MAY 30

Daniel Chester French was born on April 20, 1850, in Exeter, New Hampshire. He lived in Concord, MA, and was neighbors with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott. French took drawing lessons from the most famous American artist of the time, William Morris Hunt. He also went to school at MIT in Cambridge, and also studied under American sculpture Thomas Ball in Italy. French was one of the most prolific and acclaimed American sculptors of the 20th century!

In addition to the Lincoln Memorial sculpture, he designed the Benjamin Franklin side of the Pulitzer Prize medal, and the Statue of the Republic (nicknamed "Big Mary") for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. French died on October 7, 1931, in Stockbridge, MA, at the age of 81.

You can learn more about Daniel Chester French by visiting his home and studio, Chesterwood, in Stockbridge, MA. (Also located in Stockbridge - The Norman Rockwell Museum - road trip!) You can view (and touch!) this smaller bronze sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or go see the full size sculpture at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. French also sculpted a statue for Minuteman National Park in Concord, MA, as well as the John Harvard sculpture at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. While in Concord, you can visit the Alcott home, Orchard House.

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