Transcript Interpreting the Civil War Using Statuary

African Americans and Civil War Memory:
Using Monuments to
Teach History
The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Massachusetts
Memorial
by Augustus Saint-Gaudens
What do you see happening here?
Jot down some adjectives to describe this scene.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
1848-1907
He was America’s
greatest sculptor
helping to shape a
national identity
through many
monuments he
created. He was
an incredible
perfectionist.
How do you define
monument?
How do you define
national identity?
Some Monuments by Saint-Gaudens
How would you describe
these monuments?
The Farragut (1880)
New York City
The Standing Lincoln (1887)
Chicago, Illinois
More Monuments by Saint-Gaudens
How would you describe
these monuments?
The Logan (1891)
Chicago, Illinois
The Sherman (1903)
New York City
What event in American history did the
following monuments commemorate or
remember?
What is your evidence?
How do you think Saint-Gaudens art was
influenced
by the Civil War?
Why would Americans want to
remember heroes from the
Civil War?
What does this tell you about the
United States?
The Puritan (1885)
Why do you think Saint-Gaudens
sculpted a memorial to a Puritan?
Why do you think that this statue is
located in New England?
Springfield, Massachusetts
The Adams Memorial (1890)
The Adams Memorial was created
to remember the tragic death of the
wife of author Henry Adams. Henry
Adams was a client of SaintGaudens for this project. Some
people say the Adams Memorial is
an “enigmatic” sculpture.
Define “client.”
Based on this picture what do you
think “enigmatic” means?
Saint-Gaudens was also an
exceptional bas-relief portrait
sculptor.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens by Kenyon Cox
How would you describe a bas-relief
Portrait sculpture?
Samuel G. Ward
Why do you think many famous and
important people
posed for Saint-Gaudens?
This is a photograph of First Lady Mrs. Grover
Cleveland posing for Saint-Gaudens.
Saint-Gaudens also designed
the most exquisite coins ever minted in
the United States.
Twenty Dollar Gold Piece
How do you define exquisite?
How is a coin like a bas- relief sculpture?
Saint-Gaudens also liked to teach
aspiring sculptors.
Why do you think Saint-Gaudens liked to teach younger sculptors?
Robert Gould Shaw
(1837-1863)
How would you describe this man?
Robert Gould Shaw was the
Colonel of the 54 Massachusetts
Volunteer Infantry
These African American soldiers were the
first black troops recruited for the Union
Army. Most of those who served were
free black men from numerous northern
states and Canada.
What great African-American leader do
you think helped recruit them?
Frederick Douglass
“Let the black man get upon his breast buttons
with an eagle, bullets in his pocket, and a gun on
his shoulder and no one then will be able to deny
him full citizenship in the United States.”
What do you think Douglass meant?
Why did he say this?
A Recruiting Poster
Two of Douglass’ Sons served in
the Regiment
Lewis Douglass
Charles Douglass
Why do you think African American
men joined the Union Army?
The Battle of Fort Wagner
July 18, 1863
What do you think happened in this assault?
Sergeant William Carney
For his heroism in saving the
regimental colors during the
assault on Fort Wagner,
Sergeant William Carney
received the Medal of Honor.
He was quoted as saying:
“Boys, the Old Flag never
touched the ground.”
1840-1908
In 1884 Saint-Gaudens signed a
contract with people in
Massachusetts (commissioners)
who wanted to see a memorial
erected to Shaw.
Shaw’s parents and wife approved
of the plan.
Saint-Gaudens had three years to
complete the project.
Here are a couple of early designs.
Here is a sketch of what he originally wanted
to create.
Shaw’s parents, wife, and memorial commissioners disapproved this design.
Why do you think that they objected?
Back at work Saint-Gaudens considered these two
paintings as models to help him rework is design.
The Surrender at Breda
Velasquez
Campagne de France
J.L.E. Meissonier
What do these images suggest that Saint-Gaudens might do to his design?
A New Conception (Idea)
This is called a maquette a small study model. What is different with this design?
Getting it up in Clay
Full Scale Clay Model – 14 ft. x 11 ft
Models of African American Heads
Saint-Gaudens modeled
Forty different African
Americans in his New York
City studio and inserted
Sixteen of them into the final
Design.
What do these images tell you about Saint-Gaudens’
approach to his subject in this work?
Put up in Clay in Greater Detail
Let’s ask this question again.
What do you think is going on?
How might this image be related to
the previous image?
Write a caption for this photograph.
Memorial Day, 1897
Boston, Massachusetts
Saint-Gaudens remembers the day.
