Richard Yates - Albin Polasek

We just learned about the Two Circus Women by Nadelman.

Another famous American sculpture is Richard Yates by Albin Polasek made in Springfield Illinois in 1923.

Richard Yates was the Governor of Illinois in 1860.
Before the Civil War he said he did not like slavery, and helped get soldiers to fight with the north in the Civil War against slavery.

Abraham Lincoln was also from Illinois, and he was friends with Richard Yates.

The sculptor Albin Polasek was born in 1879 in the Czech Republic.
When he was 22 years old in 1901 he moved to Pennsylvania to try and get a good job and make money.


(from: wikipedia - albin polasek)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Wrestler

Two Circus Women - Nadelman

We just learned about the Detroit Zoo's Rackham Fountain by Parducci.

Another famous American Sculpture is Two Circus Women by Elie Nadelman in New York in 1930.

In America in the 1900s a lot of sculptors came from Europe to get away from World War I, and to try and earn money by making sculptures.

Eli Nadelman was born in Poland in 1882, and became a famous sculptor there, even meeting with famous artists like Picasso.

In 1914 he left Poland and moved to America to get away from the war, and made many famous sculptures.
He also collected sculptures from other artists and made his own Museum of Folk Arts in Riverdale New York.

When the Great Depression hit, he had a very hard time making money, and when he had to sell his Museum and art studio many of his sculptures were destroyed.

A while after his death his art was rediscovered and many of his sculptures have been copied and remade around the country.

His sculpture of Two Circus Women was made in 1930, out of paper mache over plaster.
Plaster is kind of like cement, and paper mache is like paper covered in glue that is stuck on top of the plaster to decorate it.

Nadelman tried to make the circus performers look big and round, but not with very clear scultpure of their face.
It was not a very famous statue at the time, but later on it was copied and remade into a big marble statue and put at the famous New York State Theater.


(from: wikipedia - elie nadelman)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Were Jaguar Sculpture

Detroit Zoo Rackham Fountain - Parducci

We just learned about the National Shrine of the Little Flower by Chambellan.

Another famous American Sculputre is the Detroit Zoo Rackham Fountain by Corrado Parducci.

Corrado Parducci was born in Italy in 1900, and moved to the USA when he was 4 years old.

When he was young he went to art school, and at 17 he started working as an architectural sculptor.

There was a famous architect in Detroit named Albert Kahn who liked his art so much he asked him to come to Detroit, where he made some famous sculptures like the art on the Guardian Building in Detroit.

He also made other sculptures, like the Rackham Memorial Fountain in the Detroit Zoo.

When Parducci first came to Detroit, he only planned on staying for work for a little while, but because Detroit was so busy and successful he moved his whole family to Detroit and spent the rest of his life making sculptures all over hundreds of buildings in Michigan.


(from: wikipedia - detroit zoo)


(from: wikipedia - corrado parducci)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Aztec Sun Stone

National Shrine of the Little Flower - Chambellan

We just learned about the Hugo Grotius - C. Paul Jennewein.

Another famous architecture sculpture is the National Shrine of the Little Flower by Rene Paul Chambellan, made in 1931 in Michigan.

The large limestone tower at this church has a 28 foot tall sculpture of Jesus on a cross. There are also smaller sculptures of the writers of the gospel, Matthew Mark Luke and John.
Below the crucifix are the last words that Jesus said before he died.

The sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan was born in New Jersey, and studied art in New York and Paris.

He spent most of his life as a sculptor of artwork that was part of buildings.


(from: wikipedia - national shrine of the little flower basilica)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: La Mojarra Stela

Hugo Grotius - C. Paul Jennewein

We just learned about the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial by Walker Hancock.

Another famous sculpture is the relief of Hugo Grotius by C. Paul Jennewein at the U.S. House of Representatives, made in 1950.

In the House building there are 23 different sculptures like this of famous people who worked in law and government.
Hugo Grotius was Dutch, and was a lawyer, a judge and a diplomat born in 1583.

The sculpture is made of marble and is a relief meaning there is a flat background and the face sticks out from it.

The artist Jennewein was born in Germany in 1890, and moved to the US when he was 17.
He was mostly famous for making architectural sculptures of people that were part of buildings.


