Eli Harvey

Eaton Family mausoleum, Toronto

Eli Harvey (September 23, 1860 - February 10, 1957) American sculptor, painter and animalier. Harvey was born in Ogden, Ohio, a Quaker community in Clinton County, to William P. and Nancy M. Harvey.[1] He attended art school in the Cincinnati Art Academy where he studied painting with Thomas Satterwhite Noble and sculpture with Louis Rebisso. In 1889 he moved to Paris where he continued his studies, with Lefebvre, Constant, Doucet and finally Frémiet. In 1897 he began exhibiting sculptures of animals at paris salons and continued doing so until returning to the United States in 1900, by which time he was firmly committed to animal sculpture.[2]

His work was exhibited at both the Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo, New York, 1900) and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Saint Louis, Missouri, 1904) and a decade later at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, California, 1915). Harvey also produced architectural sculpture for the lion house at the New York Zoological Park and two lions for the Eaton family mausoleum in Toronto, Canada.

Harvey's most popular work was a life-sized elk produced for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and used at their buildings and in cemeteries around the United States.

His home is included on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, Ohio.

Elk, or Elk at Rest

"The Order of Elks commissioned him to create a statue of the elk. and so pleased were they with the result that they ordered numerous replicas to be made."[3] These include the following:

Elks statues by Eli Harvey
Year Location Image
1904 Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana
1904 Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, Colorado
1905 North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island
1907 Clinton County Historical Society, 149 East Locust Street, Wilmington, Ohio
1907 318 Prince Street, over entrance, Alexandria, Virginia
Between
1904
&
1915
Elks Opera HOuse, Prescott, Arizona
1917 Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1923 Mohawk Trail, Florida, Massachusetts
1924 B.P.O. E., Route 11 South, Kirkwood, New York
1925 Toledo Memorial Park, Sylvania, Ohio
1925 Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, New York
1936 Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira, New York
1937 Elks National Home, Bedford, Virginia [4]
Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terra Haute, Indiana
Greenlawn Cemetery Newport News, Virginia
Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York
Roselawn Cametery, Pueblo, Colorado

Work

Harvey's works can be found in :[5]

References

  1. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, SC, 1968 p. 163
  2. Craven, Wayne, ‘’Sculpture in America’’, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1968 pp. 537-538
  3. Craven, Wayne, ‘’Sculpture in America’’, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1968 p. 540
  4. http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Bedford/141-0060_Elks_National_Home_2008_NR_final.pdf
  5. http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=138GH9612G394.1991&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!200855~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!siartinventories&term=Harvey%2C+Eli%2C+1860-1957%2C+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR