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The Daniel Chester French Papers Daniel Chester French, American sculptor (1850-1931), was born in New Hampshire and raised in Concord, Mass. In 1888 he settled in New York City; beginning in 1897 he also maintained a studio at his summer home, Chesterwood, outside Stockbridge, Mass., now a property of the National Trust. French is best known for his Minute Man (1873-75) in Concord, Mass., and Abraham Lincoln (1915-22) in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., but during a prolific career he also executed numerous public sculptures and private commissions, including portrait busts of many notable New Englanders such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Russell Lowell. Other works by French include the Doors (1894-1904) of the Boston Public Library; the Washington Equestrian (1896-1900), Paris, France; the Melvin Memorial (1907-09), Concord, Mass.; and the standing Lincoln (1909-12), Lincoln, Neb. French was notable for the breadth of his professional and cultural interests. As a founding member and the second chairman of the National Commission of Fine Arts (1910-15), he participated in the development of the federal areas of Washington, D.C., and in the planning of the Panama Canal Zone. He was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (1903-31), a co-founder of the American Academy in Rome, second president of the National Sculpture Society and a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters. French's life in New York City brought him into contact with such prominent businessmen and philanthropists as Otto Kahn, Jacob H. Schiff, Louis Comfort Tiffany and George Foster Peabody. French served the latter two men as an adviser and trustee for the cultural centers they established to support young writers, musicians and artists at Oyster Bay, Long Island (the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation) and at Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Yaddo). Micheal Richman, Editor Lynne Crane, assistant editor Front Panel: Detail of Melvin Memorial (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of James C. Melvin, 1912) Locations of public monuments by Daniel Chester French: CALIFORNIA San Francisco: Thomas Starr King Genius of Creation (Panama-Pacific Exposition) CONNECTICUT Hartford: Thomas Gallaudet DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Archibald Butt-Francis Millet Memorial Lewis Cass Samuel F. Dupont Memorial First Division Memorial Thomas Gallaudet Herodotus Abraham Lincoln GEORGIA Atlanta: Samuel Spencer Williams Memorial Savannah: James Oglethorpe ILLINOIS Chicago: Republic, Agriculture Groups, Quadriga (World's Columbian Exposition) Marshall Field Memorial George Washington INDIANA Muncie: Ball Brothers Memorial IOWA Council Bluffs: Ruth Ann Dodge Memorial KANSAS Topeka: James Green MARYLAND Annapolis: George Perkins MASSACHUSETTS Boston: William Bartlett Rufus Choate English High School Group John Boyle O'Reilly Music and Poetry, Knowledge and Wisdom, Romance and Truth (Public Library Doors) Wendell Phillips Science Controlling the Forces of Electricity and Steam, Labor Sustaining Art and the Family (U.S. Post Office and SubTreasury) George White Memorial Roger Wolcott Cambridge: John Harvard H.W. Longfellow Memorial James Lowell Concord: Ralph Waldo Emerson Melvin Memorial Minute Man Greenfield: Russell Memorial Jamaica Plain: Clark Memorial Milmore Memorial Francis Parkman Memorial Slocum Memorial George White Memorial Milford: William Draper Milton: World War I Memorial Wellesley: Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial Worcester: Charles Devens George Frisbie Hoar MICHIGAN Detroit: Russell Alger Memorial MINNESOTA Minneapolis: John S. Pillsbury St. Paul: Facade Figures, Quadriga (State Capitol) MISSOURI Kansas City: August Meyer St. Louis: Peace and Vigilance (U.S. Custom House and Post Office) Napoleon, Sculpture (Louisiana Purchase Exposition) NEBRASKA Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Ancient and Modern History (New Hampshire Historical Society) George Perkins St. Paul's School War Memorial Exeter: World War I Memorial Franklin: Daniel Webster NEW JERSEY Allamuchy: Stuyvesant Memorial Princeton: Earle Dodge Memorial NEW YORK Brooklyn: Greek Epic Poetry, Greek Lyric Poetry, Greek Religion (Brooklyn Institute) Marquis de Lafayette Franklin Ward Alfred White Memorial Florida: William Seward Irvington-on-Hudson: Washington Irving Memorial New York: Alma Mater (Columbia University) Dewitt Clinton Group (Chamber of Commerce Building) Peace Group (Dewey Arch) Richard Morris Hunt Memorial Brooklyn, Manhattan (Manhattan Bridge) Justice (New York Appellate Court) Asia, America, Europe, Africa (U.S. Custom House) Disarmament (Victory Arch) Saratoga Springs: Spencer Trask Memorial OHIO Cleveland: Edward I, John Hampden (Cuyahoga County Court House) Commerce, Jurisprudence (Federal Building) PENNSYLVANIA Easton: Marquis de Lafayette Philadelphia: Ulysses S. Grant George Meade Law, Prosperity and Power (U.S. Post Office and Courthouse) Pittsburgh: James Anderson Memorial George Westinghouse Memorial RHODE ISLAND Peacedale: Hazard Memorial WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin Milwaukee: Chapman Memorial FRANCE Paris: George Washington Strasbourg: Rouget de Lisle Memorial [[image]] Model for Abraham Lincoln, Washington D.C. (Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University)