Archive for Lorado Taft
#1 Post ~ 2023 “MacNeil~Brooks” Month
Posted by: | Comments‘MacNeil Month’ becomes ‘MacNeil~Brooks Month’ in 2023
Hermon A MacNeil about 1895
Carol ‘Carrie’ Brooks about 1895
Each February is MacNeil Month.This year it is MacNeil~Brooks Month
<- Two Sculptors made a young looking pair ->
From their first meeting at the
Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893,
to the Eagles Nest**
[a summer artist colony in Oregon, Illinois.]
then the Reinhart Award of 1895;
Hermon and Carrie knew what they wanted next. So…
Hermon MacNeil and Carol ‘Carrie’ Brooks
were married on Christmas Day 1895.
Here’s Hermon and Carrie nestled with some visiting MacNeils.
Left to right: Hermon, Carrie, Alice MacNeil (Hermon’s sister), Wilbur MacNeil (Hermon’s younger Brother), and Elizabeth Louisa Barlow (Wilbur’s wife). The child is Claude (son of Hermon and Carrie. Location: Side porch of MacNeil home at College Point, N.Y. [Credit: Photo courtesy of James Haas, MacNeil biographer].
James Haas, Hermon MacNeil biographer ==>
Jim dates the photo above as 1903. After identifying Hermon, Carrie, and Alice, he adds:
“The child sitting on his (Wilbur’s) lap is probably his nephew Claude, born in France in 1900. The woman to his left is Elizabeth Barlow who Wilbur had married in California in 1901. After earning a Master’s degree in Agriculture at Cornell where Hermon had taught, he moved to California to teach science in Petaluma high school. There he met and married Elizabeth Louisa Barlow a teacher in the Petaluma elementary school. In 1903 they left California for Honolulu; the photo likely taken prior to their departure. For the rest of his life Wilbur taught science at Oahu College later called Punahou School. During a visit in 1911, Hermon modeled a portrait bust of Elizabeth Barlow found on page 162 in Hermon Atkins MacNeil: American Sculptor in the Broad, Bright Daylight. During the visit, Hermon gave Wilbur a tour of the Poppenhusen Institute. He admired the building’s architecture, looked in on classes and was introduced to school head John Gyger Embree as well as faculty members and other Institute Trustees. Wilbur died in 1937, a highly regarded educator. The couple had no children.
Then Jim adds a 21st Century surprise:
a MacNeil ~ Obama connection!
If Punahou School sounds familiar, it was from this school that Barack Obama graduated.
Barack Obama (Class of ’79) was the 44th President of the United States. He attended Punahou from 5th grade until graduation. (’79), Harvard Law Review editor, U Chicago lecturer on Constitutional Law, Nobel, Grammy and Emmy winner, author, state basketball champion, US Senator, Elected 44th US President in 2008 and 2012.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SOURCE: Brooklyn Daily Star, March 15,1911 [Courtesy of James Haas]
Wilbur MacNeil also visited
his brother Hermon in 1911.
Wilbur MacNeil toured the Poppenhusen Institute in College Point, Queens, NYC. (See news clipping)
Wilbur MacNeil was a distinguished visitor touring the Institute. He was escorted by two trustees of the Institute, namely, Dr. Hugh Gray and Hermon MacNeil (Wilbur’s older brother)
Jim Haas adds that “Dr. Hugh Gray was a physician in College Point between 1905 and 1915. His wife Geretrude was the daughter of Hermon Pratt, whoise sister was Mary Lash Pratt MacNeil.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hermon MacNeil was born on February 27, 1866
Hermon’s older cousin, Tom Henry MacNeil (my grandfather),
was born on February 29th, 1860.
So February is MacNeil~Brooks Month in several ways.
This is the first of several postings that will celebrate this theme.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Related posts:
- Hermon MacNeil and Hamlin Garland ~ ~ Connections Through the Years – Part 3 (8) Hermon MacNeil met Hamlin Garland in Chicago. Hermon MacNeil Hermon…
- ~ ~ ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hermon A. MacNeil ~ Success & Marriage! (7) 1895 Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947) MacNeil’s bronze of…
- Hermon MacNeil ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know!” (6) ~ Christmas Day 1895 ~ In 1895, Amy Aldis Bradley…
- The MacNeil’s Chicago Wedding – Christmas Day 1895 (6) I sit here in Chicago during this Christmas Season, imagining…
- Hermon MacNeil’s ~~ Friend and Guide in 1895 ~~ “HAMLIN GARLAND” Grew up in South Dakota ~ [#1] (6) The Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway ~ Brown County, South Dakota…
- A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil. (6) Out of public view, deep in the archives of the…
Related Images:
Charles Francis Browne … MacNeil … Garland ~ Part Two
Posted by: | CommentsA recent post of Aug 13, 2021, highlighted a hidden bust of C. F. Browne, an early friend of Hermon A. MacNeil:
MacNeil’s bust of friend Charles Francis Browne – 1994
“A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil.” =>
Out of public view, deep in the archives of the Chicago Art Institute rests a 127 year old bust of Charles F. Browne, American artist.
Of all the thousands of talented artists, craftsmen, and sculptors building the “White City” in 1892, three gifted young men would travel in 1895 by train and horseback to the NEW American “West.” They would share life-forming experiences, there in the “Four Corners” area where Colorado meets New Mexico meets Arizona meets Utah.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ THREE FRIENDS on a JOURNEY ~
~ Charles Francis Browne ~
~ Hermon Atkins MacNeil ~
~ Hannibal Hamlin Garland ~
Charles Francis Brown, at 33, was the oldest of the three. 
For a decade he searched to discover and develop his talents. At the Chicago World’s Fair he began by painting murals in the Children’s Building.
Charles was born in Massachusetts to parents with a long history in New England. His father was a builder and contractor. Charles had three siblings. The oldest became a headmaster; a sister died in childhood; and his younger brother a foreman in a watch factory.
In his second year of high school, Charles became sickly. For two more years he was treated for appendicitis (then called “inflammation of the bowels”). He never returned to school, but instead worked ill-suited as a clerk in a hat store. Eventually he started design work for a lithograph company.
The artistic environment and peers led him to evening classes at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He worked in stained glass (to please his practical father). Working days with lithographs and studying nights at art school, he developed many visual skills. But entry into the Art School required passing rigorous exams in human anatomy. For which he was unprepared.
So in 1885, at the age of twenty-five he moved to Pennsylvania and enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts — working full time under realist painter Thomas Eakins.
Nai-U-Chi Chief of the Bow, Zuni. 1895 by C.F. Browne – Sid Richardson Museum – Retieved at https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. October 30, 2021.
Completing three years of study there, he went to Paris to study with renowned figural painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. His sojourns in the French countryside, inspired many paintings of landscapes in both oils and watercolors. Returning to the U.S. in 1891, he taught briefly at Beloit College before moving south to Chicago.
The Children’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition became the next canvas of his murals. Browne’s work became the walls of the building. After the Fair, his skills were sought as an instructor at the rapidly growing Art Institute of Chicago. MacNeil and Garland were part of the vast community of artists assembled in Jackson Park — home to the exhibition.
His trip in 1895 with sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil to the Southwest yielded subjects for his portraits of American Indian and figural scenes.
Later, 1897 he founded the journal Brush and Pencil, of which he served as editor until 1900. He produced hundreds of paintings in his career ahead.
Lorado Taft, provided a moving tribute to Browne at close of a fine life and career:
“No one among us has contributed more abundantly of his time to the service of the community… All of this activity combined with earnest, unremitting and valuable aid… would seem to be enough for one man. But… Mr. Browne, the citizen, has ever been first and foremost an artist. Never have we known a man more in love with nature… When one thinks of the joy that he has been able to record and to carry over to other hearts… it seems as though the most enviable of all estates is to be a landscape painter – a landscape painter like Charles Francis Browne!” CREDIT: https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne
~~~~~~~~
Hermon A.MacNeil
Hermon was seven years younger than Browne. Their friendship is documented by the fact that MacNeil invited Browne to share his studio, persuaded him to pose for the bust, and traveled to the Four Corners with Garland as guide. 
MacNeil, with the recommendation of Augustus Saint Gaudens, went from New York to the Chicago World’s Fair to work under Philip Martiny, who was sculpting the Electricity Building. After proving himself on the edifice spandrels and ornamentals, he was assigned “two statuary figures” on the upper structure. The Electricity Building’s main entrance was dominated by an imposing statue of Benjamin Franklin. Inside were housed the Tower of Light, displays by Western Electric, General Electric, American Bell Telephone, Edison’s latest phonographs and hundreds of other electrical exhibits from around he world. The exhibit was truly a celebration of the “modern” era of “Electricity.”
In 1894 after the Fair, Hermon modeled, completed, and cast the bronze bust of of Browne. Their trip together in 1895 inspired a decade of sculpting Native American images. Four decades of memorials, monuments, statues, building pediments and facades, coins, medallions, followed from his College Point Studio.
The “Prayer for Rain” depicts the Moqui (Hopi) runner carrying the snakes to the river to activate the rain cycle of nature.
SILVER -One of only 20 minted ~ SOM.#3 – 1931 Hopi Prayer for Rain 1931
In 1931, Hermon MacNeil would again memorialize that Four Corners trip in his design for the Society of Medalists — Third Issue. Nearly four decades later that inspiration would return afresh in the “Hopi Runner” — “Prayer for Rain”
~~~~~~~~~
Garland, the leader of the adventure, was 31 years-old when he led his two friends on their tour to the west. His story and exploits have been told in many other postings on this website:
Hamlin Garland: Story in 3 Parts by Dan Leininger, webmaster
PART 1 – “Hamlin Garland ~ MacNeil’s Guide” MacNeil and Hamlin Garland
PART 2 – The Garland Homestead in Wisconsin ~ A Hamlin Garland Memorial
PART 3 – Hermon MacNeil and Hamlin Garland ~ Connections Through the Years
Hamlin Garland was an accomplished novelist
Main-Travelled Roads was his first major success. It was a collection of short stories inspired by his days on the farm. He serialized a biography of Ulysses S. Grant in McClure’s Magazine before publishing it as a book in 1898. The same year, Garland traveled to the Yukon to witness the Klondike Gold Rush, which inspired The Trail of the Gold Seekers (1899). He lived on a farm between Osage, and St. Ansgar, Iowa for quite some time. Many of his writings are based on this era of his life.
