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Herbert Adams

Sculptor

Centurion, 1894–1945

Full Name Samuel Herbert Adams

Born 28 January 1858 in Concord, Vermont

Died 21 May 1945 in New York (Manhattan), New York

Buried Forest Hill Cemetery, Fitchburg, Massachusetts

Proposed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Will H. Low

Elected 5 May 1894 at age thirty-six

Century Memorial

Herbert Adams. [Born] 1858. Sculptor.

The breath of beauty was in all his work and it was his life’s breath as well. Calm, serene, good in person, beautiful in character, delicate in perception, judicial in opinion, Herbert Adams led his generation. He served as president of the National Sculpture Society and of the National Academy of Design, and as a member of the Art Commissions of the City of New York and of the United States. Medals of honor of the Architectural League, of the National Sculpture Society, of the National Institute of Arts and Letters were his. And Royal Cortissoz said this of him upon the occasion of the exhibition of his works at the Century two short months before his death:

“You cannot think of the fineness of Herbert Adams the artist without thinking of the fineness of Herbert Adams the man. All his life he has spent himself in generosity to others, especially his juniors. He is of goodness and kindness and unselfishness all compact, a man to admire and to love.”

Source: Henry Allen Moe Papers, Mss.B.M722. Reproduced by permission of American Philosophical Society Library & Museum, Philadelphia

Henry Allen Moe
Henry Allen Moe Papers, 1945 Memorials