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James Wilson Alexander MacDonald
Frederick William MacMonnies
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Captain Roswell H. Macy
Harold Van Buren Magonigle
Malcolm X
Bishop William Thomas Manning
Paul Manship
Giacomo Manzu
Jean-Claude Marchionni
Reginald Marsh
Phillip Martiny
Yasuo Matsui
Cardinal John McCloskey
John McComb
McKim, Mead and White
Medusa
Hildreth Meiere
Eleanor Mary Mellon
Raffaele Menconi
Constantin Meunier
Marilyn Miller
Ferdinand von Miller
Francis Davis Millet
John Purroy Mitchel
Leon Moisseiff
Sir Thomas Moore
Salvatore Morani
John Pierpont Morgan
Samuel Finley Breese Morse
Robert Moses
Jacob Wrey Mould
Audrey Munson
Charles F. Murphy



James Wilson Alexander MacDonald
(b. 1824 Steubenville, Ohio – d. 1908)
was a sculptor. By 1844, he was in St. Louis, MO, where he studied art at night. His first bust was of Thomas H. Benton. In 1849, he was in New York City, and made a large head of Washington Irving for Prospect Park, Brooklyn (1871); a statue of Fitz-Greene Halleck for Central Park (1877); and a heroic bust of Civil War General Winfield Scott Hancock in 1891. He also made a colossal equestrian statue of General Nathaniel Lyon and a statue of Edward Bates for Forest Park, St. Louis, MO. Other works include busts of Charles O'Conor and John Van Buren. MacDonald owned Houdon's original model of a sculpture of George Washington from which he made bronze busts. For the Military Academy at West Point, he made a bust of General George Armstrong Custer. MacDonald also painted portraits and landscapes.
Links to slideshows mentioning James Wilson Alexander MacDonald:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Prospect Park & Vicinity
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Frederick William MacMonnies
(b. 1863 Brooklyn, NY – d. NYC 1937)

was a popular American sculptor who began modeling figures at age 5. He studied art in New York City at the Cooper Union and at the Art Students League. At age 20, he won an award from the National Academy of Design.

He studied for four years with Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and through him met Stanford White and Charles F. McKim from McKim, Mead & White. In 1884, the two architects loaned MacMonnies money to study in Europe. He spent time in Paris (at the Academie Colarossi and the École des Beaux-Arts, 1884, 1887-8) and Munich Akademie (1884-5). He became the sculpture assistant to Alexandre Falguiere for four years. In 1886, he won the prix d'atelier, the highest award given to foreigners by the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, for his sculpture of 'Pegasus.' He established his own studio in Paris in 1887. He won honorable mention at the Paris Salon of 1889 with his life-size sculpture of 'Diana' (plaster; whereabouts unknown), and second-place gold medal in 1891 for his sculpture of the American patriot 'Nathan Hale'. He was the first American to receive such an award at the Paris Salon. 'Nathan Hale' — perhaps his most famous sculpture — is in City Hall Park. He made 'James S. T. Stranahan' (1891), which is in Prospect Park.

He began to prosper by creating fluid mythological creatures (primarily for fountains) in the Art Nouveau style. MacMonnies trained and inspired a generation of American sculptors. He employed studio assistants and French and American foundries to cast bronze productions of his statues in varying sizes. It was a lucrative business.

MacMonnies sculpted the three bronze groups for the arch of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Prospect Park, Brooklyn) and the sculpture, 'Horse Tamer,' also in Prospect Park. He created the 'Winged Victory 'at the U.S. military academy at West Point, New York. He made four spandrels for the Washington Square Arch. He designed the Columbian Fountain for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His 39 figures included the 'Barge of State,' a colossal temporary fountain made from a mixture of plaster and straw called 'staff,' that was later destroyed.

In 1896, his bronze, over-life-size 'Bacchante and Infant Faun' was unveiled at the Boston Public Library. The public was scandalized, and the bronze had to be taken away. Charles McKim later presented it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it attracted attention. His 1922 statue of 'Civic Virtue,' nicknamed 'the Rough Guy,' was intended for City Hall Park, but because of criticism, it was removed to Foley Square, and now sits neglected in Queens by the Borough Hall. It depicts a male 'Justice' standing over two prone female figures 'Vice.' It is misogynistic to some. He said the sculpture was allegorical. His largest monument was the Marne Memorial at Meaux, France, which was a gift of the American people as thanks for the Statue of Liberty. It stands 75 feet tall. He died of pneumonia.
Links to slideshows mentioning Frederick William MacMonnies:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: City Hall
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: New York Public Library
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Prospect Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: West Village & Vicinity

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Hermon Atkins MacNeil
(b.1866 Chelsea, MA – d. College Point, Queens, NY 1947)
was a sculptor. He studied at the Massachusetts State Normal School and was a pupil of Henri Chapu, a French sculptor. MacNeil taught at Cornel for three years, and then at the Art Institute in Chicago for three years. His first important works were for the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1893, mural paintings) and in the Paris, Buffalo and St. Louis Expositions. He won the Roman Rhinehart Scholarship in sculpture.

Afterwards, he studied with Jean Falguiere at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the American Academy in Rome. He is best known for his sculptures of Native Americans and Western pioneers. In 1909, he sculpted the bronze figures of 'Pat & Jim' for the façade of the Patten Gymnasium at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illionois. He designed the 25-cent piece (Liberty quarter) that was minted in 1916.

Among his monuments are 'The Coming of the White Man' (Portland, Oregon); the 'McKinley Memorial' (Columbus, Ohio); the 'Soldiers and Sailors Monument' (Albany, NY); and the 'Pere Marquette Memorial' (Chicago – 1926). He sculpted General George Washington for the Washington Memorial Arch in Washington Square Park, NYC. There is a cast of his American Indian work 'Sun Vow' in the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He made the 'Flushing War Memorial in Queens' and four busts: Roger Williams, James Monroe, Francis Parkman and Rufus Choate for the Hall of Fame of Great Americans at Bronx Community College (formerly NYU).