By the time of the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893,[7] Hamlin moved to Chicago, where he lived at 6427 South Greenwood Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He is considered “a significant figure in the Chicago Literary Movement” and “one of Chicago’s most important authors”.[8] Moccasin Ranch Park, located near address, is named in his honor.[8]
- “Sell the cook the stove if necessary and come. You must see the fair”
-Novelist Hamlin Garland to his parents in 1893-
In Illinois, Garland married Zulime Taft, the sister of sculptor Lorado Taft, and began working as a teacher and a lecturer.[9]
A prolific writer, Garland continued to publish novels, short fiction, and essays. In 1917, he published his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border. The book’s success prompted a sequel, A Daughter of the Middle Border, for which Garland won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. After two more volumes, Garland began a second series of memoirs based on his diary. Garland naturally became quite well known during his lifetime and had many friends in literary circles.[10] He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1918.[4] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland)
CREDITS:
- Wendy Greenhouse, PhD. “Charles Francis Browne 1859–1920″. M. Christine Schwartz Collection (https://schwartzcollection.com/artist/charles-francis-browne/ ) retrieved September 20, 2021. This extensive biographical summary of the life of Charles Francis Browne is the most extensive and detailed documentary piece posted of his life and career.
- Melissa Wolfe Ph.D. and Joel S. Dryer © Illinois Historical Art Project. “Charles Francis Browne (1859-1920).” https://www.illinoisart.org/charles-francis-browne. retrieved September 21, 2021.
Related Images:
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…
Related Images:
The Garland Homestead in Wisconsin ~ A Hamlin Garland Memorial – Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsHermon MacNeil’s life and works developed around a community of artists and sculptors. Many of them met and worked together during the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893.
Hamlin Garland was one of those people —
- author, explorer, friend of Native Americans,
- advisor and friend of President Teddy Roosevelt,
- winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1922,
- a proud son of Wisconsin, as well as, South Dakota and Illinois, and New York, too!
Therefore, his HOME has become a National Historic Landmark !
In 1973 the Interior Department designated the Hamlin Garland Homestead a National Historic Landmark. The house was purchased by the West Salem Historical Society and restoration was started in 1975.
In 1973 the Interior Department designated the Homestead of Hamlin Garland as a National Historic Landmark.
“At dedication ceremonies that fall a large stone and plaque noting its historic values were placed in front of the house. The house was purchased by the West Salem Historical Society late in 1973, but restoration did not actually begin until 1975.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland_House
Wisconsin is proud of their historic connection to this friend of Hermon A. MacNeil. This State has also has designated a Heritage Highway, namely the …
“Hamlin Garland Highway.”
Hamlin Garland Highway in Brown County South Dakota.
[Credit: Hamlin Garland Society]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In Wisconsin, the
West Salem Historical Society
tells their story as follows: 
Hamlin Garland
West Salem (WI) Historical Society
Named after Hannibal Hamlin, the vice president (from 1861-1865) under Abraham Lincoln, Hamlin Garland was born on a farm near West Salem, WI on September 14, 1860. His early years were spent in the mid-west (Wisconsin, Iowa and Dakota), where he managed to acquire an education and graduating with honors from a western seminary.
His early success in writing enabled him to purchase this house and 4 acres in West Salem as a homestead for his parents.
The home was in poor condition and Garland spent much of October 1893 repairing and renovating; he eventually installed indoor plumbing, making it the first home in the area with that innovation.[7] He originally named it Mapleshade because of the three large maples on the property.[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland_House After Garland prepared the house and his parents moved back from the Dakota Territory in time to celebrate Thanksgiving.
In 1893,[7] Hamlin moved to Chicago, where he lived at 6427 South Greenwood Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He is considered “a significant figure in the Chicago Literary Movement” and “one of Chicago’s most important authors”.[8] Moccasin Ranch Park, located near [this] address, is named in his honor.[8] SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlin_Garland#cite_note-MoccasinRanchPark-8
In Illinois in November 1899, Garland married Zulime Taft, the sister of sculptor Lorado Taft, and began working as a teacher and a lecturer.[9] In his literary career, Hamlin was an author of 52 novels, several poems and short stories. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Daughter of the Middle Border (sequel to Son of the Middle Border) in 1922.
This Garland Homestead commemorates the three-generation Family home of Hamlin Garland.
A prolific writer, Garland continued to publish novels, short fiction, and essays. In 1917, he published his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border. The book’s success prompted a sequel, A Daughter of the Middle Border, for which Garland won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. After two more volumes, Garland began a second series of memoirs based on his diary. Garland naturally became quite well known during his lifetime and had many friends in literary circles.[10] He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1918.[4]
After moving to Hollywood, California, in 1929, he devoted his remaining years to investigating psychic phenomena, an enthusiasm he first undertook in 1891. In his final book, The Mystery of the Buried Crosses (1939), he tried to defend such phenomena and prove the legitimacy of psychic mediums. [ SOURCE: Wikipedia ]
Hamlin Died in 1940, at the age of 79 in Hollywood, California. He was cremated, and his ashes were returned to West Salem for burial in Neshonoc Cemetery two miles north of West Salem where his wife, children and parents are buried.
VISIT the Hamlin Garland HOMESTEAD:
The Garland Homestead in 1971. [Source: Hamlin_Garlin_House_West_Salem_La_Crosse_County_Wisconsin.jpg ]
Address: 357 West Garland Street, West Salem Wi 54669. Free Will Donations Accepted
~~~
For MORE on Hamlin Garland check these links:
- HAMLIN GARLAND by Charles Rounds, 1918
- Wisconsin Historical Markers — Hamlin Garland Homestead #241
- Hamlin Garland Poems and Bio
Related Images:
Another “Lawyer Lincoln” comes forward from Rushville Public Library. (Part 1)
Posted by: | Comments
“Lincoln Lawyer” Hermon MacNeil’s sculpture bust of Abraham Lincoln. Pictured at its home for the last 91 years.
Since 2010, this website has become a gathering point for questions and information about Hermon Atkins MacNeil.
The most recent inquiry came from the “Land of Lincoln” about MacNeil’s Abraham Lincoln which depicts the young Illinois lawyer in his clean-shaven years riding the 8th Circuit of the Illinois Court.
Marian Fretueg wrote the following:
While I was doing some research I came across a 1928 Rushville Times of Rushville, Illinois newspaper article which told of a bust of Abraham Lincoln sculpted by Hermon A. MacNeil purchased by Albert Morris Bagby of New York City. Mr. Bagby had the bust shipped to Rushville and was to be temporarily placed at the city’s library to be enjoyed by all the patrons. Rushville, Illinois was Mr. Bagby’s hometown. For some reason or other, the sculpture was never moved from our library and it now proudly on display in our new library.
After some research I could not find where this sculpture is mentioned anywhere, there was a bust of Abraham Lincoln at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Were you aware of this sculpture? I am sure it is the real thing with his name and the bronze factory where it was made on the base of the sculpture.
I have included a picture of the bust, the autograph of Mr. MacNeil’s and the stamp of the Roman Bronze Works. There is also a copy of the accessions book where the bronze bust was given to the library in 1928.
It was so exciting when I was reading about Mr. Bagby’s gift and then reading about Mr. MacNeil and how famous he was. I would love to hear from you and find out if you were aware of this bust.
Thank you so much for your time.
Marian Fretueg
The distinctive signature of the artist on the back of the bust. LincolnRushvilleIL-4.jpg
LincolnRushvilleIL-4.jpg
Dear Marian Fretueg,
Thank you for your kind email and the lovely pictures of Rushville Public Library’s “Lincoln Lawyer” By Hermon Atkins MacNeil. I ask your permission to publicize this work as the Webmaster of HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com
I can tell you are a researcher, because you found my ‘digital museum’ dedicated to the life and work of Hermon A. MacNeil, or as my late mother called him, her “Uncle Hermon”
I would like to visit the Rushville Library to meet you and to photograph this piece for posting on my website. Your piece has its own history in Rushville as a “Land of Lincoln” community with a benefactor donating this beautiful monument to the prairie lawyer who rode the 8 Circuit that covers Rushville and much of Illinois.
To my knowledge eight (8) of these MacNeil Works were cast at Roman Bronze Works (RBW) in New York City. The Rushville piece would appear to be the 5th of the eight that I am able to locate with my website and help from researchers like yourself. As the enclosed link tells the history, the original statue was a Standing Lincoln submitted in about 1924 for a contest of a commission which MacNeil did not win.
About 1928 he had 8 busts cast at RBW using the original Standing Lincoln as his model. Lorado Taft loved the piece and recommended it to the University of Illinois to grace the marble foyer of Lincoln Hall at the university.
The Hall was remodeled about 2010. I have humorous stories in the link below that tell how the Lincoln Lawyer bust was “locked-up” for safe keeping during the 1 year of reconstruction. It was also “kidnapped” by students at one point in the university’s history.
I have 11 different stories (postings) that come up in a search of “Lincoln Lawyer” as I call this piece of MacNeil work. There are 2 pages that come up on this brief search. Click below to see the articles in the search:
Thus began our discussion on this recent discovery.
Thanks to Marian Fretueg and Rushville Public Library, photos of another “Lincoln Lawyer” by Hermon MacNeil has been added to the website.
This accounts for five of the eight castings made at Roman Bronze Works in 1928.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE OF THE STORY of Rushville’s Lincoln to be posted later.
Roman Bronze Works (RBW) of New York City was a casting foundry that made thousands of bronze statues on the 19th and 20th centuries
Related Images:
Mary Lawrence: A Sculptor of “The White Rabbits”
Posted by: | CommentsMary Lawrence was a talented sculptor. All that is left of her work in the 1893 World’s Fair are the pictures, as depicted below.
“Christopher Columbus” by Mary Lawrence at the World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893, Chicago, Illinois
She became one of The White Rabbits along with Carol (Carrie) Brooks (MacNeil) and numerous other “women assistants” to Lorado Taft and other male sculptors. They helped create “the White City” as the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair was known. 1 The material was temporary, made of staff plaster, and modeled on wooden and medal frameworks. The elegance of the White City inspired
Lawrence was a pupil of Augustus Saint Gaudens at the Art Students League of New York for five years. In that period, she proved her skills many times over.
In the Chicago exhibition, her work with the White Rabbits was overpowered by an accomplishment central to the Court of Honor.
Saint Gaudens’ recommended that she create the theme statue of the exposition, namely, the monumental center-piece of Christopher Columbus. 1 This work was to be placed in the Court of Honor at the entrance of the Administration Building.