(from: wikipedia - c. paul jennewein)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Double Headed Serpent

Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial - Hancock

We just learned about the Astor Memorial Doors by Karl Bitter.

Another famous American scultpure is the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial made by Walker Hancock in 1952.

After many people died in world war II that worked for the railroad, they wanted to put up a memorial to remember the people who served in the war.

Walker Hancock was born in Missouri and later went to school for art in Pennsylvania.
He was born in 1901 served in World War II, and was one of the people known as Monuments Men who helped save famous works of arts that had been stolen by the Nazis.


(from: wikipedia - pennsylvania railroad world war ii memorial)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Serpent Labret with Articulated Tongue

Astor Memorial Doors - Karl Bitter

We just learned about the Alexander Macomb - Adolph Alexander Weinman.

Another famous architectural sculpture is the Astor Memorial Doors by Karl Bitter, made in 1891 in New York at Trinity Church.

The doors were named for John Jacob Astor, who was a very famous business person in America.

The tympanum top of the sculpture has a big sculpture of Jesus standing above his 12 apostles.
On the doors are six sculpted picture boxes showing stories from the Bible: Adam and Eve, Jacob, Jesus' empty tomb, Jesus' mother Mary, praying at church, and heaven

The sculptor Karl Bitter was born in Austria in 1867.
He grew up there and learned how to be a sculptor, and then when he was 21 he moved to America.

While he was living in New York City he entered the competition to sculpt these Astor Memorial Doors, and won.
After that he had some money and people knew about him so he went on to make many more sculptures, mostly architectural as part of buildings.


(from: wikipedia - karl bitter)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Olmec Colossal Heads

Alexander Macomb - Adolph Alexander Weinman

We just learned about the Nebraska State Capitol - The Sower - Lee Lawrie.

Another famous American statue is the sculpture of Alexander Macomb made by Adolph Alexander Weinman in Detroit Michigan in 1908.

Alexander Macomb was born in Detroit and went on to be the commander of the US Army.
In Michigan the area called Macomb County was named after him.

The artist Weinman was from Germany and moved to the US to live in New York when he was 14.
He spent most of his life working on buildings as an architectural sculptor, but also did some statues like this one in Detroit.


(from: wikipedia - adolph alexander weinman)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Nubian Pyramids

Nebraska State Capitol - The Sower - Lee Lawrie

We just learned about Philadelphia City Hall.

Another famous building with a lot of sculptures is the Nebraska State Capitol, and The Sower by Lee Lawrie.

This building was made in 1932, and has many sculptures and works of art all over it.

It is supposed to be all about growth, so the building is a big tower like a growing plant, and there is a statue on the top called "The Sower" of a person who has a bag of seeds and is throwing them out to grow.

Lee Lawrie was the artist who came up with the look of the building and the sculpture on the outside.

Lawrie was born in Germany, and moved to the US when he was a kid.
When he was 14 he got a job working as a sculptor and worked on the Nebraska capitol when he was 55 years old.


(from: wikipedia - nebraska state capitol)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Musawwarat Es Sufra

Philadelphia City Hall - Calder, Struthers

We just learned about the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Another famous American sculpture is Philadelphia City Hall, made in 1901.

This building was made of brick, marble and limestone.
When it was made, it was the largest building in the world where people could live and work.

The sculptors Alexander Calder and William Struthers worked together to make hundreds of sculptures that are on and around the building.

On the top of the building is a sculpture of William Penn, the person who first started the land of Pennsylvania and named it after himself.
It is made of bronze and is over 30 feet tall.



(from: wikipedia - philadelphia city hall)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lalibela Cross

Crazy Horse Memorial

We just learned about the Mount Rushmore.

Another famous monument carved into a mountain is the Crazy Horse Memorial.

This is a carving of the famous Native American warrior named Crazy Horse who lived during the late 1800s.

The sculpture is not finished, but the plan is for it to be of Crazy Horse riding a horse.
It would be over 640 feet long and over 560 feet tall.

The statue was started a long time ago in 1948, and is still very far from being completed.
Korczak Ziolkowsk was the sculptor who first started it.
He had worked as a helper on Mount Rushmore before working on this sculpture.