MacNeil was a member of the National Sculpture Society, the National Academy of Design, The National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Links to slideshows mentioning Hermon Atkins MacNeil:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: West Village & Vicinity

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Captain Roswell H. Macy
(b. New England 1822 – d. Paris, France1877
was a former Nantucket whaling captain. He went into the dry-good business in Boston. In 1856 the business failed. He then moved to New York and opened a small 17-by-40-foot store at 14th Street and 6th Avenue It was called R. H. Macy. He started with two employees, and ended up with 400. He left a fortune of $1.5 million. He went to Paris for health reasons. When he died, he was one of the most successful merchants in New York City. The store was eventually bought by the Straus brothers, and continues today as Macy's.
Links to slideshows mentioning Captain Roswell H. Macy:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Empire State Building & Vicinity
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Harold Van Buren Magonigle
(b. 1867 Bergen Heights. NJ – d. Bain Harbor, VT 1935)
distinguished himself as an architect. At the age of 13 was apprentice draftsman for Calvert Vaux's firm. By 1887, he was working for McKim, Mead & White. He won the gold medal of the Architectural League of New York. After Magonigle moved to Boston (1891) to work for Rotch & Tilden, he was awarded the Rotch Fellowship to travel abroad. He continued his work back in the U.S. and started two other architectural partnerships, but they were interrupted by his military service during the Spanish-American War.

Cornell University commissioned Magonigle and Henry Wilkinson to design its alumni hall. Although it was never built, they did design a Brooklyn courthouse. Magonigle then went off on his own, immediately securing the commission for the McKinley National Memorial in Canton, OH (1903-1907). From there, he went on to design many memorials; the Maine Memorial (Central Park, NYC); the Firemen's Memorial (Riverside Park & W. 100th Street, NYC); the Mason Monument in Detroit; Liberty Memorial (Kansas City, MO, for which Mrs. Magonigle designed the frieze summarizing the history of the religions of the world) and the Burritt Memorial (New Britain, CT). Magonigle also designed schools, residences, and churches. An important later commission was his design for the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Tokyo, Japan (1928).
Links to slideshows mentioning Harold Van Buren Magonigle:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Riverside Drive

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Malcolm X
(b. 1925 Omaha Nebraska – d. NYC 1965)

was the famous Black Nationalist leader who was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. One of eight children, his father was a Baptist preacher. Likely his father was assassinated by the Black Legion, a white-hate group in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929. Malcolm was left an orphan. He dropped out of school and later moved to Harlem where he became a self-described gangster. In 1946, in Boston, he was arrested and received a 10-year prison sentence for burglary. In prison he became a Muslim under the Nation of Islam (NOI), led by Elijah Muhammad. The NOI wanted a separate black state away from white people.

Malcolm, when paroled in 1952, was a devoted follower of Elijah Muhammad. A leader, he opened NOI mosques in Detroit and Harlem. He began to draw a large following. He became famous after being interviewed by Mike Wallace in a 1959 television special called 'The Hate That Hate Produced.' The NOI was infiltrated by the FBI, as it was considered a subversive group. By 1963, Malcolm lost faith in Elijah Muhammad, because of the latter's personal failings. Malcolm broke with the NOI and in 1964, he ended his relationship with them.

Malcolm made his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia in 1964, where he said he had met 'blonde-haired, blued-eyed men I could call my brothers.' He changed his views and embraced integration. His home was firebombed in 1965. A week later (February 21, 1965) at speaking engagement in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, three gunmen rushed Malcolm. They shot him 15 times at close range. Malcolm was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He left an enduring civil rights legacy. His wrote the famous and best-selling 'Autobiography of Malcolm X' that is still in print. He is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Links to slideshows mentioning Malcolm X:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Uptown Manhattan

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Bishop William Thomas Manning
(b. 1856 Northampton, England – d. NYC 1949)
was New York's Episcopal Bishop and one of the builders of he Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He immigrated to America as a boy and lived for a time in California. As an adult, he graduated from the University of the South and later became an Episcopal priest First he was rector at a church in Redwood, CA. He served at two churches in Tennessee before coming to Trinity Church in NYC in 1903.

He reduced Trinity's debt from $5 million to $100 thousand. In 1920 he was elected Bishop of New York, overcoming those who opposed him because he was British-born. As a strong opponent of divorce, he refused to permit a priest to marry a woman who was divorced. He attacked the Roman Catholic Church for annulling the marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough. Manning hailed the abdication of King Edward VIII because the abdication supported 'Christian marriage and Christian moral ideas.' Manning banned service at St. Marks in the Bowery in which women danced barefooted in diaphanous gowns. He termed it 'dancing and paganism.' He opposed the NYC Board of Education's appointment of Bertrand Russell to teach math at City College. Manning said Russell was a 'defender of adultery and a disbeliever in God.' Russell was appointed anyway by a vote of 11 to 7. A judge later voided the appointment.

In 1930 Manning ejected Judge Ben B. Lindsey from St. John the Divine for interrupting services. The Judge had stood to object when Manning had publicly criticized him for advocating 'companionate marriage.' Manning believed the Episcopal church was 'catholic in its faith' and that its heritage of the Apostolic succession prevented it from complete union with other Protestant churches unless they accepted this succession. This pleased high church adherents, but caused consternation among 'low church' people. Manning believed in evolution and opposed Prohibition. Manning supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in the New Deal, but opposed him when Roosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court. In 1939, he denounced Russia as an ally of Germany, but when Germany invaded, he supported aid for Russia.

