring community of Camp Life sprung up:
[1] “The spirit of playful camaraderie among the city’s artists was manifest in the first of several outings to Bass Lake, Indiana. For two weeks in August 1894 Potter experienced invigorating camp life with the sculptors Lorado Taft, Carrie Brooks, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Lew Wall Moore, and Edward and Laura Swing Kemeys, And the painters Charles Francis Browne, Carl Heber, and Menthe Svenden. Between recreational activities and spirited antics, painters and sculptors alike engaged in plein-air oil sketching of the scenery. Evenings were given over to art lectures illustrated by the stereopticon projected on a make shift screen consisting of a sheet stretched between trees. Such a good time was had that the artist arranged another merry outing for September. There after the excursions became annual events.”
[1] Julie Aronson, Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women, Cincinnati Art Museum: Ohio University Press; Athens, Ohio. 2008, p. 31.
TWO MARRIAGES:
Hermon MacNeil married Carol (Carrie) Brooks a student of Larado Taft, and Hamlin Garland married Zulime Taft, sister of Larado.
They all built The White City, BUT the White City sculpted their lives as well.
SOURCES:
- [1] Julie Aronson, Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women, Cincinnati Art Museum: Ohio University Press; Athens, Ohio. 2008, p. 31.
- Jamaicia Plain Historical Society [ https://www.jphs.org/people/2005/4/14/hamlin-garland-one-of-the-great-literary-pioneers-of-america.html ]
RELATED POSTS:
- ~ ~ ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hermon A. MacNeil ~ Success & Marriage! (13) 1895 Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947) MacNeil’s bronze of…
- “PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC” ~ Part 3: 1894 Eda Lord’s Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair (13) Eda Lord, (the woman who purchased the MacNeil bronze statue,…
- Hermon MacNeil at the 1893 Columbian Exposition ~ ~ ~ THE CHICAGO YEARS ~ ~ (11) CHICAGO YEARS: Partners and Colleagues When Hermon MacNeil came home to the…
- Mary Lawrence: A Sculptor of “The White Rabbits” (10) Mary Lawrence was a talented sculptor. All that is left…
- Part 1: “The Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit” Hermon A. MacNeil~Sculptor of the American West (8) Hermon MacNeil’s interest in Native American culture began in (of…
Hermon A. MacNeil’s statue of
General George Washington
(on the reverse of this historic Arch)
stands above this
“Victory 
Celebration.”
Spontaneous crowds are celebrating the
ELECTION of 46th PRESIDENT of the United States,
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
(The “Everyday JOE” candidate.)
& Kamala Harris
the first Woman Vice President
daughter of an Asian Indian Mother and a Jamacian Father,
Joyous New Yorkers flocked to the historic Washington Arch to dance and shout as Joe Biden was declared the next President-elect after four days of ballot counting.
It’s An American National Block Party
Behind the scenes MacNeil’s likeness of General Washington guarded the rear flanks of the rally
MacNeil’s statue portrays General George Washington in the uniform of the Continental Army of 1775. Also, on the back of the Arch is Alexander Sterling Calder’s accompanying statue of President Washington as 1st President and the first civilian Commander-in-Chief.
Celebrating Americans seem relieved that new leadership will deal with the following stresses of 2020:
- Political Vitriol
- COVID-19 PANDEMIC
- Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
- Weaponized Decision Folly
In June 2020 Vandals tossed
red paint
this MacNeil work
Both statues of George Washington suffered “red paint” vandalism during earlier demonstrations on June 29, 2020.
[ CLICK HERE for that Story ]
Photo Credit: NY Post – Stephan Jeremiah
The accompanying “George Washington as President” statue by Alexander Sterling Calder was also damaged. They have since been cleaned. However, such vandalism takes a toll on these century old marble art monuments. 
The Vandalism post:
Related posts:
- Presidents Day 2020 ~~ MacNeil Month ~~ Wm. McKinley ~~ Abe Lincoln ~~ Geo. Washington ~~ “THEY ARE ALL THERE” — H.A MacNeil’s Sculptures of 3 Presidents ~~ (10) “They are still there” celebrates several re-visits and discoveries of…
- Happy Birthday Mr. Washington! ~ PART ONE ~ MacNeil Month #5 ~ The President Who would NOT be King. (9) February 22nd marks the 279th Birthday of George Washington. February…
- Happy (actual) Birthday, Mr. Washington! ~~~ ~~~ Visit New York City for MacNeil Month ~~~ (#8) (9) George Washington February 22, 1732 Pictured below is Hermon A. …
- New York – Washington Square – Arch – (8) MacNeil’s “Washington at War” graces one side of the Arch…
- Washington Square – NYC – Fiction and Reality (8) Hermon A. MacNeil’s sculpture of George Washington on the Arch…
- Memorial Day Photo ~MacNeil’s “General George Washington” with flags (7)
The Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway ~
Brown County, South Dakota
Hamlin Garland https://mypoeticside.com/wp-content/uploads/gallery-images/e6845fc.jpeg
Hamlin Garland Highway in Brown County South Dakota.
