Archive for Sculptures
#6 ~~ A “Brooks-by-MacNeil” Portrait closes Brooks~MacNeil Month ~~ Feb. 27, 2023
Posted by: | Comments“HAPPY BIRTHDAY
UNCLE HERMON”
HE WAS BORN 157 YEARS AGO TODAY
FEBRUARY 27TH, 1866

Hermon Atkins MacNeil (American, 1866-1947) CAROL BROOKS MACNEIL, N.D. Bronzed plaster 14 1/2″ x 8″ x 7 1/2″ Signed: H. A. MACNEIL. Photo by JOEL ROSENKRANZ 1986 (#5430)
THIS UNDATED CLAY PORTRAIT BUST OF
“CARRIE” BY HERMON
“Brooks-by-MacNeil” Portrait
closes Brooks~MacNeil Month ~~ on Feb. 27, 2023
Thanks, Joel Rosenkranz
This photo was included in an email to Jim Haas, MacNeil biographer, and myself from Joel Rosenkranz.
Hi Jim & Dan:
The upcoming exhibition on A.F Brooks in Kenilworth prompted me to go through photos I took in 1986 when I first visited descendants and purchased a variety of work including this portrait of Carol Brooks by Hermon.
It is plaster with a colored bronze surface.
I sold it in 1987 and have no idea where it is now but at least there is this record.
Best, Joel
So on this the 157th Anniversary of Hermon MacNeil’s birth, this portrait seems an appropriate “Last Look” for our Brooks~MacNeil Month of 2023.
Sculpted in clay, finished with bronze patina, the piece radiates a lot of love and care. Bearing no date by Hermon clay-portrait Bust of Carol (Carrie) Brooks MacNeil
NO DATE? Made by her husband, Hermon MacNeil at an unknown date.
WHAT Features might date it?
- it appears to be a “young Carrie” Possibly, dating to her early days before marriage?
- clay, but finished lovingly in a bronze patina;
- but never cast in bronze, which is an expensive process.
- seems to come from a period of a young sculptor, with more talent and more love than cash.
- preserved in unknown hands for 80+ years
- photographed and purchased by Joel Rosenkranz in 1986
- then sold in 1987
- NOW IN A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SOME WHERE, but
- HERE on //HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com FOR ALL TO ENJOY
ALL Offered to you NOW as a celebration of Carol “CARRIE” Brooks MacNeil.
AS OUR FINALE TO THIS
“2023 MACNEIL-BROOKS MONTH”
On the 157th Anniversary of
“Uncle Hermon MacNeil’s birth
February 27th, 1866.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Appeal:
If you have any history or insight about this piece
by Hermon MacNeil, PLEASE COMMENT HERE
or email us at HAMacNeil@gmail.com
Related posts:
- The Portrait “BUST” of HERMON A. MacNEIL ~ by Jo Davidson ~ Unveiled for MacNeil Month 2021 ~#5 (7) AT LAST, the UNVEILING of the 75-YEAR-OLD PORTRAIT BUST OF…
- “Sun Vow” Video Starts MacNeil Month 2015 (6) Here at the HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com website we celebrate every February as…
- 153rd Anniversary of the Birth of Hermon Atkins MacNeil ~ American Sculptor ~ Feb 27, 1866 (6) I never met Hermon MacNeil. I never met my maternal…
- February 27, 2021 – We”ll Unveil the Newly Discovered Portrait Bust of Hermon A. MacNeil by Jo Davidson on Hermon’s Birthday (6) ~~ MacNeil Month – February 27, 2021 ~~ FIFTH Story…
- 2023 “MacNeil~Brooks” Month ~~ Post #1 (6) ‘MacNeil Month’ becomes ‘MacNeil~Brooks Month’ in 2023 Each February is…
- MacNeil Month ~~ February 2016 ~~ 150 Years (5) The year 2016 marks the sesquicentennial of the birth of…
#5 ~ A ‘Supreme Secret’ from the MacNeil Family ~ The “Tortoise and Hare” ~ Feb. 2023
Posted by: | Comments#1. A “Tortoise and Hare” are hiding at the Supreme Court
That’s no FABLE!
They’ve been there for 91 years. Hiding on back of the building.
Can you see them there?
Maybe this
HELPS?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Plus #2 the
‘Supreme Secret’
from the MacNeil Family
Guess, WHO SCULPTED the Tortoise and the Hare on the East Pediment?”
NOW, just this week,
Carolyn Saul (‘Carrie’ MacNeil’s grand niece)
shared a MacNeil family story, 3 generations old.