Manning was a great supporter of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, but was not without his critics, who denounced his 'Sports Bay' in the cathedral as secular. He accepted the menorah lights gift from Adolph S. Ochs (publisher of the NY Times) in 1930. Before the stock market crash of 1929, Manning had raised 12 million to build the cathedral. Not long before he died, he favored universal military training and in 1949, he condemned the conviction of Hungarian cleric Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty by the Hungarian Communists.
Links to slideshows mentioning Bishop William Thomas Manning:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Cathedral of St. John the Divine

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Paul Manship
(b. 1885 St. Paul, MN – d. NY 1966)

became one of the greatest American sculptors of the first half of the 20th century. He studied at the St. Paul Institute of Art 1892-1903 and then moved to New York to study at the Art Students League. He became the assistant to the sculptor Solon Borglum (1868-1922). Next, Manship went to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1909, he won the Prix de Rome, which entitled him to work at the American Academy in Rome from 1909-12. He traveled to Italy, Greece, and Egypt where the art of the Etruscans and ancient Greece and Egypt would influence his work.

When Manship returned to New York, he set up a studio and developed a simplified style of sculpture. His fountain sculpture 'Prometheus' (gilt bronze, 18 feet high, 1933-8), served as the focal point for Rockefeller Center's plaza. Just below it is the famous ice-skating rink.

Manship's work is linked with the Art Deco style. He produced over 700 works in his career. Many of his large bronzes were cast in smaller sizes and are still avidly collected. The American Battle Monuments Commission chose him to create monuments after WWI and WWII. They are located, respectively, in the American Cemetery at Thiaucourt, France (1926) and in the military cemetery at Anzio, Italy. He has works in Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina including: 'Actaeon,' 'Cycle of Life,' 'Diana,' 'The Flight of Europa' and 'Evening.'
Links to slideshows mentioning Paul Manship:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Gramercy Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Rockefeller Center

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Giacomo Manzu
(b. 1908 Bergamo, Italy – d. Rome, Italy 1991)

was self-taught as an artist. As a youth, he worked in the workshop of an engraver and for a stucco-master and a goldsmith. In 1929, he traveled to Paris and then in 1930, settled in Milan where he became part of the anti-neoclassic movement of 1938-1940. He decorated the Cappella dell'Universita Cattolica in Milan and became a professor at the Brera Academy there in 1940. Shortly afterwards, Crucifixion reliefs he had made were condemned by the Church and the Fascist government. Manzu then moved to Clusone near Bergamo until the end of the war. In 1964, he was commissioned to create a set of doors for St Peter's Cathedral. He made 'Italia' for Rockefeller Center in 1965.
Links to slideshows mentioning Giacomo Manzu:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Rockefeller Center
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Jean-Claude Marchionni
(Contemporary)
is a sculptor who works in stone. He is from Vittel, France. He has extensive experience in restoration of historic monuments in France and the United States. Marchionni has done restoration work on the Strasbourg Cathedral and the Musée du Louvre in Paris. In New York City, he worked extensively on the restorations of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, Grand Central Station and Rockefeller Center, and has produced new work for the Jewish Museum and the Huffington Library in Ohio. For the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, he worked on the Portal of Paradise.
Links to slideshows mentioning Jean-Claude Marchionni:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Cathedral of St. John the Divine
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Reginald Marsh
(b. 1898 Paris – d. Dorset, VT 1954)

was a painter, printmaker and illustrator. His parents were Americans artists. In 1920, he graduated from Yale University where he was art editor and cartoonist for the Yale Record. He moved to New York and became staff artist for Vanity Fair and the New York Daily News. By 1923, he was painting New York street scenes. The Whitney Studio Club had a one-man show of his work in 1924. Marsh worked at the New Yorker magazine from 1925-31. He studied in Europe and at the Art Students League. Thomas Hart Benton showed him how to use egg tempera, the medium Marsh used in his 1930s street scenes. His important paintings include 'The Bowery' (1930), 'Tattoo and Haircut' (1932), 'The Park Bench' (1933) and 'Negroes on Rockaway Beach' (1934).
Links to slideshows mentioning Reginald Marsh:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Customs House
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Federal Hall & Vicinity
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Phillip Martiny
(b. 1858 Strasbourg, Alsace, France – d. NY 1927)
a sculptor, was fascinated with the medium as a boy and studied with Francois and in the studio of Eugene Dock. He immigrated to the United States in 1878 to avoid military service.

Martiny studied with the noted sculptors Augustus St. Gaudens (five years) and Frederick MacMonnies. He assisted St. Gaudens with several works: 'The Puritan' (1883-86) in Stearns Square in Springfield, MA, and the Adams Memorial (1886-91) in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, DC. Under St. Gaudens' direction, Martiny designed the George Washington Inaugural Centennial Medal, 1889, and made sculptures for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Most of the works for the Exposition are known only in documentary photos. They were destroyed because they were made of the fragile 'staff' (temporary material made with plaster, cement, and jute fibers) and because they were too large to move.

Martiny opened a small studio in Greenwich Village, New York, (in MacDougal Alley) where several other artists had studios among the horse stables. He was prolific and made much decorative sculpture for New York City buildings including the 'Winged Life' cherub above the door at the Herald Square Hotel (19 W. 31st St.); sculpture on the south portal of St. Bartholomew's church; 'Confucius' for the roof decoration at the Appellate Court Building, and the keystone eagles at the Washington Square Arch in Washington Square Park.

Martiny also sculpted several works for the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. For the Jefferson Building (1897), he sculpted two staircases flanking the Great Hall. At the base of each staircase is a bronze female figure wearing classic drapery and holding a torch of knowledge. They are signed 'P H Martiny, sculptor NY.' Each stair railing is decorated with a fanciful series of cherubs carved in white marble. In a niche on the north side is a plaster bust of Thomas Jefferson, and on the south is a bronze bust of George Washington. Both those busts were copied by him from works by Jean-Antoine Houdon. The balustrade on each side of the top landing contains Martiny's figures of cherubs modeled to represent the fine arts. At the north landing depicted is Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture; at the south landing, Comedy, Poetry, and Tragedy.

Martiny also carved marble figures for the façade of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Soldiers and Sailors' Monument, Jersey City, NJ, and sculptures for the old District of Columbia Memorial Library Building in Washington, DC. His Abingdon Square War Memorial (1921; New York City) depicts a WWI American doughboy; the same model posed for his Chelsea Park World War Memorial (Ninth Avenue and 28th Street, in front of the NYC Department of Health).

