Boston's Renowned Immigrant Sculptor Martin Milmore Dies on July 21, 1883

Boston sculptor Martin Milmore died at his home on Hammond Street in Roxbury on Saturday, July 21, 1883 at age 39. His funeral mass was held on Monday at nearby Holy Cross Cathedral. Among the pallbearers were sculptor Thomas Ball, who was Milmore's mentor, Boston Pilot Publisher Patrick Donahoe, Mayor Albert Palmer and abolitionist Wendell Phillips. He was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.

Milmore was born in Sligo in 1844, and immigrated to Boston along with his three brothers with their widowed mother in 1851, when he was seven years old.

Best know for his Civil War monuments to the Union dead, Milmore created the iconic Soldiers and Sailors Memorial on Boston Common and the distinctive Sphinx at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, as well as dozens of statues of Civil War infantrymen in places such as at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Winthrop Square, Charlestown, Woburn and Framingham.

Milmore also created dozens of statues and busts of famous people, including Revolutionary War Hero John Glover, President Abraham Lincoln, Senator Charles Sumner, General George McClellan, actor Edwin Booth, publisher George Ticknor and abolitionist Wendell Phillips.

As a boy, Martin showed early signs of artistic genius as a student at the Brimmer Elementary School and Boston Latin. He got an apprenticeship with noted sculptor Thomas Ball by offering to sweep the floors of the studio every night. His first major commission, at age 21, was the three classical figures of Ceres, Pomona and Flora atop the Massachusetts Horticultural Building on Tremont Street.

Prior his death, Milmore had set aside funds for a sculpture at the family plot, to be dedicated to his older brother James, who had died in 1880. The commission went to Milmore's friend, sculptor Daniel French, whose work, "The Angel of Death and the Sculptor," is renowned for its artistry.

To learn more about Boston's illustrious Irish history and heritage dating back to the 18th century, visit IrishHeritageTrail.com.

- Essay by Michael Quinlin

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