Frank Millet, who served as Director of Decorations, resented that a woman “had been selected, and seemed to bear her some personal animus as well.” 2 Seeing the piece put on such a prominent place, he ordered her to move the statue to the plaza of the railroad station. Lawrence complied even though Charles F. McKim, architect for Exposition, had told to place the work at that location. His authority to do so was second only to Daniel Burnham, the Chief Coordinating Architect.
She approached McKim a second time to tell him of the change. He had the statue returned to the Court of Honor at the Administration Building entrance. McKim worked with Augustus Saint Gaudens on many projects. He was introduced to Mary Lawrence by Saint Gaudens as they collaborated in New York on early plans for the Exposition in Chicago.
Though McKim was twenty years senior to Mary Lawrence, Bruce Wilkinson describes their relationship in this way:
“Her good looks and high spirits made her popular with the young and the not so young. Charles Follen McKim, whose second wife had died tragically after one short idyllic year, fell in love with her and remained a little so all the rest of his crowded life.”
Kim, Burnham, and especially, Lorado Taft were open to women as students and sculptors. Their show of support in the White Rabbitsdecision advanced opportunities for women for years to come.
Janet Scudder (1869-1940) was one of Taft’s students who described her own the joy filled elation and that of her White-Rabbit-sisters in the following way:
“Janet describes working under Loredo as “That wonderful year! Filled with work, filled with accomplishment and filled with what was considered in those days a very fat salary!”[2] The salary was so large that, upon being paid, “We rushed back to our rooms at the hotel, opened the envelopes and poured out the five-dollar bills (for some reason we were paid our hundred and fifty dollars in five-dollar bills,) and carpeted the floor with them. We wanted to see what it felt like to walk on money.” [3] 3
The Joy of the “White Rabbits” changed their lives and the future of sculpture.
Women and men working on figures for the East entrance to the Horticulture Building in Taft’s section of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Chicago History Museum Images. SOURCE: [ At: https://discoverherstory.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/white-rabbits-american-women-sculptors/ on March 1, 2019.]
Footnotes:
-
White City
Most of the buildings of the fair were designed in the neoclassical architecture style. The area at the Court of Honor was known as The White City. Façades were made not of stone, but of a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called staff, which was painted white, giving the buildings their “gleam”. Architecture critics derided the structures as “decorated sheds”. The buildings were clad in white stucco, which, in comparison to the tenements of Chicago, seemed illuminated. It was also called the White City because of the extensive use of street lights, which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night. - Bruce Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint Gaudens. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, Orlando, Florida, 1985, p. 249
- Ibid.
- Janet Scudder: “White Rabbits: American Women Sculptors”. [ At: https://discoverherstory.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/white-rabbits-american-women-sculptors/ on March 1, 2019.]
Related Images:
Carol Brooks MacNeil & the “White Rabbits” of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair
Posted by: | CommentsIn the 1890’s Women Sculptors were not accepted as students by many established sculptors. One exception was Larado Taft of Chicago. He taught and encouraged many female student artist to develop their skills as sculptors.
Lorado Taft and sculpture class
Description:Photograph of Lorado Taft and his sculpture class at the Chicago Art Institute (ca. 1890s). Identified individuals are Carrie Brooks McNeil (seated, front left), Julia Bracken (seated front right), Will LeFavor (standing second from left in checkered apron), and Lorado Taft (standing third from right in black vest). (Note 1)
The story is told by Wikipedia as follows: As the date of the f air’s opening grew closer, Taft realized that he would not be able to complete the decorations in time. Discovering that all the male sculptors he had in mind were already employed elsewhere, he asked Daniel Burnham if he could use women assistants, an occurrence that was virtually unheard of at that time. Burnham’s reply was that Taft could “hire anyone, even white rabbits, if they can get the work done.” Taft, an instructor of sculpture at the Chicago Art Institute who had many qualified women students and who frequently employed women assistants himself, brought in a group of women assistants who were promptly dubbed “the White Rabbits.”
One side note: The White Rabbits helped build the White City, as the Chicago Fair was called. “Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears” were the words that Katherine Lee Bates wrote in 1895 in her poem “America, the Beautiful.” Samuel A. Ward composed the hymn tune in 1882. It was combined with Bates’ poem in 1910 and published as “America, the Beautiful.” Read the complete history HERE . The words became part of the third verse inspired by her seeing the Columbian Exposition “White City” in 1893.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rabbits_(sculptors)
From the ranks of the White Rabbits were to emerge some of the most talented and successful women sculptors of the next generation. These include:
- Julia Bracken (1871–1942)
- Carol Brooks (1871–1944)
- Ellen Rankin Copp (1853-1901)
- Helen Farnsworth (1867–1916)
- Margaret Gerow (whose art career ended with her marriage to sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor)
- Mary Lawrence (1868–1945)
- Bessie Potter (1872–1954)
- Janet Scudder (1869–1940)
- Enid Yandell (1870–1934)
- Zulime Taft [de] Lorado Taft’s sister
Horticultural Building
Horticulture Building of World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Women Sculptors nick named the “White Rabbits” created much of the work on this building. Carol Louise Brooks (later MacNeil) was one of those sculptors. (Note 2)
Besides their work on the Horticultural Building, several of the White Rabbits were to obtain other commissions to produce sculpture at the Exposition. Among these were Lawrence’s statue of Columbus, placed in front of the Administration Building, Yandell’s Daniel Boone for the Kentucky Building, Bracken’s Illinois Greeting the Nations in the Illinois Building, and Farnsworth’s Columbia for the Wisconsin Building.
Note 3. SOURCE: PJ Chmiel https://farm1.staticflickr.com/196/497505305_c32f7e852d_b.jpg
Notes:
- Original photo found in RS 26/20/16, Box 25, Art Institute Classes. Phys. Desc: TIFF Original photo is 7.75″ x 4.5″ ID:0006291. Repository: University of Illinois Archives. Found in: Lorado Taft Papers, 1857-1953. Subjects: American SculptureChicago Art Institute Taft, Lorado, 1860-1936. Rights:This image is in the public domain. Please contact us if you would like to purchase a high-resolution copy of the image.
- [CREDITS: By C.D. Arnold – Arnold, C.D., The World’s Columbian Exposition: Portfolio of Views, Issued by the Department of Photography, National Chemigraph Company, Chicago, 1893, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29205089]
- PHOTO: Daniel Boone statue; by PJ Chmiel. See his gallery on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pjchmiel/ also https://farm1.staticflickr.com/196/497505305_c32f7e852d_b.jpg
Related Images:
MacNeil-Brooks Wedding Reception – Christmas Day 1895
Posted by: | CommentsOne Hundred and twenty-three years (123) ago, Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Carol Louise Brooks were on married Christmas Day.
Recently an invitation to their Wedding Reception came available from the estate of Walter Pratt. He was a first cousin of Hermon. A facsimile appears below.
Noteworthy, is the location of the reception: the “Studio 1733 Marquette Building Chicago, Adams and Dearborn Streets, Chicago”. Recovery of this printed invitation adds several previously unknown facts to the story of their wedding day. The 19th Century Marquette Building is the 21st Century home of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The wedding earlier in the day was a private ceremony. Rev. Edward F. Williams, a Congregational Minister, officiated. Their license, completed in Rev. Williams hand, appears below.
“Marriage: On Christmas Day 1895, in Chicago, he married Carol Louise Brooks, also a sculptor (see their marriage record below). Earlier MacNeil was informed that he had won the Rinehart Roman Scholarship. Following their wedding, the pair left for Rome, passing three years there (1896-1899) and eventually spend a fourth year in Paris where their first son, Claude, was born. During those years they studied together under the same masters and shared the income of the Rinehart scholarship awarded to Hermon. (Carol had also studied sculpture with both Lorado Taft and Frederick William MacMonnies).”
Both Carol and Hermon sculpted for the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Carol Brooks was one of Lorado Taft’s “White Rabbits”
Lorado Taft’s “White Rabbits” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rabbits_(sculptors)
Hermon sculpted statues on the Electricity Building (See picture below)
Carol Brooks MacNeil – 1907 – Twelve years after her marriage to Hermon 
H.A.MacNeil ~1895 sketch – The Sun (New York City) 
The Electricity Building housed the Tower of Light, displays by Western Electric, General Electric, American Bell Telephone, Edison’s lasest phonographs. 
The White City Columbian Exposition: http://members.cox.net/academia/cassatt8.html 
New York Public Library – Digital Gallery (655 x 760) 
H.A. MacNeil “Fan Club” Members examine the Marquette Building – 140 S. Dearborn Ave. 
Panel 4 “The de Profundus was intoned 
Panel 3 “Passing two leagues up the river …” 
Panel 2 ” To follow those waters …” 
“To follow those …” Panel 1
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…
- Hermon MacNeil ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know!” (10) ~ Christmas Day 1895 ~ In 1895, Amy Aldis Bradley…
- Hermon MacNeil at the 1893 Columbian Exposition ~ ~ ~ THE CHICAGO YEARS ~ ~ (9) CHICAGO YEARS: Partners and Colleagues When Hermon MacNeil came home to the…
- “PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC” ~ Part 3: 1894 Eda Lord’s Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair (9) Eda Lord, (the woman who purchased the MacNeil bronze statue,…
- The MacNeil’s Chicago Wedding – Christmas Day 1895 (9) I sit here in Chicago during this Christmas Season, imagining…
- MacNeil – Brooks 120th Anniversary (1895-2015) (7) On Christmas Day one dozen decades ago, Hermon A. MacNeil…
Related Images:
Lincoln Hall Revisited ~ 2017~ 6 year Nose Check-up!
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July 21, 2011. The restored bust on display at the Spurlock Museum at University of Illinois. After a thorough cleaning and patina restoration, MacNeil’s Lincoln bust went on public display for one year in the Spurlock Museum. This was the first showing of the piece in full circle — 360 degree visibility.
MacNeil’s Abe Lincoln (above) was cleaned and the patina restored in 2011 when Lincoln Hall was reconstructed for its 100th Anniversary.
After six years back in his old niche in the east foyer entrance of beautiful Lincoln Hall, I was curious about how much wear Lincoln’s “lucky nose” had sustained from student caresses on their way to exams and classes.
So, while traveling to visit family in Kentucky, Virginia, and NC in July 2017, we made opportunity to spend the night in Urbana, Illinois. We turned very appropriately onto “Lincoln Street” off of I-74 and found a motel for the night.
The next morning (Monday, July 31st) we ventured off toward the restored Lincoln Hall on the University of Illinois campus. Wiggling through blocks of summer street construction into Wright Street, we parked and walked toward the Main Quad.