Martiny's work decorates many public spaces east of the Mississippi River. In 1921, when he woke, his right arm and right leg were paralyzed from a stroke. He never recovered. Martiny was a member of the Architectural League, the National Sculpture Society and the National Arts Club.
Links to slideshows mentioning Phillip Martiny:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: St. Bartholomew's Church
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Civic Center & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Empire State Building & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Madison Square Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: West Village & Vicinity

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Yasuo Matsui
(b. 1883 Japan – d. NY? 1956)
studied at MIT and Berkeley before moving to New York, where he was a draftsman in several prominent architectural offices. He was consulting architect on several important projects during the 1920s and 1930s, including the Manhattan Company Building (1929-30, with H. Craig Severance) and the Starrett-Lehigh Building (1930-31), with Cory and Cory.
Links to slideshows mentioning Yasuo Matsui:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Federal Hall & Vicinity
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Cardinal John McCloskey
(b. 1810 Brooklyn – d. NYC 1885)

was the New York City Roman Catholic prelate who finished building St. Patrick's Cathedral. His parents were Irish immigrants. At the age of 12, he entered St. Mary's College in Emmettsburg, MD, and graduated from the seminary there in 1834. The next year, he went to Rome to study at the Gregorian University where he stayed for two years. In 1838, he began as a priest at St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village, then only the second Catholic Church in New York. He became president of St. John's College Fordham in 1842. By age 33, he was made coadjutor bishop by Cardinal Hughes, and in 1847, he became the bishop of the Albany diocese. He first built an orphan asylum in Troy, NY, and later expanded the diocese from 40 to 113 churches.

When Archbishop Hughes died in 1864, McCloskey was appointed his successor. During his tenure, he built churches, a protectory for destitute children in Westchester County for 2,000 children, a German hospital, a home for the aged, and many other charitable institutions. Pope Pius IX made him America's first Cardinal in Rome in 1875. He was an invalid the last three years of his life. His final words were reported to be 'God Bless them all. '
Links to slideshows mentioning Cardinal John McCloskey:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: St. Patrick's Cathedral

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John McComb
(b. 1763 NYC – d. 1853)
was an American architect of Scottish ancestry. His family settled in Maryland at the beginning of the 18th century; then in New York, and relocated to Princeton during the Revolutionary War. The family came back to New York after the war. He is best known for his collaboration with the French-born Joseph Francois Mangin on the design for the New York City Hall (1803-11).

McComb designed the facade of Government House in New York (built in 1790, demolished in 1815), and Castle Clinton (begun in 1807) in the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan (now Battery Park). He worked on many other public and private buildings, including the James Watson House on State Street and Hamilton Grange on Convent Avenue, both in NYC. In New Jersey he worked on Alexander Hall (1815) at Princeton Theological Seminary, and Queen's Building (1808-9) at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. McComb retired from architecture in 1826.
Links to slideshows mentioning John McComb:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Battery Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: City Hall

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McKim, Mead and White
(1879 – 1919)
was the premier American architectural firm from 1879 to1919. The firm's principals were Charles Follen McKim (b. 1847 Pennsylvania - d. St. James, New York 1909), William Rutherford Mead (b.1846 Vermont - d. Paris, France, 1928), and Stanford White (b.1853 New York City - d. New York 1906).

During the first 30 years of business, the firm received and executed nearly one 1,000 commissions. The partners championed the movement to introduce classical order to America's cities by using models from Greek and Roman Antiquity and combining them with Renaissance forms. Examples of their early works are the Villard Houses (1882; now a part of the New York Plaza hotel) and the Boston Public Library (1887-95). The firm's Newport Casino (1879-80) and Isaac Bell House (1881-3) were American shingle-style designs.

They designed Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus; the University Club (1900); the Pierpont Morgan house (1906; now the Pierpont Morgan Library Museum); additions to the sides of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1906); New York's Pennsylvania Station (1910; demolished and replaced); the New York Racquet Club (1916-19); and New York University University Heights campus (now Bronx Community College). At NYU Stanford White designed the arcade (Hall of Fame of Great Americans), lined with bronze busts of famous Americans, intended to serve as a monument as well as an educational tool.

The firm's public and private buildings defined America's Gilded Age. 'The American Academy building in Rome, Italy, is one of the few buildings they designed outside America. Charles Follen McKim was among the founders of the Academy and was its president when the building was first conceived.

Together with their contemporaries Richard Morris Hunt, Carrère & Hastings, Calvert Vaux, and James Renwick, McKim, Mead & White succeeded in establishing American architecture as important.
Links to slideshows mentioning McKim, Mead and White:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Columbia U. & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: East Village & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Fort Green Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Gramercy Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Prospect Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: St. Patrick's Cathedral
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Armory 67th St
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Woodlawn Cemetery

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Medusa
(Greek Mythology)
was the only mortal one of the three Gorgons. She had snakes in her hair. Medusa had the power to turn anyone who looked at her to stone. Perseus beheld Medusa on a gold shield so he would not have to look at her. He beheaded her.
Links to slideshows mentioning Medusa:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Customs House
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: New York Public Library
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Hildreth Meiere
(b. 1892 NYC – d. NY 1961)

was an artist muralist and mosaicist. She studied at New York's Convent of the Sacred Heart, the Art Students League (she was a life member), and in San Francisco and Florence. She also served in the U.S. Navy. She is best known for her mosaics and became, along with sculptor Lee Lawrie, a member of architect Bertram Godhue's repertory company of artists.

 She thought her best work was in Nebraska's State Capitol for which she received the Gold Medal at the Architectural League in NY (she was the first woman to receive the medal). She also worked on The Great Hall Dome in the National Academy of Science in Washington, DC; St. Bartholomew's Church New York City; Radio City Music Hall; Irving Trust Building; Bank of New York at 1 Wall St.; Temple Emanu-El in New York; and the St. Louis, Missouri Basilica/Cathedral. She often worked with the Ravenna Mosaic Company. She designed over 100 public murals, including work for the Logan Square Post Office in Chicago and Union Station in Kansas City. She designed metal wall decoration at Rockefeller Center and she designed an altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Meiere always relied on craftsmen to carry through her designs. She was responsible for murals at Prudential Life Insurance Building, Newark and Travelers Life Insurance in Hartford, CT.For six years (1946-52), Meiere was a member of the Municipal Arts Commission.

She believed that being labeled a woman artist trivialized her work. Meiere had her only marriage annulled after two years, was a single parent and disliked feminism.


Links to slideshows mentioning Hildreth Meiere:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: St. Bartholomew's Church
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Rockefeller Center
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Temple Emanu-El
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Eleanor Mary Mellon
(b. 1894 Philadelphia, PA – d. NYC 1979)
was a sculptor. She studied at the Art Students League with Edward McCartan. In 1931, the Society of Washington Artists awarded her a bronze medal, and in 1932 she received an honorable mention from the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. She was a member of the American Federation of Arts, Washington, DC, and National Sculpture Society, in NYC. She was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in NYC in 1938, and an Academician in 1950. Her funeral service was at St. Bartholomew's Church.
Links to slideshows mentioning Eleanor Mary Mellon:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Cathedral of St. John the Divine
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Raffaele Menconi
(b. 1877 Barga Italy– d. Hastings, NY 1942)

studied art in Florence and Rome, and came to America in 1894 when he was 17. By 1912, he had a studio on West 46th Street where he worked as a decorative sculptor. As such he did much unheralded and unattributed work for many prominent architects, including Carrere & Hastings. He created sculptural elements for the Union Club, the Old Customs House, the World War I Memorial at Yale in New Haven, CT, the Denver Post Office and Courthouse, and the Mary Baker Eddy Memorial in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. He and his brother Francisco (also a sculptor) designed the grills and entrance, the organ screen and the door to the Frick Mansion, now The Frick Collection on Fifth Avenue. He also carved the reredos in St. Joseph's chapel in St. Mary the Virgin Church in New York City.
Links to slideshows mentioning Raffaele Menconi:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: New York Public Library
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: St. Mary the Virgin Church
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Constantin Meunier
(b. 1831 Etterbeek, Brussels – d. Ixelles, Brussels 1905)

was a sculptor and painter. His brother, an engraver (Jean-Baptiste Meunier (1821-1900), influenced his artistic career. Meunier entered the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1845 as a sculpture student, but turned to painting, where he was successful. In Brussels in 1868 with other realistic avant-garde artists, Meunier formed the Socièté Libre des Beaux-Arts. Industrial and religious sites in Belgium influenced his artistic subjects. A visit to a Trappist monastery near Antwerp gave him his religious focus. He became interested in working-class subjects after visits to rolling mills, glassworks, and industrial factories. His historical paintings reflected his many concerns. In the 1880s, he turned back to sculpture. He had successful shows in Paris and Vienna, Dresden, and Berlin. His studio home in Ixelles, Belgium, now houses the Constantin Meunier Museum.
Links to slideshows mentioning Constantin Meunier:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Columbia U. & Vicinity
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Marilyn Miller
(b. 1898, Evansville, Ind. – d. NYC 1936)

was the pseudonym of Mary Ellen Reynolds a popular American musical comedy actress in the 1920s. She joined the family vaudeville act in Dayton Ohio in 1910. She toured with them for 10 years. Lee Shubert of the theatre owning family discovered her at the Lotus Club in London and brought her to New York to work in the Winter Garden. She debuted there in 1914 in 'The Passing Show of 1914.'

In 1918, Florence Ziegfeld became her manager and she his sometime mistress. This led to appearances in 'Fancy Free' and the 'Ziegfeld Follies of 1918.' In 1920, she starred in 'Sally,' the story of a poor dishwasher who rises to fame as a ballerina. It was a hit, and the play made her a star. Miller had a beautiful smile, a good figure and grace. In 1924 she appeared in 'Peter Pan,' her only nonmusical role. She became the reigning queen of musical comedy. As such she appeared in 'Sunny' (1925), which starred Miller as a circus bareback rider who loves and (eventually) marries a millionaire. The score, which included the song 'Who?', was the first collaboration between Jerome Kern and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. She also appeared in 'Rosalie' (1928), 'Smiles' (1930), and 'As Thousands Cheer' (1936), her last play.

She went to Hollywood in 1930 and appeared in screen versions of 'Sally,' and 'Sunny.' In 1931, she appeared in 'Her Majesty in Love.' Miller was a tempestuous character with a legendary temper. She had drug and alcohol problems and a bad marriage. She died unexpectedly of acute sinus infection in 1936.
Links to slideshows mentioning Marilyn Miller:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Times Square

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Ferdinand von Miller
(b. 1813 Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany – d. Munich, Germany 1887)

was a Bavarian bronze founder. He spent much of his life trying to raise the profession from craft to art. He began by working in his uncle's Munich foundry, then apprenticed in Paris to learn new casting techniques. When his uncle died, he took over the foundry. Then, it was one of the few capable of large-scale casting. U.S. artists sought him out.

American sculptor Thomas Crawford (1813-1872) had his grand monument to George Washington in Richmond, Virginia, and another Washington monument in Boston, cast by von Miller. In 1855, Randolph Rogers had the Columbus Doors for the U.S. Capitol building cast. The foundry also cast Rogers' monumental figure of the 'American Sentinel' for Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1871, he cast the Tyler Davidson Fountain for Cincinnati. Von Miller's sons worked with him and continued, following his death. Ferdinand von Miller II (1842-1949) designed and cast a large figure of Dr. James Marion Sims (1813-1883), the 'father of modern gynecology' (Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street). Von Miller II also cast figures on the Sinton fountain in Cincinnati, the statues of Shakespeare and von Humboldt in St. Louis, and the war memorial at Charleston.
Links to slideshows mentioning Ferdinand von Miller:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park

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Francis Davis Millet
(b. 1846 Attapoisett, MA – d. Titanic 1912)

was a painter. As a youth, he went with his surgeon father to battlefields and hospitals in the Civil War. Educated at Harvard, in 1869, he received his master's degree in modern languages and literature. He began as a writer for a Boston newspaper, but went to Europe and studied art at Antwerp's Royal Academy, where he won a silver and gold medal. He worked afterwards as a journalist during the Russian-Turkish War. In Antwerp, he had become friends with portrait artist George Willoughby Maynard; they became companions and traveled together.

As a decorative artist-painter he made murals for the Baltimore Customs House; Trinity Church of Boston; the Capitol Buildings of Wisconsin and Minnesota; and the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City. Paintings by him are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, NYC, and the Tate Gallery, London. After spending 1911 in Italy as the director of the American Academy in Rome, Millet booked passage with his friend Major Archibald Butt back to America on the Titanic, on which he would die. In his honor, a chair of fine arts was established at the American Academy.
Links to slideshows mentioning Francis Davis Millet:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Armory 67th St

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John Purroy Mitchel
(b. 1879 Fordham, NY – d. 1918 Louisiana)

was raised in an Irish Catholic family in the Fordham section of the Bronx. His grandfather, John Mitchel, was a writer and leader in the Irish independence movement. He graduated from New York Law School. He'd hoped to become a diamond miner and for a six-month period, had an interest in a British Guiana mine, but after some rough encounters with bandits and an illness, he sold out.

Mitchel rose to prominence in 1906, just five years after his graduation from New York Law School, when he conducted an investigation of Manhattan Borough President John F. Ahern and Bronx Borough President Louis Haffen; both men were removed from office. Running against Tammany Hall, Mitchel was elected president of the Board of Aldermen in 1909. He ran for mayor and won in 1913. He was, at age 35, New York's youngest elected mayor. As such, he proposed vocational training for students, but was opposed because it was thought vocational education denied children social mobility. He reformed city government. In the 1917 election, he lost to Democrat John F. Hyland, who opposed Mitchel's views on education.

Mitchel enlisted in the Army Air Corps to serve as a WWI pilot. A year later on a training mission, he fell out of his aircraft (he'd forgotten to wear his seatbelt) and fell 500 feet to his death. His funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral was attended by thousands. Dignitaries including the governor, the mayor and J.P. Morgan were in attendance. He was called a hero. Mitchel was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
Links to slideshows mentioning John Purroy Mitchel:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Uptown Manhattan

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Leon Moisseiff
(b. 1872 Latvia – d. NY 1943)

left his native Latvia for political reasons, and received his engineering degree at Columbia University in New York City. Soon thereafter, he joined the New York City Bridge Department where he worked on the Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges. He provided the final design for the Manhattan Bridge, completed in 1909.

Moisseiff published an article about his work on the Manhattan Bridge, which promptly won him national acclaim as the leading proponent of the 'deflection theory,' originally a European invention. The theory laid the groundwork for three decades of long-span suspension bridges that became lighter and narrower. These bridges were more graceful in appearance and were cheaper to build because they used far less steel than earlier spans. (It should be noted that the Manhattan Bridge has had continual structural problems).

His last project was the Washington State Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940; nicknamed 'Galloping Gertie'). Moisseiff thought it was the most beautiful bridge in the world. Unfortunately, he had overlooked the importance of aerodynamics. As the bridges became lighter and narrower, they became more flexible and unstable. In 1940, shortly after it was completed, a 40-mph windstorm collapsed the bridge. Moisseiff was charged with inducing the Public Works Administration to require Washington State to hire him to review and change the original design that others had prepared. His professional colleagues exonerated him, but the disaster ended his career.
Links to slideshows mentioning Leon Moisseiff:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Around Manhattan
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Manhattan Bridge

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Sir Thomas Moore
(b. 1478 London – d. London 1535)
was the son of a judge. He attended St. Anthony's school in London. Later, he studied at Oxford where he wrote comedies and studied Greek and Latin literature. He became a lawyer in 1494. For a time, he lived in a Carthusian monastery, with the intent of becoming a monk. He entered Parliament in 1504. There he earned a reputation for being impartial, and as a patron to the poor. By 1514, he had attracted the attention of King Henry VIII. In 1518, he became a member of the Privy Council and was knighted in 1521.

Moore helped Henry VIII in writing his 'Defense of the Seven Sacraments,' a repudiation of Luther, and wrote an answer to Luther's reply under a pseudonym. He helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech. His refusal to endorse King Henry VIII's plan to divorce Katherine of Aragón, in 1527, was the start of his undoing. In 1533, he refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn.

In 1534, he was one of those accused of complicity with Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent, who had opposed Henry's break with Rome. Later in 1534, Moore refused to swear to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London. He was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on July 6, 1535. On the scaffold he said, 'The King's good servant, but God's First.' Moore was beatified in 1886, and canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935.
Links to slideshows mentioning Sir Thomas Moore:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: St. Bartholomew's Church
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Prospect Park & Vicinity

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Salvatore Morani
(b. 1874 Calabria, Italy – d. Staten Island, N.Y. 1964)
sculpted the low reliefs in Staten Island's Borough Hall building. Morani studied as a youth at the Belle Academy of Naples and Rome. He came to New York in 1905 where he restarted his artistic career. During WWI, he made a replica of the Statue of Liberty to boost 'Liberty Loan' sales. For the American Red Cross, he made busts of a French soldier and wounded doughboy. Morani sculpted the figure of Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves to answer the pleas of a woman kneeling at his feet, in response to Belgium's plea for help against Germany.

