Herbert Adams (sculptor)

Samuel Herbert 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 Normal Art School enrolling in 1877 at 18 years of age, 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 (1894), and a portrait of the actress Julia Marlowe (1898). He was at his best in his portrait busts of women, the best example being the study, completed in 1887, of Miss Adeline Pond, whom he later married.

Adams died in New York City in 1945.

Works by Adams are held by numerous American museums, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Selected works

• 1888 - Boys and Turtles Fountain, Fitchburg, MA.^[1]
• 1894 - The Rabbi's Daughter, private collection.^[2]
• 1896-98 - Two bronze doors: Truth, Research, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Begun by Olin Levi Warner in 1895.
• 1897 - Bust of Professor Joseph Henry, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.^[3]
• 1898 - Bust of Julia Marlowe as Juliet, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY.^[4]
• 1898 - Memorial Tablets, Massachusetts State House, Boston, MA.
• 1898-1905 - Vanderbilt Memorial bronze doors, St. Bartholomew's Church, New York, NY.^[5]
• 1899-1901 - Richard Smith (type-founder), Smith Memorial Arch, Philadelphia, PA.^[6]
• 1900 - Jonathan Edwards Memorial, First Congregational Church, Northampton, MA.
• 1902 - William Ellery Channing, Boston Public Garden, Boston, MA.
• 1902-05 - Matthias William Baldwin, City Hall, Philadelphia, PA.
• 1912 - McMillan Fountain, Washington, D.C.
• 1919-23 - James Scott, Belle Isle Park, Detroit, MI, Cass Gilbert, architect.
• 1926-28 - World War Memorial, Fitchburg, MA.^[7]
• 1928 - Girl with Water Lilies, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Notes

References

• American National Biography, vol. 1, pp. 96–97.
• Profile of Herbert Adams 1858-1945 Sculptor, by Marilyn Gage Hyson c. 2000, pp. 9–10, 29-30, 59-60.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Adams, Herbert". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.