Larado Taft’s Alma Mater
Lorado Taft’s powerful allegorical grouping “Alma Mater” (with Learning and Labor) at the corner of Eighth and Wright Street greeted us. (Taft was the alumnus who recommended MacNeil’s bust of Lincoln over other artists considered for placement in the Hall in 1924.) For More on Taft click HERE
We met an alumnae who had dropped her son off for summer workshops. She asked us to take her picture with the Alma Mater behind her. Turned out she was originally from Beresford, SD and planned to retire in the Black Hills. Small world.
Abe Lincoln’s nose has a well worn shine again. The patina restoration in 2011 has given way to the”petting” and “well wishes of 100’s of hands” seeking blessings from Old Honest Abe.
We walked into the old quadrangle at the center of campus. Walking the brick walks of the lush green lawn. we arrived at the east entrance of Lincoln Hall. We stopped to admire the terra-cotta bas-relief panels placed above the high windows of the building. They depict scenes from the life of the prairie lawyer memorialized in this beautiful hall.
The restored East Foyer of Lincoln Hall with its gilded vaulted ceiling and columns makes a dramatic setting for Hermon A. MacNeil’s bust of Abraham Lincoln as the famed prairie lawyer who left Illinois to lead the nation through the War to preserve the Union and the succession South states.
Entering the East Foyer, we could see the Lincoln bust before us. The magnificent Beaux Arts style of the ceiling formed a vaulted arch spanning above the wings of the white marble stairs and landing. This splendidly restored foyer dominated the life-size bust of our sixteenth President centered on the landing in its gold-leafed niche.
The tradition of touching Lincoln’s nose for “good luck” has passed on to another generation of Illini students since the restoration.
Even from the doorway a “bronze glow” could be glimpsed on Abe Lincoln’s nose. He was wearing his well-worn shine again. As predicted, the brown patina of the 2011 restoration had given way to the”petting” and “well wishes of 100’s of hands” seeking blessings from Old Honest Abe. The tradition has carried on to Lincoln Hall’s second century.
The bronze relief plaque containing the words of the Address at Gettysburg was on our right. The gold gilding of the column capitals and the rosettes in the vaulted arch of the ceiling, gave an inspiring elegance to this hall of remembrance.
In the elegance of this hallowed hall, Abe’s “accessible nose” adds a tactile legacy and fitting tribute to learning in the “Land of Lincoln.”
Related Images:
MacNeil – Brooks 120th Anniversary (1895-2015)
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Carol Brooks MacNeil – 1907 – Twelve years after her marriage to Hermon
H.A.MacNeil ~1895 sketch – The Sun (New York City)
On Christmas Day one dozen decades ago, Hermon A. MacNeil and Carol Louise Brooks were married in Chicago, Illinois. The pair were both sculptors who met while working on the World’s Colombian Exposition of 1893, better known as the Chicago World’s Fair.
Carol was a student of Lorado Taft and became one of the White Rabbits. These female sculptors were hired (commissioned) to help finish the 100’s of sculptures needed to finish the buildings, fountains, arcades, for the White City of the Chicago Worlds Fair.
Previous postings celebrate this MacNeil-Brooks Wedding:
Eda Lord’s Chicago World’s Fair Ticket from ‘Chicago Day.’ (Her great-great grandson, Jim Dixon found it an a box of her memobilia from the era when she bought her MacNeil sculpture.)
Related Images:
The MacNeil’s Chicago Wedding – Christmas Day 1895
Posted by: | CommentsI sit here in Chicago during this Christmas Season, imagining a Christmas wedding ceremony one hundred and nineteen years ago.
~
On Christmas Eve day in 1895, Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Carol Louise Brooks purchased a Cook County license to solemnize their marriage. The very next day, Christmas 1895, they shared their vows before God and a Congregational minister named, Edward F. Williams, here in Chicago. The record looks like this:
Marriage License of Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Carol Louise Brooks issued on December 24th, 1895 and completed on Christmas Day 1895 by Rev. Edward F. Williams, Congregational Minister.
Both Hermon and Carol were sculptors. Hermon had completed 4 bronze relief sculpture panels for the new Marquette Building. They had fellow friends among the art community, sculptor colleagues from the Chicago World’s Fair, students and teachers from the Art Institute of Chicago, and “White Rabbits” team of women sculptors. We don’t have any record of who might have witnessed their nuptials.
~
But it was Christmas Day, a time when families gather. Hermon’s family was far away in Massachusetts. Carol’s was born in Chicago and studied there at the Art Institute with Lorado Taft working on the 1893 Worlds Fair with her “White Rabbit” colleagues. Perhaps some friends or family were present or even hosted some wedding celebration. Her parents were close enough to be present, but no evidence suggests that. It appears to have been a quick, quiet, modest ceremony. The less than a one-day turn around on their marriage license would support that. In addition, we know that they sailed a week later for Rome and Hermon’s Roman Reinhart Scholarship studies there. A December 22, 1895 – New York Sun, article (CLICK HERE) supports that as well as a letter from Amy Ardis Bradley [ CLICK for MORE ]
~
New York Sun December 22, 1895 “The Reinhart Prize Winner ~ Hermon Atkins Macneil of Chicago”
The officiating minister, Rev. Edward (Franklin) Williams appears to have been a prominent clergy described as “a Congregational minister, educator, field agent for the United States Christian Commission, missionary, and writer.” ( Source: Edward Franklin Williams papers, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana ) He wrote Carol’s name as “Carrie” in his handwritten certification on the bottom of the license. She went by ‘Carrie’ among her friends.
~
Whether Rev. Williams considered her a ‘friend’ we do not know. Philip Khopf, the Cook County clerk, wrote ‘Carol’ in the top portion of the certificate. Rev. Williams could have copied “Carol” from the official record above, but chose to use ‘Carrie’ instead. The license lists Carol as being 24 years of age and Hermon as 29. We know that the minister was 63 years of age when he led their ceremony. Until 1891 he was pastor of the South Congregational Church, in suburban Chicago. For health reasons he had “an extended stay abroad (June, 1891 to July, 1893), primarily in Germany, where he pursued studies in Berlin.” Returning to Chicago he studied and lectured at Chicago Theological Seminary during 1894.
~
Whether Rev. Williams had some previous knowledge with Carrie and Hermon or was a friend of the family, is uncertain. He seemed very connected to the Chicago community and many of the potential benefactors of the arts. At a minimum, his use of “Carrie” seems to indicate a ‘cordial’ style of ministry and interaction. It also seems consistent with his servant-attitude toward needs of the soldiers and wounded he encountered during the Civil War.
~
CLICK HERE for more Links and info about Hermon and Carrie’s marriage in 1895:
~
More biographical information on Rev. Williams is offered below.
Williams, Edward Franklin (1832-1919)
Historical Note: Edward Franklin Williams was a Congregational minister, educator, field agent for the United States Christian Commission, missionary, and writer. Edward Franklin Williams was born in Massachusetts in 1832, the son of Delilah Morse Williams and George Williams. Williams attended Yale University from 1852 to 1856, and he continued to earn an advanced degree from Yale. He later attended the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he graduated and earned his license to preach in 1861.Williams was exempt from the draft due to a tubercular condition in his lungs, and thus he did not fight in the Civil War. In April 1863, Williams received a commission as a field agent for the United States Christian Commission. With the Commission, he served two and a half years in the armies of the Potomac and the James.After the war, Williams was sent as principal to begin was became the Lookout Mountain Educational Institutions in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1867, Williams was appointed by the American Missionary Association to teach in the Normal and Preparatory Division of what was later Howard University. He left Howard to preach at several churches in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New York, ultimately serving as pastor of Tabernacle Church in Chicago and Forty-Seventh Street Congregational Church, which later became South Congregational Church, in suburban Chicago, where he served until 1891.By 1880, Williams was writing a monthly column for The Congregationalist under a pen name, “Franklin.” He continued writing for this publication until 1908. He continued as a prolific writer, particularly in the 1890s.
From 1901 to 1911 Williams served as pastor of the Evanston Ave. Congregational Church in Chicago. Williams died in 1919 in Chicago.
[ Sources: Edward Franklin Williams papers, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana ]
Related Images:
Finishing touches clean the marble niche where MacNeil’s Lincoln bust will greet Illini students in Lincoln Hall
A 1958 photo of lawyer Abe Lincoln (with NO beard) as he appeared at the time of the debates with Senator Stephen Douglas and as MacNeil portrayed him.
Hermon MacNeil’s bronze bust of self-educated Illinois Lawyer Abe Lincoln was returned to its gloriously restored niche in Lincoln Hall on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign-Urbana to begin its second century on the Illinois Circuit of higher education.
MacNeil’s standing Lincoln model from the Smithsonian Institute photo archives. The piece was made for a commission competition after 1906.
MacNeil originally sculpted a full length, standing model of the Illinois Lawyer that he later re-sculpted as a bust. From that piece he had Roman Bronze Works make eight castings of his Lincoln Lawyer. In 1928 at the recommendation of Lorado Taft, the University of Illinois purchased this one of the MacNeil sculptures of the younger Lincoln.
In 1929, MacNeil’s work provided an iconic centerpiece for the Grand Stairway foyer of newly designed building. On February 12, 2012, the restored bust was returned to its original niche, in the beautifully renovated Lincoln Hall.
For MORE history on the “Lawyer Lincoln” CLICK HERE
PHOTOS and MORE: The lead photo above and three photos below are from the website of the Lincoln Hall Renovation (CLICK HERE) project at the University of Illinois. They show the re-installation of MacNeil’s work. The University has now completed the $66.4 million dollar restoration (Fact Sheet) of Lincoln Hall. [SEE MORE MacNeil-Lincoln history below the photos]:
MacNeil’s restored bust of young Abe Lincoln was bolted to a marble plate that could be cemented into place.
The work crew of masons set the MacNeil’s Lincoln bust back into the niche at the Grand Staircase of Lincoln Hall
A worker sweeps the marble stairs of Lincoln Hall foyer as photographers get set to record the return of Hermon MacNeil’s bust of young Lawyer Abe Lincoln to its perch where a second century of Illini students will pass by.
Art and museum records locate four of MacNeil’s eight “Lincoln Lawyer” castings. the others “Lincoln Lawyer” busts by MacNeil appear incomplete as follows:
- University of Pennsylvania, Office of the Curator, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Control_Number: 77001611
- Beloit College, Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, Wisconsin – Control_Number: 75008855
- Amherst College, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts: Control_Number: 20090014
- Amherst College, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002 Accession Number: S.1932.4 Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum ~ SIRIS
Related Images:
Hermon MacNeil ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know!”
