Henry Jackson Ellicott (June 22 or 23, 1847, in Annapolis, Maryland – February 11, 1901, in Washington, D.C.) was an American sculptor and architectural sculptor, best known for his work on American Civil War monuments.

Biography The son of James P. Ellicott and Fannie Adelaide Ince, he attended Rock Hill College School in Ellicott City, Maryland, and Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. He studied at Georgetown Medical College, and may have served in the Civil War.An 1896 New York Times article implies that the 16-year-old Ellicott was present at the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.

At age 19, he completed a larger-than-life plaster statue of Abraham Lincoln – likely an entry in the Lincoln Monument Association's competition for a marble statue – that was exhibited for two years in the United States Capitol rotunda. The competition was won by sculptor Lot Flannery, whose statue is at District of Columbia City Hall. The fate of Ellicott's Lincoln statue is unknown.Louis A. Warren, "The Curious Story of Ellicott's Lincoln," Lincoln Herald, vol. 48-49, 1946.

He studied at the National Academy of Design, 1867–1870, under William Henry Powell and Emanuel Leutze; and later studied under Constantino Brumidi.Charles Edwin Fairman, Works of Art in the United States Capitol Building: Including Biographies of the Artists (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1913), p. 22.

His first two commissions were for monuments at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Lothian, Maryland (1870) and Greenwood Cemetery in Laurel, Maryland. He was the likely modeler of an Infantryman statue for J. W. Fiske Architectural Metals, Inc. of New York City, that was mass-produced and used in numerous municipal Civil War monuments. Company records list the sculptor's name as "Allicot."Fiske Infantryman from JAIC online.

He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and modeled architectural sculpture on buildings for the 1876 Centennial Exposition."Henry Jackson Ellicott," Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Rossiter Johnson, ed. (1904). He remained in Philadelphia, and exhibited occasionally at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1878 and 1891.Susan James-Gadzinski and Mary Mullen-Cunningham, "Henry J. Ellicott," American Sculpture in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), pp. 106-07.

Ellicott was appointed Superintendent and Chief Modeler for the U.S. Treasury Department in 1889, responsible for all federal monuments. He moved to Washington, D.C. He died on February 11, 1901, in Washington, D.C. He was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery.

Personal In 1883, he married Lida Dyre, of Maryland, a woman eighteen years his junior."H. J. Ellicott Dead," The Legacy: Newsletter of the Howard County Historical Society, vol. 50, no. 2 (Summer 2013), pp. 1, 3. They had no children.

Selected works

Abraham Lincoln, plaster, current whereabout unknown, ca. 1866. Exhibited in United States Capitol rotunda, 1866–1868. Goddess of Commerce, Goddess of Protection, Goddess of Mechanism, zinc, atop New England Mutual Life Insurance Building, Boston, Massachusetts, 1875, Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee, architect (demolished 1946).Closeup of the building from Boston Public Library via Flickr. The figure group was once the symbol of the company, but the statues were melted down in a World War II scrap-metal drive.Company Timeline from New England Mutual Life Insurance Company. Recording Angel, atop Thomas P. Duncan Mausoleum, Union Dale Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1880, Theophilus Parsons Chandler Jr., architect. Bas-relief portrait of John Sartain, bronze, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca. 1888John Sartain from PAFA. Architectural sculpture: 33 Keystones (Ethnological Heads), granite, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 1891. Carved by Ellicott and William Boyd. Francis Elias Spinner, bronze, Myers Park, Herkimer, New York, 1894.General Spinner from SIRIS. Zebulon Baird Vance Monument, bronze, North Carolina State Capitol, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1899–1900.

Civil War monuments Goddess of Victory, bronze, atop Soldiers' Monument, Veterans Park, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1875–76.Holyoke Soldiers' Monument from Library of Congress. Ellicott also modeled the four bronze relief panels on the monument's base. Colonel James Cameron, granite with brass sword, Civil War Monument, Cameron Park, Sunbury, Pennsylvania, 1879. Infantryman, bronze, Civil War Monument, Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1881. The Sailor and Cavalry Officer figures were modeled by William Rudolf O'Donovan. Cavalryman, bronze, 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument, Gettysburg Battlefield, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1887–1889. Kneeling Cavalryman, bronze, 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument, Gettysburg Battlefield, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1889–90. Equestrian statue of General Winfield Scott Hancock, bronze, Washington, D.C., 1889–1896. Equestrian statue of General George B. McClellan, bronze, City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1891–1894.

Portrait busts

Vice-President George M. Dallas, marble, United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., 1893George M. Dallas bust from U.S. Senate. Rear-Admiral George W. Melville, bronze, United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland"Henry J. Ellicott Buried," Washington, February 1901. George Yost Coffin General John Schofield Senator Daniel W. Voorhees Samuel H. Kauffmann

Attributed works Infantryman, zinc, modeled by "Allicot" (Ellicott?) and mass-produced by J. W. Fiske Architectural Metals, Inc., New York City, from ca. 1875 to 1927. Examples in Saratoga, New York (1875), Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (1878), King Ferry, New York (1882), Arcadia, Missouri (1886), Norwalk, Connecticut (1889), Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts (1890), Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (1891),Martha's Vineyard Infantryman from The Washington Times. Pottstown, Pennsylvania (1893), Berlin, New York (1906), Iola, Kansas (1909), and North Kingston, Rhode Island (1912). Charles Evans, bronze, Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, Pennsylvania.Charles Evans from USGW Archives. The undated statue is signed "ELLICOTT SC." and was cast by Bureau Brothers Foundry in Philadelphia.Charles Evans from SIRIS. Statuette of Franklin Pierce, bronzed composition metal, New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire, 1896, height: Sculpture from New Hampshire Historical Society. Likely Ellicott's entry in the 1896 design competition for a statue (unexecuted) for the New Hampshire State House.Michael J. Connelly, "The Franklin Pierce Statue Controversy," The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, vol. 12, no. 2 (April 2013), pp. 234-259.

References