His other works include busts of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park, and art in pieces the Catholic Cathedral in St. Louis, MO. He made large-scale works for the 1939 World's Fair in New York. His work on the Borough Hall began as a WPA project before WWII, and continued until 1950. It was his largest project. Threatened by the lack of funds, he appealed to Staten Island officials to be allowed to finish. He was told he could do so, only if he accepted laborer's pay. He did. The low relief sculptures by the police desk were the last to be installed in 1950.
Links to slideshows mentioning Salvatore Morani:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Bay Ridge & Staten Island

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John Pierpont Morgan
(b. 1837 Hartford, CT – d. Rome, Italy 1913)

the son of a wealthy financier, became the embodiment of American capitalism. Morgan graduated from the English High School in Boston, MA, and attended the University of Gottingen, Germany 1854-56. He was trained as an accountant. Eventually, he joined his father's bank and later became a partner in Drexel Morgan & Company. In 1869, Morgan defeated Jay Gould in a contest for the control of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. He became prominent in railroad matters. Morgan reorganized the Northern Pacific Railroad and made a specialty of reorganizing bankrupt railroads. At one point, he controlled 5,000 miles of American railroads.

In 1879, in cooperation with August Belmont and the Rothschilds, Morgan floated $62 million in 3-percent bonds to fund the U.S. Treasury, which had had a run on gold and had only $45 million in gold bullion left. Morgan helped move the center of international finance to New York in 1899, when he 1899 made America's first foreign loan to Mexico ($110 million) so it could refinance its debt. In 1891, Morgan arranged for the merger of Edison Electric and Thompson Houston Electric to make General Electric. Morgan also engineered the creation of United States Steel, which was capitalized at over $1 billion.

An eternal optimist, Morgan helped finance a growing industrial America, in part because of his contacts in Britain. In 1895, his firm was renamed J. P. Morgan. In 1912, Congress, suspicious of Morgan's wealth and power, conducted an investigation of him, which found no illegal activities. Morgan was a yachtsman and owned the mega steam and sail yacht Corsair, which he loaned to the U.S. government during the Spanish-American War. He maintained a family estate, Dover House, on the Thames River near London, that had been owned by his father. Morgan donated money for the St. George Episcopal Church parish house. He eventually donated his art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. President Howard Taft called Morgan 'the greatest financier America has ever produced.'
Links to slideshows mentioning John Pierpont Morgan:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Federal Hall & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Gramercy Park & Vicinity

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Samuel Finley Breese Morse
(b. 1791 Charlestown, MA – d. NYC 1872)
was the son of a pastor. His father, a geographer, was a close friend of Noah Webster, who Americanized the English language in his dictionaries. Morse attended Yale College (as had Webster), and he spent his time there pursuing his interest in electricity, and painting miniature portraits. Morse settled in New York City in 1825 and became a respected portrait painter. He was a founder and the first president of the National Academy of Design. His campaigns to become mayor of New York, or a Congressman, were unsuccessful.

Morse taught art at New York University and ironically, it was there that in 1835, he probably built his first working model of the telegraph, using discarded art supplies, a homemade battery, and the works from an old clock. In 1837, Leonard Gale (NYU science professor) and Alfred Vail (had mechanical skills) became Morse's partners. They helped Morse apply for a patent on his idea, and Morse worked out a dot-dash code to represent letters: the Morse code.

The partners' efforts seemed futile; they could not gain support from private patrons or businessmen, and a request for the U.S. Congress to build a real telegraph network was met with skepticism. Morse did not give up. In 1843, Congress granted Morse funds to construct the first telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington, DC. After difficulties setting it up, in 1844, Morse transmitted the first telegraph message in America, a biblical quotation: 'What hath God wrought!' It had taken 12 years. Morse's patent was licensed to American companies to build a telegraph network along the Eastern U.S., from Washington to Boston and Buffalo.

With his new wealth, Morse bought 100 acres of land outside of Poughkeepsie, and called it Locust Grove. He married for a second time in 1848 and had several children. He gave money to colleges, including Yale and Vassar, to benevolent societies, and to poor artists. He is buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. There is a statue of him in Central Park.
Links to slideshows mentioning Samuel Finley Breese Morse:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park

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Robert Moses
(b. 1888 New Haven, CT – d. 1981)

was the son of a prosperous New Haven department store owner. He was educated at Yale and Oxford. His mother was the daughter of a New York merchant and politician. In 1919, Moses was appointed (by Alfred E. Smith) to the committee to study and renew New York state government machinery after WWI.

Moses became chairman of the State Council of Parks in 1924. He served as New York Secretary of State until a disagreement with Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt forced him out of that position in 1928. He was the Republican candidate for Governor of New York in 1934, but lost to Herbert Lehman.

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed him New York City Parks Commissioner and he expanded the parks and playground systems. Moses held that post until 1960. During that same time period, he was also head of the Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority (1946–68). Under his direction, the city built new highways and public housing projects, beaches, bridges, and tunnels to connect the boroughs of New York.

Moses' first few years in the LaGuardia administration were a honeymoon, as New Yorkers appreciated his work. He was called 'the Master Builder', but his tenure was not without controversy. Moses' style was imperious and he had a predilection for leveling historic buildings (Pennsylvania Station) and sites that did not conform to his grand plans. He was hated by some because of his destruction of historic neighborhoods. Because of Moses, New York lost some of its beauty, in the interest of modernizing infrastructure. Under Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Moses 'resigned' his New York State positions, and left the state government in 1968.
Links to slideshows mentioning Robert Moses:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Around Manhattan
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Empire State Building & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Gracie Mansion
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Gramercy Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Prospect Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Bay Ridge & Staten Island
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Upper West Side
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: West Village & Vicinity

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Jacob Wrey Mould
(b. 1825 Chiselhurst, Kent, England – d. NYC 1886)

was an architect who graduated from King's College, London. He studied under Owen Jones and spent much of his time examining classical architecture. Mould spent several years studying the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Afterwards, Moorish design played an important part in Mould's work, beginning with his Moorish-inspired divan in Buckingham Palace. He also designed decorations for the Crystal Palace, built for the 1851 World's Fair in London.