Posted by: | Comments~ Christmas Day 1895 ~
In 1895, Amy Aldis Bradley wrote of Hermon MacNeil:
“…The young sculptor was married on Christmas Day, and sailed for Rome on Wednesday, and is, on the whole, the most happy young man I know.” (http://marquette.macfound.org/slide/herman-macneil/ )
One hundred and seventeen years ago today, Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Carol Louise Brooks were united in marriage in Chicago, Illinois by Rev. Edward F. Williams, a Congregational Minister. They purchased their Marriage License on Christmas Eve Day 1895. [CLICK HERE to See their License]
Both Hermon and Carol were sculptors who worked on the 1983 Chicago World’s Fair (World’s Columbian Exposition). Just days earlier MacNeil received word that he had won the Rinehart Roman Scholarship. (Carol had also studied sculpture with both Lorado Taft and Frederick William MacMonnies). Within the week, the pair left for Rome, passing three years there (1896-1899). It was a romantic time of study together under the same masters. With frugality, the income of Hermon’s Rinehart scholarship supported them both. They travelled through Italy occasionally bartering a room for sculpture. They spend a fourth year in Paris.”
According to information from the MacArthur Foundation (current owner and curator of the Marquette Building), Amy Aldis Bradley’s complete words in 1895 to Peter Brooks:
After commissioning MacNeil for the exterior bronzes, Aldis wrote to Peter Brooks, “McNeil’s [sic] panels are being placed in position. It is greatly to their and his credit that these bas-reliefs have won for him the Roman [Reinhart] Fellowship. The Commission, choosing him as the best of the very young men…The young sculptor was married on Christmas Day, and sailed for Rome on Wednesday, and is, on the whole, the most happy young man I know. He is very grateful to the owners of the Marquette Building.” (http://marquette.macfound.org/slide/herman-macneil/ )
Related Images:
“PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC” ~ Part 3: 1894 Eda Lord’s Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair
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Eda Lord's Chicago World's Fair Ticket from 'Chicago Day.' Her great-grandson, Jim Dixon found it an a box of memorabilia from the era when she bought her MacNeil sculpture.
Eda Lord, (the woman who purchased the MacNeil bronze statue, “Primitive Indian Music” ~ 1894), attended the World’s Columbian Exposition on “Chicago Day.” Jim Dixon sent us a scan of his great-grandmother’s actual Ticket to the Chicago World’s Fair.
Eda Lord was not alone. Chicago Day was packed. A total of 716,881 people attended for “Chicago Day,” October 9, 1893. That day commemorated the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The ‘Chicago Day’ marked Chicago’s rebirth.
Every day of the Chicago World’s Fair marked the city’s arrival on the world-scene. While New York City, Washington, D.C., and St.Louis, had all competed for this ‘Columbian’ 400-year-extravaganza, Chicago won the honors (and labors). The CWE invited America to come take notice that this western-railroad-cattletown was now a cultural-financial center. Like Columbus himself, the European “Old World” of art and architecture had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and resurrected in this “New World” of American progress, industry, and prosperity. Now along the shore of this inland Great Lake a “White City” fantasy had emerged. Crafted from the hands, talents, and imaginations of American “Beaux Arts” artists, sculptors and architects.
"Chicago Day" Crowds -- October 9, 1893 -- 716,881 people attended that day which commemorated the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. (http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo.html)
And like Eda Lord, from all over the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia and the world, they came. In total, over 27,000,000 million people attended the entire 1893 Columbia International Exposition. That number was half of the US population of 54 million then.
I told Jim Dixon that just seeing his Great-Grandmother Eda’s ticket made me wonder:
- How old was Eda Lord when she attended the Fair?
- Who would she go with?
- Would a lady attend alone?
- She lived in Evanston, north of the city. She could have rode the train from there in less than an hour into the “White City”.
- She might have passed the “Buffalo Bill Wild West Show” on her way to the main Gate.
Here is what Jim told us about the ticket:
Daniel –
I started pouring through the boxes of family history tonight. I have a long way to go, but I found something that is perhaps a clue. Of all things, Eda Lord saved a ticket stub from the World’s Columbian Exposition for “Chicago Day” on Oct 9th 1893. The ticket is numbered and obviously a part was torn off. It is in perfect shape. Attached is a scan of the ticket. Much more exploring to do and I will send along anything relevant that I find.
Jim Dixon
Well Jim, You have quite a find! That is a valuable souvenir. And a family history keepsake.
HERMON ATKINS MACNEIL:
Hermon MacNeil was there as well. For three years he worked on drawings, plans and sculpture.
"Primitive Indian Music" Hermon A. MacNeil 1894, 24 inches, bronze. Purchased by Eda Lord about 1894-5.
MacNeil sculpted figures on the Electricity building (MORE HERE). He was only 27 years old then. He had returned from study in Paris from about 1888 – 1890. He came to Chicago to work with Phillip Martiny. Some say he stopped in New York to get a letter of recommendation from August Saint-Gaudens to give to Martiny in Chicago.
A hundred or more artists sculpted the White City. Many would be MacNeil’s contemporaries and colleagues through his life. Carol Brooks, who Hermon MacNeil would marry two years later, was also one of the women sculptors called in at the last months to finish the plaster-staff statues that adorned the Fair. (Carol had studied sculpture with both Lorado Taft and Frederick William MacMonnies) Carol was also a member of “The White Rabbits” ~ a self-christened group of women sculptors called in to complete the massive work load of ‘staff’ statues needed for the Chicago Fair in 1893. ).
Also to see my post CLICK HERE (look for their ‘Marriage’ paragraph.)
HERE ARE CLOSE-UP PHOTOS THAT SUGGEST THAT THIS “Primitive Indian Music” PIECE WAS AN EARLY PROTO-TYPE OF THE “PRIMITIVE CHANT” STATUE (WHICH WAS MUCH MORE REFINED AND POLISHED IN ITS CASTING FINISH.)
It is also based on “Black Pipe”, the young Sioux Brave. MacNeil first saw Black Pipe at the Buffalo Bills Wild West Show and we know that he returned many times to study the Indians. ( I have ordered two books on Buffalo Bills Wild West Show, the Indians, conditions, treatment etc.)
We will return to the story of “Black Pipe”, the young Sioux Brave. Perhaps, like MacNeil, we will return many times. ~~ DNL
Facial roughness of "Primitive Indian Music" bronze cast from 1894 suggests it is an early MacNeil attempt. His 1901 casts of "Primitive Chant" are more polished.
Sculpting marks on thigh and hip of 1894 "Primitive Indian Music" bronze cast suggest it is an early MacNeil attempt. His 1901 casts of "Primitive Chant" are more polished.
Related Images:
Hermon MacNeil’s interest in Native American culture began in (of all places) Chicago. Before he ever traveled to the Southwest in 1895 to visit the Hopi (Moqui), and Navajo people, Native culture visited him in Chicago.
"Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit" photo of plaster model from MacNeil's Studio. (Credit: Photo Archives Smithsonian American Art Museum)
The live Native model for “The Primitive Chant” (at left) was a Sioux warrior by the name of Black Pipe. Hermon first saw Black Pipe in the ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show’ at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. That winter, MacNeil found Black Pipe cold and desolate on the sidewalks of Chicago. MacNeil said that he gave him food and work as a model and an assistant in MacNeil’s studio (shared with Charles F. Browne).
More than being a model called in to portray an idea of the sculptor, Black Pipe portrayed a Native ritual dance, an ecstatic religious experience. The full title “Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit,” implies a religious experience that the native was depicting. Lorado Taft, in his criticisms below, seems to miss the probable point of how this image came to be. This image is not MacNeil’s in the mind of the artist, rather it is in the ecstatic religious memory of the model, Black Pipe. I wonder how Hermon MacNeil experienced this Sioux’s portrayal as the warrior was transported in an ecstatic dance offered to the Great Spirit. MacNeil said that Black Pipe worked for him for the next year and a half. The Sioux warrior is immortalized in this piece and in the facial portrait pictured below. (Both photos are part of the Smithsonian Achieves ~ http://siris-juleyphoto.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!sijuleyphotos&uri=full=3100001~!128333~!0 )
MacNeil's bronze of Blackpipe, a Sioux warrior he befriended in 1893 (source Smithsonian Archives)
The urging and support of Edward Everett Ayers led MacNeil and two companions, Hamlin Garland and Charles F. Browne, to travel to the southwestern territories (four-corners of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah) in the summer of 1895. Their goals were to witness the vanishing images of the Native people, of the Southwest.
MacNeil made plaster models of native images and events and shipped them back to Chicago for later inspiration. Many of the sculptures that he made in Rome to fulfill the Rinehart Scholarship requirements were based on these early studies from the Southwest. These would include the ‘Moqui Runner’, and the ‘Sun Vow’. Returning to these themes three decades later, he crafted the Society of Medalists Issue #3 in 1931, after the “Moqui Runner” and the “Hopi Prayer for Rain.” His 106 foot long bas relief frieze on the North side of the Missouri Capitol contains a section that seems to be the basis for the SOM #3 Issue of 1931 called “Hopi Prayer for Rain.”
Lorado Taft ‘imagined’ MacNeil’s ‘days’ in Rome in very ‘idealistic’ terms. He suggested that the Reinhart Rome Scholarship must have given MacNeil an ideal time for focused ‘days’ of study:
“Four years of them with three hundred and sixty-five days in each year! To live in the Villa dell’ Aurora, to work upon subjects of one’s own choice, with no care and all expenses paid — what better could an artist ask for.? The only requirements made by the trustees were “satisfying evidences of industry,” to be attested in the form of “a life-size figure at the end of the second year, a relief containing two life-size figures before the close of the third year, and during the fourth year a life-size group of two or more figures in the round.” [Lorado Taft, The History of American Sculpture, 1903, p. 439].
In his, THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN SCULPTURE, published in 1903, Taft critiques several of MacNeils sculptures in very flattering terms. He praises the ‘technical quality’ of this piece while questioning the artist choice of a dancer playing his armpit as a musical instrument. His exact words are offered in the passage below:
“The next figure, ” A Primitive Chant,” possesses every technical quality of good sculpture. While the idea of an Indian making strange noises by blowing or shouting in the crook of his arm awakens no responsive thrill of imagination, this is nevertheless a powerful work. Its triumph is all the more marked since our surrender is, in a sense, an unwilling one. We are not prejudiced in favor of this tuneful creature, who, unlike a Hector or an Achilles, brings to his aid no emotional backing of poetry, no prestige of three thousand years’ success upon the ” boards.” This is sculpture pure and simple, — beauty of form, strength with refinement of modelling, compactness, breadth. The figure kneels, taking hold of the earth with powerful limbs ; the hands are clasped, the right elbow tight across the body, the arm raised at a right angle, concealing largely the savage face. The expanded chest and powerful back have fascinated the sculptor ; he has shaped them superbly.
