Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Whitney, Anne

WHITNEY, Anne, sculptor, b. in Watertown, Mass., 2 Sept., 1821. She was educated by private tutors, and early manifested a love for poetry and sculpture, the latter becoming gradually an absorb- ing pursuit. Her poetical writings were collected in a volume entitled "Poems" (New York, 1859). In the same year she opened a studio in her native place, and subsequently making several visits to Europe, studied there four years, producing two of her best works during that time. On her return in 1873 she established a studio in Boston, where she has since remained. She has executed portraits and ideal works in groups, busts, medallions, and statues, including a statue of Samuel Adams, of which two copies, one in bronze and one in marble, are respectively in the capitol at Washington and in Boston (1863); “Roma” (1865); “Africa,” a colossal recumbent figure of a woman, illustrating the civil war in the United States (1873); a statue of Harriet Martineau, belonging to Wellesley college (1883); and the fountain of “Leif Erikson” (1886). The last was unveiled in Boston, 29 Oct., 1887, and the statue above the fountain represents the Norse-Icelandic discoverer of America as a man of physical beauty and vigor, in the costume of the ancient Scandinavian warrior. (See the accompanying illustration.)