[Credit: Hamlin Garland Society]
In June 1936, the Brown County Commissioners named a section of Brown County Highway 11, for a total of 10 miles, the “Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway.” This section travels past the homestead of Garland’s father, Richard, who homesteaded in 1881. In 1998, new signs were placed along this stretch of paved road noting the name of the highway.
[ Hamlin Garland Society of Aberdeen, SD http://www.garlandsociety.org/ ]
Hamlin Garland Highway in South Dakota.
GARLAND TOWNSHIP–This township was named after Hamlin Garland, a novelist, who lived in this area with his pioneer parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Garland. The land south and west of Columbia [and Ordway] was immortalized by this writer in “Among the Corn Rows,” and “A Son of the Middle Border.”
Garland information on the web:
In 1895 HAMLIN GARLAND led Hermon MacNeil and Francis Brown to the four corners area (AZ, NM, CO, UT) to witness the Native American people and culture there.
-
Hamlin Garland Highway in South Dakota. [SOURCE: Information courtesy of Gene Aisenbrey ~ Hamlin Garland Society of Aberdeen, SD ~ Contact: garlandsociety@gmail.com Copyright © 2015 ]
- Hamlin Garland Biography (Wisconsin Authors and Their Works)
- A Biography of three pages
- One of Garland’s Grant Interviews with Julia Dent Grant (1826-1902) widow of General U. S. Grant
- SD Historical Society: “Hamlin Garland’s South Dakota: History and Story” https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-9-3/hamlin-garlands-dakota-history-and-story/vol-09-no-3-hamlin-garlands-dakota.pdf
- A brief Garland bio (Al Filreis)
~ A Poem by Hamlin Garland ~
“Do you fear the force of the wind,
The slash of the rain?
Go face them and fight them,
Be savage again.
Go hungry and cold like the wolf,
Go wade like the crane:
The palms of your hands will thicken,
The skin of your cheek will tan,
You’ll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,
But you’ll walk like a man!”
Their adventure in 1895 led into Native settlements in Colorado, Arizona (Moqui, Navajo), New Mexico, and Utah:
- Hamlin Garland, led the tour to the southwest in the summer of 1895. MacNeil & Browne wanted to gain direct experience of American Indians to inform their art. What the trio found reflected in their respective painting, sculpture and writing.
- MacNeil sculpted a cement statue of Chief Manuelito for trader C. N. Cotton under a tent in the dessert. His subsequent sculptures of Native Americans after that summer of 1895 continued his cultural interest. That fascination began with his friendship and sculpting of Black Pipe, the Sioux warrior. He first met Black Pipe at the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The Sioux modeled for MacNeil and later worked in his studio for over a year before MacNeil’s trip with Garland.
- Charles Francis Browne was a painter and friend (his room mate in Paris) who accompanied Hermon MacNeil and the author.
- Edward Everett Ayers was an art patron to both MacNeil and Browne. He had been a Civil War Calvary officer stationed in the southwestern United States. He became a lumberman who made a fortune selling railroad ties and telephone poles. He urged MacNeil to travel to see the vanishing West of the American Indian. He became an arts benefactor whose art collections are now housed by the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as, the Newberry Library. His copy of MacNeil’s “Moqui Runner” still graces the Newberry Library.
Related Posts:
Dave Wiegers captures another “Lincoln Lawyer”
Posted by: | CommentsLincoln buff and talented amateur photographer David B. Wiegers sent us a photo of an additional “Lincoln Lawyer” bust by Hermon A. MacNeil.
This one makes its home in the Law Library at Pennsylvania University. Dave snapped these shots there recently.
Law Library at Pen Law School. ~~~ PHOTOS: Courtesy of Dave Wiegers Photography
The piece resides at the Law Library of the University of Pennsylvania. It is new to this website.
Eight of these busts were cast in about 1911 from a standing Lincoln piece that MacNeil sculpted in 1911.
Wiegers pairs (1.) his love of photography with (2.) a quest to travel to every Lincoln statue and monument in the 35 states he has visited in the last 15 years.