Larado Taft's words describe this kneeling pose of "The Primitive Chant." The 'upright-dancing-warrior' is a more commonly seen version of MacNeil's work.
That these are adequate reasons for the statue one is hardly prepared to say, though such beauty of modelling is almost a sufficient excuse. The trouble is that with nine persons out of ten, nay, with ninety-nine out of the hundred, beautiful modelling is not interesting nor a raison d’etre ; and with the more thoughtful the very fact of such costly elaboration enhances the perplexity. Why so much labor and so much time expended upon a thing unbeautiful in idea? With all its masterful workmanship, and even its sculptural pose, it remains but an illustration of an incident, a custom; curious it may be, and even to some persons moderately interesting, but possessing for none a deep significance. Where does the emotion come in — the poetic thrill which we are told is fundamental in the genesis of every great work of art, and which in turn a truly great work must convey in some fashion and some degree to men and women of taste? We are obliged to admit that in the lack of any supplementary hint at a deeper import — as of mourning or of love-making, of solitude, or of worship — the only response awakened by the action of the figure is a rather unsympathetic query regarding the nature of the “music” produced in so outlandish a fashion!” (pp. 437-439.)
According to the Smithsonian Institute:
Hermon A. MacNeil
A Primitive Chant to the Great Spirit
modeled by 1901
bronze
24 1/2 x 6 1/8 x 8 3/4 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum,Gift of Maurice Kawashima in honor of Dr. Richard Wunder
MacNeil has interpreted an Indian dancer as he chants into the crook of his upraised arm. The model for this sculpture was a Sioux Indian named Black Pipe, who was part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Black Pipe remained in Chicago after the fair closed and became a regular model and studio assistant for MacNeil. The artist maintained a studio in Chicago, but traveled many times to the Southwest to observe Indian rituals, costumes, crafts, and ceremonies firsthand. In Primitive Chant, MacNeil captures the physical beauty and grace of the Native American, which he compared to that of Greek warriors.
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Lorado Taft offered praise for ‘promising Native works’ of Hermon Atkins MacNeil in 1903
Posted by: | CommentsIn the early 1900s, because of his knowledge and authorship on American Sculpture, Lorado Taft was referred to by many as ‘the Dean of American Sculpture.’ He offered early praise for Hermon Atkins MacNeil. His admiration of MacNeil’s work continued into the 1920s when he recommended MacNeil’s “Lawyer Lincoln” bust to the University Of Illinois to grace the spiral entry foyer of Lincoln Hall.
In Chapter XXIII of his volume “THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN SCULPTURE” (originally published in 1903), Taft offers the following praise of the young MacNeil:
THE YOUNGER GENERATION IN NEW YORK
The opening twentieth century brings before us a group of young sculptors equipped by nature and by training as in the past few Americans have been. …
One of the most promising of this number is Hermon A. MacNeil. …
Marquette Panel #4 (detail)
Well equipped with the training which the Parisian studios give, Mr. MacNeil was early discontented with the banality of modern sculptural themes. The makeshift subjects of his comrades seemed to him unworthy. He wanted to do things more original and more truly expressive. Western life and the Indian had for him a great appeal, and he made several trips to the redman’s reservations north and west, in order to study what he considered the most sculptural motifs which America offers.
His reliefs over the doors of the Marquette building in Chicago — scenes of the life and death [ p. 437 > p. 438 ] of Pere Marquette — show to what good use he put his material. He was wont to talk of the artistic possibilities of the Indian in sculpture with an enthusiasm that was eloquent if not always convincing. To him they were as fine as Greek warriors and as worthy to be immortalized. …
More of Taft’s critique on H. A. MacNeil will be offered in upcoming postings on HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com.
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Happy Birthday! ~ Hermon A. MacNeil from Mr. Lincoln of Illinois ~ MacNeil Month 2012
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Hermon MacNeil's sculpture of Abe Lincoln wears a 'Happy Birthday' Hat
Abe Lincoln is helping celebrate Hermon A. MacNeil’s birthday on February 27th of this week. The sculptor was born in 1866 in Chelsea, Mass nearly ten months after Mr. Lincoln was assassinated.
Actually, the statue’s festive hat shown here was for the 100th birthday of the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois where the restored sculpture has been displayed for the last year.
This week the Abe Lincoln will be moved by university officials (not the Statue Liberation Society as in 1979 – CLICK HERE). After March 1st the bust will be set into place in the refurbished Lincoln Hall.
Only three days remain to see the restored statue of Abraham Lincoln in-the-round, the way Hermon MacNeil sculpted it.
A visit to Illinois last week included a stop at the Abe Lincoln bust at Spurlock Museum at U of I. The sculpture will no longer be viewable in-the-round after being returned to its permanent home in the sparklingly-restored Lincoln Hall on campus.
MacNeil’s Abe Lincoln bust of the clean-shaven Illinois lawyer, senator and orator has become a beloved icon of Campus history. The MacNeil work of Lincoln will continue to greet students, visitors and staff from central prominence in the spiral stairway. It gives dramatic focus to the Main Entrance of the Hall named for this favorite son.
The relocation will add the ‘crowning’ touch to the Main Lobby. Once again, MacNeil’s ‘Lawyer Lincoln’ will look out from his perch in the circular stairwell.
In traveling through Champaign-Urbana, the Spurlock Museum was open last Saturday. I made some poor-quality video of the statue in its 360 degree perspective and viewed again the MacNeil signature and ‘Roman Bronze Works’ marking on the rear of the piece.
MacNeil’s Lincoln, unlike most sculptures of him, is the ‘Lawyer Lincoln.’ Mr. Lincoln’s thirty-years in Illinois were the formative experiences that prepared him to be the statesman and leader of world-renown that he became as U.S. President during the preservation of the Union. (See the Feb 12th posting below)
The Lincoln bust will no longer be viewable in~the~round after this week.
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Happy 408th Birthday, Roger Williams!
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- ROGER WILLIAMS bust by MacNeil at “Hall of Fame” in Bronx Comm. College ~ Photo Credit: Librado Romero/The New York Times ( http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/12/05/nyregion/05metjournal2_ready.html )
December 21st marks the Birthday of Roger Williams (theologian, teacher, preacher, linguist, pioneer, reformer, and spiritual seeker after God).
Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s bust sculpture of Roger Williams ( made in 1920) is only 91 years old, but the man himself was born 317 years earlier on December 21, 1603. (That is a lot of candles to have on a cake).
The sculpture of Williams is one of four that MacNeil made for the Hall. His other subjects were: James Monroe, Francis Parker, and Rufus Choate.
Many of MacNeil’s contemporaries sculptors were commissioned for works at the colonnade: Daniel Chester French, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, A. Stirling Calder, James Earle Fraser, Frederick William MacMonnies, Lorado Taft, and Adolph Weiman. The Hall of Fame is also a virtual “Who’s Who” of American Sculptors.
Over one hundred sculptures line the 630 foot long open-air colonnade. The NeoClassical arc walkway was designed in 1900 on the undergraduate campus of New York University, now Bronx Community College.
The Hall has not added any sculptures since 1975 but remains a stunning collection of American Renaissance art and history. See the articles below for more on both Roger Williams and the Hall of Fame of Great Americans.
FOR MORE:
- See original photo by Librado Romero/The New York Times at:
University Heights Journal; “A Hall of Fame, Forgotten and Forlorn”
- Wikipedia comments on Roger Williams
- Nick Gier at NewWest offers a this summary of Roger Williams
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1895
Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947)
MacNeil’s bronze of Blackpipe, a Sioux warrior he befriended in 1893 (source Smithsonian Archives)
December of 1895 was an exciting time in the life of Hermon A. MacNeil — A time when he was described as “the most happy young man I know.”
Chicago. In fact, 1985, in general, had been a productive year for the sculptor. Following the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, times had been tough for both artists and Fair workers. MacNeil had found Black Pipe, (the Sioux from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show), cold and hungry on the streets of Chicago. He took him in as studio help and a model for future sculptures.
Marquette. During 1895, Hermon had completed the four bronze panels depicting the life of Fr. Jacques (Père) Marquette. They were put in place over the four entry doors of the Marquette Building (CLICK HERE) where he and his artist friend, Charles F. Browne, shared a studio.
Panel 4 – “The de Profundis was intoned ..
According to information from the MacArthur Foundation (current owner and curator of the Marquette Building), Amy Aldis Bradley wrote in 1895 to Peter Brooks:
After commissioning MacNeil for the exterior bronzes, Aldis wrote to Peter Brooks, “McNeil’s [sic] panels are being placed in position. It is greatly to their and his credit that these bas-reliefs have won for him the Roman [Reinhart] Fellowship. The Commission, choosing him as the best of the very young men…The young sculptor was married on Christmas Day, and sailed for Rome on Wednesday, and is, on the whole, the most happy young man I know. He is very grateful to the owners of the Marquette Building.” (http://marquette.macfound.org/slide/herman-macneil/ )
Rinehart Prize. In December, he received news that he had been named as recipient of the Rinehart Roman Scholarship for study in Rome. Newspapers such as the Nov. 25, 1895 Chicago Tribune (CLICK HERE), and the Dec. 22, 1895 -New York Sun, (CLICK HERE) (columns 5 & 6), contained the news of the selection of this 29 year-old western artist to receive the Prix Rome.
H.A.MacNeil ~1895 sketch – The Sun (New York City)
The sculptors on the committee that selected MacNeil for the award were the ‘giants’ among American sculptors of the 19th century. As mentioned in the above newspapers, the Rinehart Roman committee included Augustus Saint Gaudens, John Quincy Adams Ward, and Daniel Chester French.
These famous sculptors were in the prime of their careers. Saint Gaudens, at 47, had been the sculptural advisor for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. One tradition suggests that MacNeil asked Saint Gaudens for a letter of reference to Phillip Martiny that got him work on the that Exposition in 1893. John Quincy Adams Ward, at age 65 was the ‘grandfather’ of American sculptors, and the founder as well as standing president of the National Sculpture Society. Daniel Chester French, age 45, was also a founding member of the National Sculpture Society, and sculpted the colossal sixty-foot golden “Republic” centerpiece statue for the Chicago Fair. ( A thirty foot tall miniature golden replica of which still graces Jackson Park in Chicago today.)
Marriage:
On Christmas Day 1895, in Chicago, he married Carol Louise Brooks, also a sculptor. Earlier MacNeil was informed that he had won the Rinehart Roman Scholarship. Following their wedding, the pair left for Rome, passing three years there (1896-1899) and eventually spend a fourth year in Paris where their first son, Claude, was born. During those years they study together under the same masters and live on the shared income of Hermon’s Rinehart Scholarship. (Carol had also studied sculpture with both Lorado Taft and Frederick William MacMonnies and been a member of “The White Rabbits” ~ a self christened group of women sculptors called in to complete the massive work load of ‘staff’ statues needed for the Chicago Fair in 1893. ).
Future:
Other events from 1895 would later unfold into sculpture-opportunities for Hermon MacNeil. In May in Greenwich Village, New York City, Stanford White, with assistance from both Frederick MacMonnies and Phillip Martiny, completed a permanent Washington Arch.
, 1895 photo of Empty pedestals on the new Washington Arch with New Yorkers strolling into the popular park. The skyline includes Judson Memorial Church tower to the right of the Arch. NYC Citizens would wait more than twenty years before the MacNeil and Calder tributes to George Washington as Commander-in-Chief and as President would be commissioned and put in place in 1916 and 1918. (Photo credit: NYC -Architecture.com: ~ http://nyc-architecture.com/GV/GV046WashingtonSquareArch.htm)
The first one, made in 1889 of paper and wood, commemorated the centennial of the inauguration of George Washington. Received with great popularity, the citizens of NYC demanded a permanent Arch monument for their first President. White’s design was dedicated on May 4, 1895 with two empty pedestals, meant for statues of Washington. These niches on the north face of the monument remained empty for almost two decades before MacNeil’s statue of Washington as Commander-in-Chief would fill one pedestal (east side, in 1916), and Alexander Stirling Calder’s statue of Washington as Statesman would fill the other (west side, in 1918).
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“Sun Vow” at Reading Public Museum
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A MacNeil "Sun Vow" sculpture housed in the Founder's gallery of the Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA
We were recently contacted by John Graydon Smith, CEO of the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, that a copy of MacNeil’s “Sun Vow” is exhibited there in the museum.
Follow-up contact from Ashley J. Hamilton, Director of Collections, tells us that the piece can be seen in the Founder’s Gallery in the center of the second floor. A map to the RPM is provide below:
The Director also graciously sent photos and a bit of history. This “Sun Vow” came to the museum in 1929 as part of the American Art collection but is displayed more prominently in the Founder’s Gallery on the 2nd floor.
A hot link to the RPM’s American Gallery has been added to this web-site’s list of “Museums: with MacNeil Art” in the right-hand column. A photo of James Earle Fraser’s “End of the Trail” is displayed there. [ Reading Public Museum, Reading PA; “Sun Vow” ] MacNeil and Fraser both married accomplished sculptors — Carol Brooks MacNeil and Laura Gardin Fraser. The two men, along with their wives, were colleagues throughout their careers. Both men have massive bas relief friezes, 100 feet long, that are prominent on the Missouri State Capitol Building.
Second perspective on the "Sun Vow"
The “Sun Vow” is certainly Hermon MacNeil’s most renowned piece of work. It is as endearing now as it was a century ago. Lorado Taft, often called the Dean of American Sculpture, wrote in 1904:
No one grudges the young artist the honors which this work has brought him: a silver medal at the Paris Exposition of 1900, and a gold medal at the Pan-American [Buffalo 1901]. Even were his career to be cut short today, this group, like Stewardson’s “Bather” or Donoghue’s “Young Sophocles,” is good enough and important enough to insure its author a permanent place in the history of American Art. [SOURCE: Lorado Taft, The History of American Sculpture, p 444. ]
Thank you, for your courtesy John Smith and Ashley Hamilton. We have added your “Sun Vow” to our virtual gallery of Hermon A. MacNeil’s works.
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MacNeil’s “Lincoln Lawyer” Bust modeled from Standing Lincoln
Posted by: | CommentsAs mentioned in the previous post of July 22, the Lincoln Hall statue at University of Illinois was cast from a standing Lincoln original plaster sculpture. The Smithsonian Institute archives contain a photo of that piece on right. [or CLICK HERE]
The Smithsonian Institute archives contain this photo of MacNeil’s Lincoln standing.
MacNeil’s “Lincoln Lawyer” from U of I’s Lincoln Hall was modeled from the larger standing Lincoln plaster original
Note the folded arms, the papers in the right hand, and the young clean-shaven Lawyer Lincoln. The resemblance of the Lincoln Hall figure (left) to the Smithsonian photo (right) is apparent (even in the reduced images seen here).
MacNeil’s original plaster statue of Lincoln (standing) very likely has been lost to the ages. He sculpted it in 1914 for a competition of the Art Commission of Illinois. They sought a statue for the City of Springfield. After the commission chose another sculpture, MacNeil worked with Roman Bronze Works to cast 8 Lincoln busts from the original standing Lincoln.
The original may have been destroyed, or more probably, was stored in Roman Bronze Works (RBW) warehouse . There it would have been subject to the foundry activities, moves, changes and decay of that facility’s history over the past 100 years since MacNeil created the fragile plaster Lawyer Lincoln. (Many renowned sculptors desired the “lost wax” method of casting which RBW made available in the U.S. ) During the thirty years from 1897 to 1927, Roman Bronze Works resided in New York City. The story of RBW after 1927 seems a bit more complicated:
Roman Bronze Works in New York City, established in 1897 by Ricardo Bertelli, was the pre-eminent sculpture bronze foundry in the United States during the American Renaissance. It continued to cast sculpture after that period ended. Its foundry, long a sub-contractor to Louis Comfort Tiffany‘s Tiffany Studios, moved to Tiffany’s Corona, New York, red brick factory in 1927.[1] …
Roman Bronze Works, which made Tiffany’s bronze accessories and lamp bases, moved to Tiffany’s Corona facility in 1927. Roman Bronze Works was purchased in 1946 by Salvatore Schiavo, whose father had been working at the foundry since 1902. His nephew, Philip J. Schiavo, the grandson of the first Schiavo, was the president of the foundry until its closing.[4]
Roman Bronze Works 1890s New York City
After the foundry closed, an auction was staged of original plaster models of major works by American artists, Frederic Remington, Daniel Chester French, Charles Russell, Bessie Potter Vonnoh and Anna Hyatt Huntington, in New York, 17 September 1988.[5] Some of the molds were moved to warehouse space in Copiague, New York, under the aegis of American Art Restoration, Inc..[6] Fortunately the business archives were preserved and are now at the Amon Carter Museum Library, Fort Worth, Texas.[7]In addition, the foundry has recently been reopened as Roman Bronze Studios by Brain Ramnarine who apprenticed and worked at Roman Bronze Works with Salvatore and Philip Schiavo. (Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Bronze_Works )
Whether MacNeil’s original plaster model of the standing Lincoln was transported in the 1927 move, or was part of the ownership transfer of 1946 (the year before MacNeil died), or was sold in the 1988 auction of American artists has yet to be documented by this researcher. Perhaps, it was destroyed after the eight busts were cast. Though no recored of that is found either.
[A 2002 book devoted to Roman Bronze Works, by Lucy D. Rosenfeld, A Century of American Sculpture The Roman Bronze Works Foundry bears a photo of MacNeil’s “Sun Vow” on the cover. Rosenfeld used the firm’s ledgers and archival photographs now stored at the Amon Carter Museum. This volume warrants future investigation].
LINCOLN BUST FACTS:
- The bust in Urbana was placed in Lincoln Hall in 1929.
- This procurement suggested by Lorado Taft occurred fifteen years after the original sculpture was made.
- The University of Illinois “Lincoln Lawyer” is the only one of MacNeil’s Lincoln busts pictured on this website,
- It is the only one ever seen by this author,
- It remains the only one readily found by web searching in general.
- It is a truly beautiful piece that is now restored to its original patina and brilliance.
Art and museum records locate four of MacNeil’s eight “Lincoln Lawyer” castings. the others “Lincoln Lawyer” busts by MacNeil appear incomplete as follows:
- University of Pennsylvania, Office of the Curator, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Control_Number: 77001611
- Beloit College, Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, Wisconsin – Control_Number: 75008855
- Amherst College, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts: Control_Number: 20090014
- Amherst College, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002 Accession Number: S.1932.4
Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum ~ SIRIS
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MacNeil’s “Lawyer Lincoln” at Spurlock Museum
Posted by: | CommentsThis past Friday I stopped at Spurlock Museum on the University of Illinois campus to see the newly refurbished bust of Abraham Lincoln that will return to the renovated Lincoln Hall in 2012.
Holly Koreb, Senior Director, and Dave Evensen, both from the Office of Communications and Marketing at U of I’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, met me at the museum for a guided viewing and photos. She sent the photo of me and Abe added below. That is Abe on the left. Thanks, Holly!
(And BTW, Hermon A. MacNeil was my 1st Cousin twice removed. But since he considered himself my mother’s Uncle Hermon and I think he was Great, I now consider him my Great Uncle Hermon.) Back to the Lawyer Lincoln statue …
Beautifully restored and on public display at the Spurlock Museum. “H. A. MacNeil” is the signature on the left hand side of this Lincoln Bust. “Roman Bronze Works” is the foundry mark in small letters on the left rear corner
Examining MacNeil’s creation up close was a true thrill. The restoration is beautifully done. The rich brown patina gives the piece a radiance that has not been seen in half a century or more.
Webmaster Dan Leininger visited the Spurlock exhibit of MacNeil’s restored Lincoln Bust last week. (Tour and Photo courtesy of Holly Koreb).
The chance to find and record the MacNeil signature and foundry markings (see below) were a rare treat that will prove impossible in the bust’s niche at Lincoln Hall.
The display panel at the Spurlock states, in part:
The bust, by Hermon A. MacNeil, depicts Lincoln as a young lawyer with his arms folded holding a legal document in his right hand. It was based on a full figured piece that MacNeil had submitted to the Art Commission of Illinois in a 1914 competition seeking a statue for the city of Springfield.
Although the design was not chosen, MacNeil cast eight busts from the upper part of the sculpture. In this special exhibit it is possible for the first time to view the bust outside its niche. You can see MacNeil’s fine work from all sides before it is returned to Lincoln Hall in 2012.