“I was always told that
Hermon let one of his sons
design the tortoise and the hare.
Have you heard that?
[Yes, I heard that “tender tidbit” that years ago
but it never became a story on this site.]
WHICH son, Claude or Alden, this strain of MacNeil Lore does not say. Claude worked in aviation. Alden was an architect, who formally studied art at Fountainbleu.
The brothers are described in the March 1928 Obituary of their younger sister Joie Katherine MacNeil as follows:
She leaves behind her parents, two brothers, Alden a recent graduate of Cornell University and now a student in the famous Fountainbleu art school, and Claude, an aviator and mechanical engineer on the staff of the Sikorsky Aircraft Manufacturing Company at College Point. Source: The Daily Star, Queens Borough, Tuesday Evening, March 20, 1928. Page 4, column 7.
Alden seems the more probable
of Hermon’s sons to assist in the 1932
rendering of the East Pediment pair
of the Tortoise and Hare.
NOW, Carolyn’s comment validates that idea from
MacNeil-family-lore
through three generations.
~ ~ ~ ~
The MacNeil’s SUPREME COURT statues
“JUSTICE THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY”
Are the most viewed pages on this website.
Here’s just two days of page views to sample from MacNeil Month:
Page Titles viewed on Feb. 10, 2023 |
Views | |
---|---|---|
1. Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ Moses Revisited ~ ~ ~ | 6 | |
2. Home page / Archives | 5 | |
3. Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court
TOTALS: |
2
13 |
Page Titles viewed on Feb. 16, 2023 | Views | |
---|---|---|
1. Home page / Archives | 4 | |
2. Tortoise and Hare taken to Supreme Court | 3 | |
3. Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court | 1 | |
4. NSS_Presidents1929~HAM-JEF-AAW-DCF-HA | 1 | |
5. Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ Moses Revisited ~ ~ ~ | 1 | |
Total views of posts on your blog | 10 |
#4 ~ Presidents Day 2023 – MacNeil-Brooks Month
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil’s 3 Sculptures
for Presidents Day
2023
Presidents Day honors the February birthdays of
George Washington (Feb 22nd) and
Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12th)
Presidents’ Day, officially Washington’s Birthday, in the United States,
(third Monday in February)
popularly recognized as honoring
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
The day is sometimes understood as a celebration of the
birthdays and lives of all U.S. presidents.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
View MacNeil’s Presidents yourself > > > >
George Washington – Postings of MacNeil’s
George Washington as Commander-in-Chief
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Abraham Lincoln – Postings of MacNeil’s
Abraham Lincoln – Prairie Lawyer
William McKinley – Postings of MacNeil’s
William McKinkey
HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY 2023
Related posts:
- ~ ~ ~ MacNeil’s SCULPTURES of PRESIDENTS ~ ~ ~ An Inauguration Day Reflection. (6) On this Presidential Inaugural Day, the 57th in our history,…
- Presidents Day 2020 ~~ MacNeil Month ~~ Wm. McKinley ~~ Abe Lincoln ~~ Geo. Washington ~~ “THEY ARE ALL THERE” — H.A MacNeil’s Sculptures of 3 Presidents ~~ (5) “They are still there” celebrates several re-visits and discoveries of…
- Happy Birthday Mr. Washington! ~ Part TWO ~ MacNeil Month #6 ~ The President Who would NOT be King. (4) NOTE: February 22nd marks the 279th Birthday of George Washington….
- INDEPENDENCE DAY Images ~ from Hermon A. MacNeil (4) Here are a few images of Independence from Hermon Atkins…
- Hermon Atkins MacNeil to be featured in “The Galley” (4) Hermon MacNeil was the first president of the Clan MacNeil…
- 153rd Anniversary of the Birth of Hermon Atkins MacNeil ~ American Sculptor ~ Feb 27, 1866 (4) I never met Hermon MacNeil. I never met my maternal…
Our 1st Serendipity. In December 2022 an order came in for three (3) MacNeil Medallions.
In eight years of offering these commemoratives, no one has ever asked for three. I was so surprised, that I mistakenly shipped 2 medals.
Duuh ...
The buyer pointed out my error; and I apologized and sent a third medallion.
The 2nd Serendipity. In corresponding with the buyer, I asked,
“Are you a SLQ (Standing Liberty Quarter) collector or a
MacNeil enthusiast?”