(from: wikipedia - crazy horse memorial)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Church of Saint George, Lalibela

Mount Rushmore

We just learned about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Maya Lin.

Another famous American sculpture is Mount Rushmore, made by Gutzon Borglum in 1941 in South Dakota.

This sculpture was made of 4 presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Each of the heads is about 60 feet tall, and mountain is about 5,700 feet high.

The first idea for a sculpture on this mountain was to have some American West heroes like Lewis and Clark, Scagawea, and some famous Lakota Native Americans, but sculptor Borglum chose the presidents as he thought they would be a more popular tourist attraction.


(from: wikipedia - mount rushmore)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Obelisk of Axum

Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Maya Lin

We just learned about the Marine Corps War Memorial - Felix de Weldon.

Another famous American monument is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial made by Maya Lin in Washington D.C. in 1981.

In 1981 there was a contest to see who could come up with the best sculpture for a new memorial for the people who died in the Vietnam War.

Maya Lin won the contest, and her idea was to have a big black wall made of granite, with the names of all of the people who died engraved on it.

The memorial is v-shaped when you look at it from above, and her idea was that it would look kind of like a wound that needed to heal for America.


(from: wikipedia - vietnam veterans memorial)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Akan Goldweights

Marine Corps War Memorial - Felix de Weldon

We just learned about the George Washington as President - Alexander Stirling Calder.

Another famous American statue is the Marine Corps War Memorial, also called the Iwo Jima Memorial, in Virginia, made in 1954 by Felix de Weldon.

In 1945 during World War II, the US was in a battle with Japan on the island of Iwo Jima.
It was a very important battle for the war, and when the US finally took over the island they raised up a big flag that was 8 feet long by 4 feet tall so that all of the soldiers could see it on the island.

Someone took a picture of them while they were putting it up, and it became a very famous picture that was used to help give Americans hope for our soldiers to win the war.

Felix de Weldon was famous for making great memorial sculptures, so they asked him to make a sculpture to match the picture.
It is made of bronze and weighs over 200,000 pounds.
There were six men in the statue, and when he sculpted it he had some of the soldiers who were the ones who actually raised up the flag pose for him to make sure his sculpture matched what they looked like.

On the front of the statue are the words "Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" – "Semper Fidelis"
and on the back are the words "In Honor And Memory Of The Men Of The United States Marine Corps Who Have Given Their Lives To Their Country Since 10 November 1775"

The sculptor Felix de Weldon was born in Austria in 1907.
When he was 30 years old he moved to the US, where he became a citizen of the US.
He served in the Navy during world war II, and was famous for making over a thousand memorials all over the world, even Antarctica!


(from: wikipedia - marine corps war memorial)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Burkina Faso Masks

George Washington as President - Alexander Stirling Calder

We just learned about the statue of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made by Charles Keck.

Another famous statue is George Washington as President, Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice made in New York in 1918 by Alexander Stirling Calder.

Calder's father was a sculptor, and as he grew up he studied art and helped his father with some of his projects.
He went to school in Pennsylvania, and then went to Paris when he was 20 to learn more about sculpture.
After he came back to the United States he became well known for making statues of important people.

In New York City they wanted to make a large arch for the 100th anniversary of George Washington becoming president.
They made it like the other famous arches in Paris and Rome.
Calder was asked to make a marble statue for this arch of Washington as President, and another artist made Washington as Commander in Chief of the military.
Sometimes they call these two statues Washington at Peace and Washington at War.



(from: wikipedia - alexander stirling calder)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Gabon Mask

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark - Charles Keck

We just learned about the Black Hawk Statue - Lorado Taft.

Another famous American statue is Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made by Charles Keck in 1919.

Keck was born in 1875 in New York, and went to school to study art in America and also in Italy.

He became famous for making statues of famous people across America.

The statue which is also called "Their First View of the Pacific" is of the famous explorers Lewis and Clark, along with their Native American guide Sacagawea.

In 1803 America made a deal with France to buy a big piece of land in the middle of North America.
This land later became the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana.

Because the land was so big, they needed someone to go explore, so Lewis and Clark went off from Pennsylvania and traveled all the way to the west coast to the Pacific Ocean.
Along the way they met Sacagawea, a 16 year old Native American woman who stayed with them and helped guide them safely all the way.