- See his story at: https://dbwiegers.zenfolio.com/about.html
- And view over 500 photos of his Lincoln Collection on the front end of his website: https://dbwiegers.zenfolio.com/
Not pictured on his website is his Boston Terrier, named “Lincoln.”
© Dave Wiegers Photography
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Penn Law Journal describes their “Lincoln Lawyer Bust” this way:
Opposite the front entrance, in full view straight ahead on the massive staircase leading up to the library from the Great Hall, stands a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, who led the most massive legal and political reform the United States has ever known, is a superb example of legal greatness as Lewis Hall has memorialized it-of revolution in the interest of tradition. For Lincoln avowedly fought to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, even as he essentially restructured the legal landscape in the interests of fundamental justice.
The statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Great Hall, which faces the original entrance to the Law School, was immediately visible upon passing through the massive twin doors on 34th Street. The symbolic power of the statue, the role of Lincoln as martyr to resurrection of the righteousness of the American republic, gave students a tangible focus for legal greatness, a sense that lawyerly skills were integral to the discernment and sense of justice of the most heroic of all American presidents.
The Penn Law Journal of 2014 [Vol. 31, Iss. 2 [2014], Art. 1 ]
“Uncle Hermon would be Proud too.” dnl
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ~~~ has DIED this evening!
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.
She was the first Jewish female, AND only
the second woman, ever to be confirmed onto the
US Supreme Court.
– – – – – – –
One year before her birth,
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
sculpted the East Pediment of the
Supreme Court Building
with Moses, the Jewish Lawgiver as its central figure.
“JUSTICE THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY” Hermon A. MacNeil’s sculptures of Moses, Confucius, and Solon on the East Pediment of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.
Ruth Bader was born while MacNeil created his design.
MacNeil started the East Pediment in 1932.
Ginsburg was born on March 15, 1933.
The Pediment with Moses as its center was finished in 1934.
On August 10, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg took
her Oath as a US Supreme Court Justice
NOW, 27 years later, she has died.
She shaped the LAW
for generations of American Citizens.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Justice Ginsburg: 
Throughout her lifetime, she was a brilliant servant of gender equality and of minority rights.
She knew what it was to be discriminated against as a woman, as a mother, and as a lawyer.
She fought gender discrimination whether it affected women or men.
All these obstacles only served to make her a fierce advocate, a potent judge, and a voice to be heard.
Though diminutive, she became a giant on the court.
Her opinions were cogent and powerful, whether in the majority or voicing a minority opinion.
She was also the “first Jewish female” to sit on this supreme bench.
Moses, Confucius, Solon East Pediment of Supreme Court Building – Washington D.C.
“JUSTICE THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY
is the title under MacNeil’s work on the East Pediment.
MacNeil’s ‘Tortoise’ on the north corner of his east pediment sculpture
MacNeil’s ‘Hare’ on south corner of east Pediment sculpture.
The first and the eleventh figures at either end of MacNeil’s grouping of “Justice the Guardian” are a Hare and a Tortoise that bring to mind Aesop’s Fable that wisely reminds us that:
“Slow and steady wins the Race.”
It is a moral that RBG took as a legal strategy
MAY JUSTICE CONTINUE TO PREVAIL …
… even if slow and steady …
MacNeil didn’t intend his sculptures to have religious connotations. Explaining his work, MacNeil wrote, “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.” ( http://architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ss/SupremeCourt_7.htm )
Shocked Mourners gather in honor of the Life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg moments after her passing
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- Tortoise and Hare taken to Supreme Court (6) Hermon MacNeil has taken the Tortoise and the Hare to…
- Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court (6) The East Pediment of the Supreme Court of the United…
- JOURNEY TO SUPREME COURT: ~ Finds plenty of Sculpture along the way in Washington D.C. … (6) I recently visited our nation’s Capitol with family. Sculpture and…
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- Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Tortoise & the Hare Revisited ~ ~ ~ (4)
“MacNeil Medallion” generates new Photos of Flushing’s Lady Liberty
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In Flushing, New York, The World War Monument by Hermon MacNeil is inscribed:
“In Memory of Those
Who Gave Their Lives”
Roger Bow lives in Bayside, NY.
Last week, his life-long interest in collecting Standing Liberty Quarters, lead him to purchase a MacNeil Medallion.
In his order he added that he grew up in Flushing and always admired the World War Monument there.
I asked him if he would send me some pictures.
WELL, HE DID!
Hi Dan,
THANKS, ROGER! Roger Bow with his MacNeil Medallion at the Flushing Memorial on Sunday — (8-23-2020)
CLICK ON PHOTOS BELOW FOR A SLIDESHOW:
