Franklin Simmons

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Franklin Simmons Statue of Roger Williams

Franklin Simmons (1842-1913) was a prominent American sculptor of the nineteenth century.

Simmons born in Webster (now Sabattus), Maine, on January 11, 1842 and spent most of his childhood in Bath, Maine and Lewiston, Maine. He attended Bates College (then called the Maine State Seminary) in 1858. Simmons started sculpting and painting during childhood.

During the last two years of the American Civil War, he moved to Washington, D.C. and sculpted members of Lincoln's Cabinet and military officers. The sculptures were cast in bronze and medallions were created. The Union league of Philadelphia purchased most of the medallions. In 1867 Simmons received an honorary A.M. from Bates College and from Colby.

Simmons went to live in Rome in 1868, but returned several times. Simmons' more important works are the statues of Roger Williams, in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington and in Providence and Roger Williams Park; William King, for the state of Maine; Oliver P. Morton, in Indianapolis; Henry W. Longfellow (1887), in Portland; "Medusa" (1882);" Jochebed with the Infant Moses "; "Grief and History," the group that surmounts the naval monument at Washington ; "Galatea" (1884) ; "Penelope" ; " Miriam " ; "Washington at Valley Forge"; and " The Seraph Abdiel," from "Paradise Lost " (1886).

Among his portrait busts are those of Abraham Lincoln, William T. Sherman, David D. Porter, James G. Blaine, Francis Wayland, and Ulysses S. Grant (1886).