Lincoln the Lawyer , as depicted in Macneil’s sculpture, is one the least known aspects of this great American, BUT probably the BEST place to appreciate his skills, character and talents as a human being. A segment of an article from American History Magazine tells the ‘Lawyer – Lincoln’ story in this way:
Abraham Lincoln spent only four of his 56 years as president of the United States. Yet, given the importance of the events that marked his 1861-65 term of office, the nation’s admiration for him as a man of courage and principle, and the abundance of photographic images that recorded his presidency, it is hard for most people to think of him as anything else. But there were other facets to the career of this man who led the nation through the Civil War years. Prior to his presidency, Lincoln honed his political skills and aspirations through the practice of law.
“The bulk of Lincoln’s courtroom work took place away from Springfield as he traveled twice a year with the presiding judge and fellow lawyers to the county seats of Illinois’ Eighth Circuit Court. Since most of those who served on the juries in these small towns were farmers and other country folk, Lincoln–himself a product of a rural environment and by nature a slow talker–recognized the need to argue his cases in the simplest and most straightforward manner. As one observer noted, ‘his illustrations were often quaint and homely, but always clear and apt, and generally conclusive. . . . His wit and humor and inexhaustible store of anecdotes, always to the point, added immensely to his powers as a jury advocate.'” (Abraham Lincoln: The Lawyer. American History | Published: June 12, 2006 at 8:02 pm. CLICK HERE to see entire article )
History records that Abraham Lincoln traveled the Eighth Circuit of Illinois for nearly a quarter of a century. He stood and spoke to citizens in courtrooms involving over 5000 cases ranging from sensational murder cases to the less glamorous issues of property ownership. (Adapted from David Wiegers, Gurnee, Illinois in his comments on Larado Taft’s standing Lincoln statue in Urbana, Illinois )
- Amherst College, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002 Accession Number: S.1932.4
- University of Pennsylvania, Office of the Curator, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Control_Number: 77001611
- Beloit College, Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, Wisconsin – Control_Number: 75008855
- Amherst College, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts: Control_Number: 20090014
Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum ~ SIRIS
For an archive of Lincoln Bust postings click here:
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/category/location/illinois/university-of-illinois/
Related posts:
- “Honest Abe” On Public Display ~ MacNeil Month #7 (15.4) At the University of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln has been released…
- Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln! ~ MacNeil’s Sculpture Released from Vault ~ MacNeil Month #4 (14.3)Abe Lincoln will be a little late for his 202nd…
- MacNeil Bust of Lincoln Stored in Vault (13.5) Hermon Atkins MacNeil would probably be amused to know that…
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The Mysterious “Agnese” by Hermon MacNeil
Posted by: | CommentsHistory books record it. ~~~ Public records document it.
~~~ But have you ever seen it?
- Hermon MacNeils bust titled “Agnese” as pictured in Lorado Taft’s “History of American Sculpture” in 1904.
In his 1904 book “The History of American Sculpture,” Lorado Taft reviews various works by our favorite sculptor ~~ Hermon A. MacNeil. Taft mentions:
“Two busts of women modelled by him are among the finest works yet produced by an American. Herbert Adams alone has surpassed the ” Agnese ” (Fig. 72), which was done in Rome from a patrician beauty, and exhibited at Buffalo in 1901. ” Beatrice,” a later work, is no less beautiful in execution, though somewhat strained in pose. These busts illustrate the artistic conscience of the sculptor, his delight as well as his skill in pure modelling. Earnest and industrious, he is blessed with a continuity of energy which counts for more than paroxysms of effort.” (p.445.)
Taft mentions that the “Agnese” was exhibited in the 1901 Pan American Exhibition (Buffalo World’s Fair). The image (Fig 72 in Taft’s book) may have come from that exhibition. We do not know the source of this image that Taft used. Nor over a century later, do we know of other images of “Agnese.”
This sculpture appears“Mysterious” in many ways.
- her smile seems both beguiling and alluring;
- the picture shows a sculpted bust that appears to stare unnervingly at the viewer;
- the stark, overhead lighting heightens or creates the sense of a stare;
- the background gives no hint of a context, a place, or any identifying features;
- her mysterious smile seems to imply a knowledge not shared with the viewer;
- the letters “AGNESE” on the corner of the base offer the only identity, yet itself a still a mystery.
Questions that remain in this stage of research include:
- What is the composition of this statue? Marble? Paster? Other?
- Why can we find no other pictures of this piece?
- Was there only an Original “Agnese” and no other copies?
- What was the fate of this statue?
- Is “Agnese” in private hands?
- Does she still exist?
Other than that, I have NO questions!
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“Honest Abe” On Public Display ~ MacNeil Month #7
Posted by: | CommentsAt the University of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln has been released from the vault. He is out for public view.
A Nose Waiting to Be Rubbed « 2011 « Articles « LASNews Magazine ... Herman Atkins MacNeil modeled the bust in 1928 from a full-size statue he had made 14 years earlier. He gave the bronze bust a brown patina, which had worn ... www.las.uiuc.edu/alumni/magazine/articles/2011/bust/
No, this is not a student prank (like the 1979 Illini Incident) when the MacNeil’s Lincoln Statue disappeared. This time its actually a year-long Lincoln party.
Starting at noon on Sunday February 20th, the refurbished Lincoln bust by Hermon A. MacNeil will be on public exhibit in the Spurlock Museum at U of I.
In a recent email Dr. Wayne T. Pitard, Director, of Spurlock Museum, told us:
“Having had the chance to look at the bust in great detail, I am enormously impressed with MacNeil’s talent. It is a wonderful piece, one of my favorite depictions of Lincoln. I wanted to let you know that during its exhibition at the Spurlock between February 20 and January of next year, people will have the only chance in our lifetimes to actually walk all the way around the bust, to see it from all angles. Once it goes back into its niche in Lincoln Hall, the back will no longer be accessible. If you ever are in the neighborhood, you should try to come by and see it here.”
MacNeil’s Lincoln has graced the Lincoln Hall stair case since 1928. It was removed for safekeeping in a vault when construction began on a total restoration of Lincoln Hall. The empty niche that the statue normally occupies is visible in this video of the Lincoln Hall Kick Off Ceremony (the miniature bust of Lincoln seen here is NOT one of the MacNeil sculpture, but of another artist.) For the next year it will be in Spurlock for viewing in a 360 degree venue, unlike the setting shown above before restoration. The Public can celebrate MacNeil’s Lincoln Statue at the Spurlock all year.
Holly Korab, (Senior Director in the Office of Communications and Marketing, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) informed the webmaster this week that:
Mr. MacNeil’s statue is dear to many generations of Illini. We are working on a video for our “This Old Hall” series on the restoration of Lincoln Hall. (Holly, I hope the video has a 360 scene of the statue as it appears on display in Spurlock ~ webmaster). Do you know how Mr. MacNeil felt about our statue?
Gutzon Borglum's famous Lincoln also has a shiny nose from public petting of the piece in Springfield, Illinois.
Well Holly, we do know how MacNeil’s friend and teacher, Lorado Taft, felt about the piece. Taft was considered the ‘dean of American sculptors’ (especially in the Beaux Arts tradition). He worked with MacNeil in the 1893 Columbian Exposition — the Chicago World’s Fair. Carol Brooks, who was one of Taft’s students, would become Herman’s wife in 1895. She helped Taft as one of the female sculptors known as “White Rabbits.” Through the thirty years since that Exposition, Taft knew the MacNeils and their artistic abilities. Perhaps this influenced Taft’s choice of the Mac Neil Statue over that of Gutzon Borglum, yet he knew and worked with Borglum as well. He just seemed to not like the overall effect of the Borglum piece. You can compare for yourself the two Lincolns (superficially, at least) from the photos provided here. More directly Taft stated:
“I regret to say that Borglum’s so called ‘Lincoln’ is my pet aversion; I would prefer not to help in this matter,”
In his book Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, Taft shares his expectation of good sculpture. In the preface, he states:
“SCULPTURE SHOULD BE THE MOST EXCEPTIONAL OF THE ARTS. IT SHOULD EXTERNALIZE ONLY THE RAREST AND THE MOST ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS OF LIFE, CHOOSING WITH IRREPROACHABLE DISCRIMINATION FROM THE FORMS, THE JOYS AND THE SORROWS OF HUMANITY. A SCULPTED MOMENT WHICH IS NOT ADMIRABLE IS A PERMANENT CRIME, A PERSISTENT AND INEXCUSABLE OBSESSION.” Lorado Taft, Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1921. p. 9.
Further in the book Taft, lauds MacNeil’s work on his Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Albany and the Washington Arch in NY by saying MacNeil showed:
“his good taste united with a fine decorative sense and with much fluency of handling”… Running through all these works is a dependable sanity most gratifying to meet amid the eccentricities and vagaries of current endeavor. The sculptor has never exemplified this quality to better advantage than in his fine “Lincoln” model, a work meriting enlargement and a prominent place.” Lorado Taft, Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1921. p. 120.
In 1923, Taft, recommended MacNeil to James White, the University supervising architect, for the Lincoln Hall placement. Taft’s friend, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, created a bust of Lincoln that the University purchased for $450. http://www.lincolnhall.illinois.edu/history/lincolnhall/entrance/index.html
How did MacNeil feel about his Lincoln statue?
I can’t answer that directly, but MacNeil expressed his thoughts and feelings about the sculptor’s task in 1917. At the annual meeting of the American Federation of Arts, MacNeil spoke of the progress of contemporary sculpture.
“Above all else, [the artist’s] work must radiate some charm or strength of human character that touches the passer by.”
Errant Bronzes: George Grey Barnard’s Statues of Abraham Lincoln (American Arts Series/University of Delaware Press Books) by Frederick C. Moffatt (2000), p. 129.
He went on to suggest that this radiated art spirit, had to be discovered in the hearts of the observers of the piece.
I know myself, from reading other accounts of MacNeil describing his Marquette, Jolliet, Illini grouping in Douglas Park Chicago, and his Ezra Cornell statue at Ithica, New York, that this art spirit radiated in MacNeil himself as he planned, prepared and sculpted these works. His heart went into and radiated from each of his sculptures and memorials. Studying the details he put in them, reveals that to me. Now the public can assess that at the Spurlock.
SO, Enjoy, Celebrate, and MacNeil’s Lincoln, The Lawyer. May you anticipate the 2013 re-dedication of Lincoln Hall as your 21st Century tribute to Mr. Lincoln.
MORE LINCOLN LORE:
Lincoln/net Website: by Northern Illinois University – browse primary resource materials about our 16th President. http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/aboutinfo.html
VISIT SPURLOCK MUSEUM – here’s a Google Map
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