At the bottom of the statue are the words: "Bold and farseeing pathfinders who carried the flag of the young republic to the western ocean and revealed an unknown empire to the uses of mankind."


(from: wikipedia - meriwether lewis and william clark (sculpture))



(from: wikipedia - lewis and clark expedition)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Chiwara

Black Hawk Statue - Lorado Taft

We just learned about the sculpture of Johns Hopkins by Hans Schuler.

Another famous American sculpture is the Black Hawk Statue, also called The Eternal Indian made by Lorado Taft in 1911, in Oregon Illinois.

This statue is 48 feet tall, and stands on a 77 foot high cliff by the Rock River overlooking the city.
Black Hawk was a Sauk Native American who fought many battles for his tribe in Illinois.
The statue is the second tallest concrete statue of a person, just after the statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro.

Taft made many other monument statues honoring people in the Midwest area.
In Chicago he made a 126 foot long sculpture with 100 people called Fountain of Time showing the peace of the US and Great Britain for 100 years.
He also made The Soldier's Monument in Oregon Illinois, honoring the people who fought in the Spanish-American war.

Taft was born in Elmwood Illinois, where he grew up learning about sculpting.
When he was 20 he moved to Paris to learn more about sculpting, and then moved back in 1886 to Chicago to make sculptures and become a teacher.

He helped teach sculpting to many other people in America that went on to become famous.


(from: wikipedia - black hawk statue)



(from: wikipedia - fountain of time)



(from: wikipedia - the soldier's monument)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Benin Bronzes

Johns Hopkins - Hans Schuler

We just learned about the Civil War Memorial by Martin Milmore.

Another famous American work of art is the statue of Johns Hopkins, made in 1935 in Baltimore Maryland by Hans Schuler.

Schuler was born in Germany in 1874, and then came to American when he was young.
He went to art school in Maryland, and then later moved to France to work with some famous sculptors there.

When he was 32, he moved back to Maryland and stayed there for the rest of his life.
He was famous for making public monuments in Baltimore, and was called "Baltimore's Monument Maker".
There are a few cemeteries in town that he made a lot of sculptures for.

When he was 61 he made the statue of Johns Hopkins.
Johns Hopkins was famous for helping build hospitals and schools, and also was famous for fighting against slavery.
This statue of him was placed at Johns Hopkins University.


(from: wikipedia - hans schuler)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mask for King Obalufon II

Civil War Memorial - Martin Milmore

We just learned about the statue of Joan of Ark by Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Another famous American sculpture is the Civil War Memorial by Martin Milmore in 1873 in Pennsylvania.

After the civil war was over, many cities wanted to put up statues for memorials for soldiers that fought and died in the war.
In Chester cemetery in Pennsylvania, there is a statue of a Union soldier made by Martin Milmore in 1873.

Underneath the soldier is a stone base that has the words:

"The people of Delaware County erected this monument to commemorate the patriotism of their citizens, soldiers and sailors who fell in defense of the Union in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1865"

Martin Milmore was a sculptor who was born in Ireland and then moved to Boston.
His older brother helped him learn to be a sculptor, and then he took art lessons to keep getting better.

He was already getting jobs as a sculptor when he was 20 years old, and he became famous for making soldier's monuments.

Sadly he died very young at only 38 years old.

He was a good friend of sculptor Daniel Chester French, who made a famous sculpture at his grave site called Death and the Sculptor.
It shows an image of a woman who is supposed to be the spirit of death, coming to take a young Martin Milmore away.


(from: wikipedia - chester rural cemetery)



(from: wikipedia - death and the sculptor)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Nok Terracotta

Joan of Ark - Anna Hyatt Huntington

We just learned about the Penguins - Albert Laessle.

Another famous American sculpture is Joan of Ark by Anna Hyatt Huntington made in New York in 1915.

She became famous for making bronze sculptures of people and animals like Andrew Jackson, El Cid, Don Quixote, and Abraham Lincoln.

In 1915 she was asked to make a statue of Joan of Ark, and it was so well known that even people like Thomas Edison's wife came to see it.


(from: wikipedia - equestrian statue of arc (new york city)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pisa Griffin