Boston Irish Sculptor Joseph Milmore Died in Geneva, Switzerland on January 10, 1886

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Joseph Milmore was the model for the Sailor statue on the Soldiers & Sailors Monument, Boston Common  

Joseph Milmore (1841-1886), a preeminent sculptor and expert stone carver based in Boston, died in Geneva, Switzerland on January 10, 1886 at age 46, while traveling in Europe with his wife, Mary Longfellow. He contracted pleurisy and was bedridden for several weeks before his death. His remains were sent back to Boston, where he was buried at the Milmore family plot in Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain.

Born in Sligo, Ireland in October 1842, Joseph and his four brothers emigrated to Boston in 1851 with their widowed mother, where they lived on Common Street. Joseph apprenticed in Boston as a cabinet maker, took up wood carving and then began carving in marble and granite, eventually becoming an expert carver.

Martin Milmore

Though his career, Joseph worked alongside his famous younger brother Martin Milmore (1844-1883), who received dozens of commissions for Civil War monuments, Revolutionary War statues and busts of famous men during his career. Joseph and their other brother James (1843-1872) did most of the intricate carving for Martin’s major commissions including three classical figures adorning the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Building on Tremont Street in 1866, and the American Sphinx Monument at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge in 1872.

As well as carving intricate granite and marble works, Joseph developed a talent in architectural composition and served as the architectural supervisor for numerous monuments such as the majestic Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common, unveiled in 1877.

Joseph received individual commissions on his own, including a prized marble bust of abolitionist Wendall Phillips, a statue to Canadian Governor Lord Dufferin in Montreal, Lord Lorne in Ottawa, and the Civil War Soldiers and Soldiers Monument in Dayton, OH. 


Oscar, son of Joseph and Mary Milmore, Photo Courtesy of Ancestry.com

Joseph and Mary, who married on February 14, 1885, had a son, Oscar Longfellow Milmore, born on October 9, 1884.  

After his death, Joseph’s will left the majority of his estate to his wife, but the will was contested in court by his older brother Charles.  The court ruled in Mary Longfellow’s favor.

There are no known images of Joseph Milmore, but Lilian Milmore, grandniece of the Milmore brothers, said in 1930 that Martin's brothers, James and Joseph, served as models for the soldier and sailor (see lead photo) on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common.

Learn more about the Milmore brothers and other Irish immigrant sculptors of the 19th century.

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin



 

 

 

 

 



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