The answer below surprised and pleased me greatly
“I am the great niece of Carol (Carrie) MacNeil. Alden Finney Brooks was my great grandfather. I have been corresponding with Jim Haas for many years. Your medallion is beautiful.“
While these medallions have reached over a hundred people I’ve labeled: “Friends of HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com”; I have never knowingly found a MacNeil relative. In the second mailing included an article I wrote for The Galley (the Clan MacNeil Magazine) to make amends.
The buyer, Carolyn Saul, added:
“I have been looking at your website. You have a treasure!
I have been to Brookgreen Gardens to see Hermon’s statues and to the Columbus Capitol to see his work there. Well and the Supreme Court Building. I was always told that Hermon let one of his sons design the tortoise and the hare. Had you heard that?
While I heard that “tender tidbit” years ago, it slipped from my memory, and never became a story on this site. NOW, Carolyn’s comment validates it as MacNeil-family-lore through three generations. It makes a fitting “punch line” to Hermon’s “humor” of framing the East Pediment with a Greek (Eastern) fable.
Definition: Serendipitous – occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way, “a serendipitous encounter”
Stay Tuned for our 3rd Serendipity in next post.
Related posts:
- Hermon MacNeil and Jo Davidson ~ #4 ~ “Celebrating Careers” MacNeil Month 2021 (4) MacNeil Month #4 — February 22, 2021 JO…
- Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court (3) The East Pediment of the Supreme Court of the United…
- SUPREME COURT – Arrival at last! (3) “Slow but steady wins the race.” So said Aesop in…
- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ~~~ has DIED this evening! (3) Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died. She was the first Jewish…
- 2023 MacNeil Month becomes “MacNeil~Brooks” Month (3) MacNeil Month becomes MacNeil~Brooks Month in 2023 Each February is…
- Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ Moses Revisited ~ ~ ~ (2) When the Supreme Court justices considered whether the Ten Commandments…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What’s the FUTURE of the PAST? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Chicago Monuments Project
Posted by: | CommentsAll of Hermon MacNeil’s Lifeworks
enshrine the PAST.
SO… What is the Future of the Past?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Chicago Monuments Project
Throughout 2021 the Chicago Monuments Project has been pursuing its Mission. From over 500 public monuments in the City of Chicago, the Project has identified 41 for review related to the following issues:
- Promoting narratives of white supremacy
- Presenting inaccurate and/or demeaning characterizations of American Indians
- Memorializing individuals with connections to racist acts, slavery, and genocide
- Presenting selective, over-simplified, one-sided views of history
- Not sufficiently including other stories, in particular those of women, people of color, and themes of labor, migration, and community building
- Creating tension between people who see value in these artworks and those who do not [ Source: https://chicagomonuments.org/about ]
The PAST is under REVIEW
Hermon MacNeil’s
Marquette-Jolliet-Illini Indian Memorial
is one of the 41 under review.

Webmaster, Dan Neil Leininger and Donna on their first visit to the Marquette – jolliet – Ilini monument at Marshall and Twenty-fourth Boulevard in Chicago.
A report of recommendations is expected to be released in
Summer of 2022
The Project created written introductions for each of the 41 pieces being reviewed. MacNeil’s Jacques Marquette-Louis Jolliet Memorial is introduced as follows:
Title: Jacques Marquette-Louis Jolliet Memorial
Date: 1926
Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866-1947)
Location: Marshall and 24th Blvd
Context: As the first Europeans to explore and document the northern portion of the Mississippi, which included the river link from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin through what would become Chicago, French missionary Jacques Marquette and the Quebec-born cartographer Louis Jolliet, along with their Indian guides, are ubiquitous figures in the modern iconography of the founding of Chicago.
This imposing representation of Marquette and Jolliet, with a subservient American Indian at their side, was created by Hermon Atkins McNeil, the academically trained sculptor who contributed the relief sculptures of Marquette’s life to the extraordinary decorative cycle at the Marquette Building in thirty years earlier, in 1895.
Other representations of Marquette include the commemorative plaques near the site of the Damen Avenue Bridge (1930) and at the DuSable Bridge (1925), as well as on the northeast DuSable Bridge pylon (1928).
Source: Chicago Monuments Project (https://chicagomonuments.org/monuments/jacques-marquette-louis-jolliet-memorial) retrieved March 28, 2022
“Statues of Limitations:

MacNeil’s depiction of Marquette has the priest with an inviting open right hand as his left hand holds out a crucifix above his heart. Their (Illini) Indian guide looks on in seeming fascination.
MacNeil’s Marquette-Jolliet-Illini Memorial
“Whether they’re made
of bronze or marble,
apparently not all of Chicago’s monuments
are set in stone.”
We eagerly await the Chicago Monument Project
report scheduled to be released Summer of 2022.
