Publication Information

Hon. Geo. P. Marsh

Page 1

Dear Sir.

I received your kind letter together with Mr Silloways the Architect. On the whole I am pleased with the idea of adopting the simple figure without the accessories about the feet.

The idea of substituting a bunch of tressed corn in place of the sheaf is to be considered and I will experiment in my clay to find what effect can be got with the introduction of tressed corn.

I have today finished packing my statuette and shall dispatch it for Washington Monday morning. I hope thus to be able to commence my small model forthwith, as it is your wish.

In order to produce two casts in plaster there must be a piece mould made. There can be but on[e] cast made in the first mould as it has to be chiseled to pieces. To make other casts

a piece (or section) mould has to be made. I should be obliged to send by first cast to Boston and get an Italian to make the piece mould as it is a profession of itself, and requires practice to do it rightly. It would be an expense of several dollars, perhaps eight or ten.

I am happy to hear that Mr Pomeroy is disposed to give me a chance with the rest in relation to the Allen statue

I hope to hear of your speedy recovery from your illness

Your Ob SerLarkin G. Mead Jr

Hon. Geo. P. Marsh

Burlington

References in this letter:

Thomas W. Silloway, (1828-1910), was only thirty years old in 1857 when he was chosen architect for the new State House in Montpelier. Silloway was from Massachusetts, and had worked in the office of Ammi B. Young, the architect who designed the previous building. Silloway and Dr. Powers, the superintendent of construction for the 1857 job, had worked together to design and build a new courthouse in Woodstock, Vermont, that burned in 1854.

The lawyer, John Norton Pomeroy, (1792-1881) was a lawyer and prominent resident of Burlington, Vermont. He held several position in Vermont state government and was named chairman of the Statuary Committee to oversee the construction of the monument placed over the grave of Ethan Allen in Green Mount Cemetery in Burlington.

Ethan Allen, (1737/38-1789), is considered, with Ira Allen and Thomas Chittenden, one of the founding fathers of the state of Vermont. As a commander of the Green Mountain Boys, a local militia, outlawed in New York, Allen was a considerable force in the defense of the newly formed state against the British.

Larkin Goldsmith Mead Jr.(1835-1910) was a sculptor from Brattleboro, Vermont. although he spent most of his life in Florence. He created the statue of Agriculture that crowns the Vermont State House in 1857, and the statue of Ethan Allen in the same building in 1861. He was also responsible for the statue of Allen in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol and for an elaborate memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois.