John Quincy Adams Ward

John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910), American sculptor, was born in Urbana, Ohio, on the 29th of June 1830.

His education was received in the village schools. He studied under Henry K. Brown, of New York, in 1850-1857, and by 1861, when he opened a studio in New York, he had executed busts of Joshua R. Giddings, Alexander H. Stephens, and Hannibal Hamlin, prepared the first sketch for the "Indian. Hunter," and made studies among the Indians themselves for the work. In 1863 he became a member of the National Academy of Design (New York), and he was its president in 1872-1873. Among his best-known statues are the "Indian Hunter," finished in 1864 (Central Park, New York); Washington, heroic size (on the steps of the U.S. Sub-Treasury, Wall Street, New York); Henry Ward Beecher (Brooklyn); an equestrian statue of General George H. Thomas (Washington); Israel Putnam (Hartford); and the seated statue of Horace Greeley, the founder of the New York Tribune, in front of the office of that newspaper. In 1896 he was elected president of the newly organized National Sculpture Society (New York). Unlike his fellow-countryman, W. W. Story, he acquired his training, his inspiration and his themes from his own country. He died in New York on the 1st of May 1910.