Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial
This is Daniel He was born on April 20 1850 He was a sculptor A sculptor uses clay stone bronze and other materials to create statues and other works of art
Call me Dan That’s what my family and friends call me Like my smock It keeps my clothes clean when I work with wet clay There were very few sculptors in America when Dan was growing up Becoming one was a bold choice especially for a boy surrounded by successful lawyers and judges This is his story
From the time he was a little boy Dan liked to make things beautiful He lived on a farm in New Hampshire until he was ten in a house built by his father When Dan wasn’t helping with the farm he was off exploring in the fields
He decorated notebooks with names and drawings of the birds he saw golden plovers in the marshes bluejays and woodcocks in the woods goldenwings and quails in the fields