“The impression of those old soldiers, passing the very
spot where they left for the war so many years before,
thrills me even as I write these words. They faced and
saluted the relief. With the music playing, “John Brown’s
Body”, a recall of what I had heard and seen thirty years
before from my cameo-cutters window. They seemed as
if returning from the war, the troops in bronze marching
in the opposite direction, the direction in which they had
left for the front, and the young men there represented
now showing these veterans the vigor and hope of
youth. It was a consecration.”
The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Shaw’s Mother Responds:
Answer the following questions
based on the Saint-Gaudens quote
1. What feeling do you think Saint-Gaudens
was trying to convey?
2. What do you think he thinks about the
veterans of the 54th Massachusetts?
3. Why does he call the event a
“consecration?”
The Shaw Memorial Today
What skills of Saint-Gaudens that we have studied did he use?
Notice the angel floating above the soldiers. What do you think the
angel represents? Why do you think Saint-Gaudens included an angel
in the sculpture?
The Shaw Memorial was
dedicated on Memorial Day
1897.
It took Saint-Gaudens fourteen
years to complete his contract.
Why do you think it took Saint-Gaudens so
long to complete the commission?
What Saint-Gaudens said:
“It was the extraordinary opportunity, the
interest of the task, and my enthusiasm, that led
to a development far beyond what was expected
of me. And I held it a great joy to be able to carry
out my idea as I wished…
My own delay I excuse on the grounds that a
sculptor’s work endures for so long that it is next
to a crime for him to neglect to do everything that
lies in his power to execute a result that will not
be a disgrace…”
What do you think Saint-Gaudens meant?
Here is a plaster version of the Shaw Memorial from 1901.
Why do you think Saint-Gaudens made a duplicate version?
Saint-Gaudens once said,
“You can do anything you please.
It is the way it is done that makes
a difference.”
How can you relate this quote to
our study of the Shaw Memorial?
Lorado Taft, a sculptor and art historian had this to say
about the Shaw Memorial:
“A man who could labor upon a
work like the Shaw for fourteen
years, fairy loving it into noble
perfection, has the right to leave
the result to time and to the work
itself.”
What do you think Taft meant?
Do you think this justifies Saint-Gaudens’ length of time
Devoted to the Shaw Memorial?
The Legacy of Saint-Gaudens and
the Shaw Memorial.
This is the Spirit of Freedom: The
National Memorial to African
American Soldiers and sailors of
the Civil War. It was sculpted by Ed
Hamilton and was dedicated in
Washington, D.C. in 1997.
Why do you think it took 100 years
to honor all the African-American
men who served in the Union
forces?
By the end of the Civil war more
than 180,000 men of color served
in the Union Army and Navy. Of
that number 30,000 gave their lives
for African-American freedom.
There were more African-American
soldiers in the Union Army at the
end of the Civil War than in the
entire Confederate Army.
Selected Resources
DVD/Video
Glory (120 Minutes)
“The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry,” The American Experience
(56 Minutes) - PBS
The Shaw Memorial: The Power and Glory of Public Art (52 Minutes)
The National Gallery of Art
Education Resources
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
Audio CD
Three Places in New England: The Saint-Gaudens on Boston Common
by Charles Ives
Books
Adams, Virginia M. Editor. 1991. On the Altar of Freedom: A Black
Soldier’s Civil War Letters From the Front, Corporal James
Henry Gooding. New York: Warner Books.
Benson, Richard and Lincoln Kierston. 1973. Lay This Laurel.
New York: Eakins Press.
Blatt, Martin H., Thomas J. Brown and Donald Yacavone, editors. 2001.
Hoe and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th
Massachusetts Regiment. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press.
Blight, David. 2001. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American
Memory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Brown, Thomas J. 2004. The Public Art of Civil War Commemoration:
A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Burchard, Peter. 1965. One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw And His
Brave Black Regiment. New York: St. Martins Press.
Dryfhout, John. 1982. The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Hanover:
The University Press of New England.
Duncan, Russell, Editor. 1992. Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil
War Letters of Robert Gould Shaw. Athens: The University of Georgia
Press.
Greenthal, Katherine. 1985. Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master Sculptor.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McPherson, James. 1991. The Negro’s Civil War. New York: Ballantine.
Savage, Kirk. 1997. Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and
Monument in Nineteenth-Century America. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
The Shaw Memorial: A Celebration of an American Masterpiece. 1997.
Conshohocken: Eastern National.
Tharp, Louisa Hall. 1969. Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the Gilded Age.
Boston: Little Brown and Company.
Wilkinson, Burke. 1985. Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of
Augustus Saint-Gaudens. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
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