Franklin Simmons Of Sabattus

The sculptor who memorialized the Civil War

by Charles Francis

Our Lady of Victories is one of Portland’s best-known landmarks. Situated as it is just off of Congress Street in Longfellow Square, it has been a familiar sight to Portland residents and visitors alike since its dedication in 1888.

As familiar as Portland’s Our Lady of Victories is to Mainers, few know that its creator was a Maine man. Those few that do know the name Franklin Simmons would undoubtedly be surprised to learn that he was born in Webster, Maine. There is, of course, a reason for this.

Today if one were to look at a map of Maine for the town of Webster, they wouldn’t find it. The closest they would come would be Webster Plantation in Penobscot County. There is, however, no connection between the birthplace of Franklin Simmons and Webster Plantation. But there was once a town named Webster, Maine. It ceased to exist on Maine maps in 1972, when the name of the town was changed to Sabattus. Regardless, Franklin Simmons was probably born in Webster in 1842, just two years after the town incorporated. I say probably because both Auburn and Lisbon have been cited as Simmons’ birthplace. The possibility that Simmons was born in Lisbon is most likely due to the fact that Webster had been a part of Lisbon prior to its incorporation. Today the greatest concentration of Simmons’ work is found in Portland. Besides Our Lady of Victories, Simmons did the bronze Soldiers and Sailors and Longfellow monuments

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there. Simmons also willed a number of his works to Portland at the time of his death. The city passed them on to the Portland Society of Art. They are marble, the last medium that Simmons worked in. The Portland Museum of Art also has several of his works, including profiles of Ulysses Grant and Abraham Lincoln and a life-size statue of Grant.

Much of Simmons’ early years were spent with the family of his cousin James Simmons, an attorney who practiced in the Bath-Brunswick area. James Simmons secured a position for his young cousin in a Bath mill, where the teenager was taken with the possibilities he saw in working with metal. This, coupled with a natural gift for portraiture, led him to Boston, where he began a formal study of sculpture with John Adams Jackson. It was Jackson who introduced Simmons to bronze as a medium, especially for producing busts.

Following his study with Jackson, Simmons returned to Maine where he opened a studio in Lewiston. While he made his living at this time painting portraits, he did begin to establish a reputation for his bronze busts. One of his first was a bust of William King, Maine’s first governor. It was commissioned by the State and is still in Augusta.

In 1863 Simmons went to Washington where his work caught the attention of President Lincoln. Among other commissions, Simmons produced a series of medallions of Lincoln’s cabinet, as well as some of the foremost army and naval officers of the Union Army. Most of them are the property of the Union League of Philadelphia.

During the two years Simmons spent in Washington, he made a collection of sketches of virtually every important figure that crossed his path. These sketches were to serve as the basis for his later and best-known work, which was done in Europe.

In 1868 Simmons moved to Rome, Italy. He would make the eternal city his permanent home for most of the rest of his life. Italy would also be the country where Simmons would receive his greatest honors. Included in them was a knighthood bestowed by King Humbert of Italy. The King also presented him with the Cross of Caxilere. He was the first American artist to be so honored. Italy was also where Simmons created what are now viewed as masterpieces of American sculpture.

Besides Lincoln and Grant, Simmons produced busts of William Tecumseh Sherman and Maine’s own James G. Blaine, as well as an almost uncountable number of lesser-known figures. Today, however, he is most famous for his large works done on a scale akin to that of Portland’s Lady of (cont. on page 18)

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(cont. from page 17) Victories.

Simmons’ large-scale works include Washington at Valley Forge, Grief and History, the relief atop the Naval Monument in Washington, and Jochebed with Moses. In addition, he did the Roger Williams statues in Providence and Washington, and that of Governor Oliver P. Morton in Indianapolis.

Franklin Simmons died in Rome in 1913. When news reached Portland, a ceremony of remembrance was held at the Our Lady of Victories memorial. Recently both the Soldiers and Sailors and Longfellow monuments were refurbished through the fundraising efforts of Greater Portland Landmarks, Inc. Few in Maine know that these statues were the work of a Maine-born sculptor who, almost incidentally, was knighted for his accomplishments as an artist by the King of Italy and is considered by some as the man who memorialized the Civil War. Canal Street in Lewiston, ca. 1900. Item # 6739 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

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Color negative of building at Bates College in Lewiston, donated by John and Patty Vierra. From the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Swimmers at the Methodist Camp in Winthrop, ca. 1958. Item # LB2010.9.118718 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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