Daniel Chester French

Daniel Chester French was a neighbor and friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Alcott family. His decision to pursue sculpting was influenced by Louisa May Alcott's sister May Alcott. At the age of twenty-three he received a commission from the town of Concord, Massachusetts, for his well-known statue The Minute Man, which was unveiled April 19, 1875 on the centenary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. French is also famous for his sculpture of Abraham Lincoln seated in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.