Herbert Adams

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For the American educator and historian see Herbert Baxter Adams.

For the British novelist see Herbert Adams (novelist)

Herbert Samuel Adams (January 28, 1858 - May 21, 1945) was an American sculptor.

Herbert Adams was born at West Concord, Vermont. He was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, and in 1885-1890 he was a pupil of Antonin Mercié in Paris.

In 1890-1898 he was an instructor in the art school of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. In 1906 he was elected vice-president of the National Academy of Design, New York. He experimented successfully with some polychrome busts and tinted marbles, notably in the Rabbi's Daughter and a portrait of Miss Julia Marlowe, the actress; and he is at his best in his portrait busts of women, the best example being the study, completed in 1887, of Miss Adeline Pond, whom he afterwards married.

Among his other productions are a fountain for Fitchburg, Massachusetts (1888); a number of works for the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., including the bronze doors ("Writing") begun by Olin Warner, and the statue of Professor Joseph Henry; memorial tablets for the Massachusetts State House; a memorial to Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton, Massachusetts; statues of Richard Smith, the type-founder, in Philadelphia, and of William Ellery Channing, in Boston (1902); and the Vanderbilt memorial bronze doors for St. Bartholomew's Church in New York.