In 1853, he came to New York and designed All Soul's Church. Afterwards, he was appointed assistant architect of public works for the city. He worked with Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead on many of the structures and bridges for Central Park. He worked on Bethesda Terrace with Vaux, and created the intricate ornamentation carved in stone throughout it. Later (1870), Mould became chief architect of public works.

In 1859, Mould designed Plymouth Church in Brooklyn and in 1861, the National Academy of Design. With Calvert Vaux, he designed the original parts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1874-80); and the American Museum of Natural History building. He designed the fountain for City Hall Park.

Mould also illustrated Owen Jones's 'Alhambra' (London, 1848) and assisted Jones with 'Grammar of Ornament' (1856). Mould was a pianist, organist, and translator of foreign librettos for the English language.
Links to slideshows mentioning Jacob Wrey Mould:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: City Hall
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Columbia U. & Vicinity

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Audrey Munson
(b. Rochester, NY – d. Rochester, NY 1996)

an artist's model, has been called the 'America's Venus.' 'This young women ought to be ashamed of herself,' early 20th-century moralists said about her. Munson was the most popular nude female model of the Beaux-Arts school. She had moved to New York City with her mother after her parents divorced in 1906. There she was spotted on the street by a photographer who introduced her to the sculptor Isador Konti.

Munson was the model for many sculptors and painters. Daringly, she modeled nude. In 1916, she moved to California and became an actress. She appeared in a few silent films, including her scandalous nude appearance in 'Inspiration.' By 1920, she was back in New York City and involved in a real scandal when her lover, Dr. Walter Wilkins, murdered his wife so that he could be with Audrey. Although she had no involvement in the murder, the publicity ended her acting and modeling career.

In 1931, she was back in Syracuse with her mother, when a judge found her mentally incompetent. She spent the remaining 65 years of her life confined to a mental institution. She was the model for the 'Maine Monument' in Central Park and 'Fireman's Memorial' on Riverside Drive; 'Ida & Isador Straus Memorial' on West End Avenue; 'Civic Fame' on the Municipal Building; 'Spirit of Commerce' on the Manhattan Bridge; the 'Spirit of Industry' on the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge; and for numerous other public and private sculptures.
Links to slideshows mentioning Audrey Munson:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Civic Center & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Central Park
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Manhattan Bridge
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Madison Square Park & Vicinity
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Riverside Drive

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Charles F. Murphy
(b. NYC 1858 – d. NYC 1924)
was the leader of Tammany Hall and perhaps its most successful chief. 'Silent Charlie,' as Murphy was called, rose from humble beginnings to a position from which he named mayors, judges, congressmen, senators and governors. Educated at public schools as a youth, he formed the Sylvan Social Club, and later ran a baseball team. He got a job on the E. 23rd Street crosstown car line, and within two years, he'd saved $500 — enough money to open the bar Charlie's Place, that became a neighborhood headquarters. By 1880, with the saloon baseball club and social club, he'd become a political power. He bought another saloon. He backed Francis B. Spinola for Congress, and Spinola won. By 1890, Murphy owned four saloons, and as a favor to his wife, each barred women. At age 34, he became an assembly district leader for Tammany Hall. Murphy, a politician, distributed money to many charities, including money to St. George Episcopal for its mission.

After the Tammany leader Rickard Croker left for Ireland in 1902, Murphy was appointed part of a triumvirate that ran Tammany Hall. It didn't work, and within four months, Murphy was put in charge. The new Mayor Van Wyck then appointed Murphy as dock commissioner, the only important public office he ever held. His brother promptly leased docks from the city and made a 5,000-percent profit on his investment. In 1903, Murphy supported George McClellan (son of the Civil War general) for mayor. McClellan won, but later broke with Murphy. In 1909, Murphy backed William J Gaynor for mayor, and Gaynor won. In the 1912 Democratic presidential nominating convention, William Jennings Bryan angrily accused Murphy of being the representative of J. P. Morgan, August Belmont, and Wall Street interests.

The many supplicants who attended his weekly audiences were given only two minutes with him. However, Murphy made many enemies. William Randolph Hearst (once an ally, then an enemy) and the Star Company were sued for $1 million by Murphy because of an editorial they ran, titled 'Swat the Boss.' In it, they implied that the reason New York's Congressional delegation didn't raise its voice for the call of Irish Freedom was because of the Hartog case — a company Murphy invested in that had received a $10 million contract from England. He was thwarted only in his ambition to make Alfred E. Smith president of the United States.

Just before he died, Murphy said, 'I think I am getting a little sleepy.' Tens of thousands turned out for his funeral that was held in St. Patrick's Church, including many dignitaries and Governor Alfred E. Smith and Father Francis Patrick Duffy.

The Council of Sachems of the Tammany Society (Tammany Hall Murphy) mourned his death with the following resolution. 'Whereas his career reflected honor upon this society, his warm-hearted personality, his conspicuous position in the public eye and his commanding influence in public affairs have caused his death to be mourned by thousands as the loss of a wonderful personal friend and by hundreds of thousands, as the loss of a wonderful political leader, and Whereas his life was a daily refutation of the unmeasured detraction of partisan assailants and his work established the Tammany organization in the respect of the Democratic Part of the nation; therefore be it Resolved, That we extend to the family of our deceased brother our sincere condolence.'

In the Senate in Washington, DC it was announced that a man of national character had died. Representative Thomas H. Cullen from Brooklyn said, 'I am so shocked at the news of Mr. Murphy's death that I do not know what to say.' Representative and future Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia said, 'He was a great leader because he kept his hand on the pulse of the people – the kind of leader we need so much these days.' Murphy was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Queens. His memorial flagpole kicked up a good deal of controversy when it was erected in Union Square Park because of Murphy's Tammany Hall leadership. The Murphy name has been dropped from usage.
Links to slideshows mentioning Charles F. Murphy:
LOCATION: New York City, New York --- SITE: Union Square Park & Vicinity

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