The death of Carol Brooks MacNeil and Hermon MacNeil’s remarriage.
Posted by: | CommentsCecelia W. Muench MacNeil
In 1944 Carol Louise Brooks MacNeil died after extended illness.
During her months of declining health, she was nursed at home by her family and a home health nurse named, Cecelia Weick Muench, RN.

Cecelia MacNeil, RN (1945). Born Cecelia Weick in 1897. She served as a nurse in WWI in the European theater. She married Karl Weick in about 1920.
Cecelia Weick had served in the US Army as a battlefield Nurse during the World War. Caring for wound soldiers in war zones during WWI, she was no stranger to trauma and suffering.
As a young girl, her father taught her to appreciate art and took her to museums. He introduced her to “The Sun Vow” at the MMA. He told her that Hermon MacNeil was a “great American sculptor”. So she knew the name and fame of the Sculptors Macneil all her adult life.
So when an opportunity came for Cecelia to enter the MacNeil home and care for Carol during her dying months, she was more than just “another nurse.” She was a battle-hardened R.N. who could appreciate the works and careers of these two sculptors as their lives were parting in the months of Carol’s dying.
She must have brought a nurse’s compassion and an art lovers appreciation with her into this family of sculptors.
In her later years, Cecelia described herself by saying:
“I am familiar, too familiar, with death and dying, with the totality that is the human condition.” 1
She had a front row seat to Hermon’s lived-grief over the loss of his “Carrie.” But as Carol’s condition worsened, the needs exceeded the home-care options of the day. She was admitted to the Jamacia (Queens) Hospital.
Eventually, Carol Brooks MacNeil died there on June 22, 1944.
With the death of Carol MacNeil on June 22, 1944, the fifty-year partnership of the “Sculptors MacNeil” ended. Their connection which began in the “White City” of the Chicago Worlds Fair, continued through their years of training in Rome and Paris, maturing in Queens, NY, during the four decades they shared their College Point Studio and home.
For the next two years Hermon MacNeil continued to live alone in his College Point home. Next door was to the stone Studio building where he and Carol had sculpted together through the years of their marriage. Hermon must have felt an emptiness without Carol in his life, home and studio.
Two 2nd Marriages
Hermon married Cecilia W. Muench in 1945. Cecelia was nearly 30 years younger than Hermon. Both of them had been recently widowed.
After serving in the World War, Cecelia Muench had married and continued her career as a RN. In 1940 a snapshot of her life was captured in the 1940 U.S. Census. She was 43 years old living in Queens, New York, with Karl, her husband, two daughters, Dorothy (18), Sarah (17) and a son, Karl (13). Her mother, Anna Weick also lived with the family.
Cecilia Weick first heard the name of “Hermon Atkins MacNeil” in 1909 on her 12th birthday. To celebrate, her father took her to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ascending into the American Wing, they sat down on a bench near MacNeil’s sculpture group of “The Sun Vow.” After at least five minutes of silence my father commented.
“Ceil, the man who created this work is surely one of the greatest American Sculptors. Never, never forget his name.”
I am still a romantic. My father’s words were to be part of my destiny. 37 years later I married Hermon Atkins MacNeil.

The photo on the cover shows the original plaster model of Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s “The Sun Vow”, executed in Rome while the sculptor was on a Reinhart scholarship.
Cecelia told this story of her 12th birthday in opening paragraphs of an article that she published in 1974, under the title, “Sculptor Americanus: Hermon Atkins MacNeil.” 1 Two additional articles completed the series of her remembrances.
Sculptor Americanus
MORE from this series of articles by Cecelia Weick MacNeil will be told in …
— February 2022 —
“MacNeil Month”
So return
here
to
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/
for
MORE!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES:
- Cecelia MacNeil with Dr. Allen Nestle. “Sculptor Americanus: Hermon Atkins MacNeil”. (First in a Series of Three), The Antiques Journal, April 1974, pp. 10-13, 54.
- Lynn H. Burnett. (Editor’s Comments:)“Hermon Atkins MacNeil in Historical Perspective”. The Antiques Journal April 1974, pp. 4, 5, 48.
- Cecelia MacNeil with Dr. Allen Nestle. “Sculptor Americanus: Hermon Atkins MacNeil”. (Second in a Series of Three), The Antiques Journal, May 1974, pp. 28-31.
- Cecelia MacNeil with Dr. Allen Nestle. “Sculptor Americanus: Hermon Atkins MacNeil”. (Third in a Series of Three), The Antiques Journal, June 1974, pp. 32-35, 51.