| Benjamin Paul Akers | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 10, 1825 Westbrook, Maine |
| Died | May 21, 1861 (aged 35) |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Sculpture |
Benjamin Paul Akers (July 10, 1825 – May 21, 1861) was an American sculptor, from Maine.
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Born in Saccarappa, Maine in 1825, Akers moved to Boston in 1849 where he was an apprentice.[1] In 1855, at age 30, he went to Rome where he worked for several years.
Among his works are busts of Edward Everett and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a head of John Milton and Dead Pearl Diver, on display at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine. Nathaniel Hawthorne described Dead Pearl Diver as an important work of the protagonist, Kenyon, in his novel The Marble Faun, acknowledging his debt to Akers in the introduction.
He was married to the poet Elizabeth Anne Chase Akers Allen from 1860 until his death in Philadelphia in 1861, aged 35, from unknown causes.