Lorado Zadok Taft was an American sculptor, writer and educator.
23 Facts About Lorado Taft
2.
Lorado Taft has been credited with helping to advance the status of women as sculptors.
3.
Lorado Taft's parents were Don Carlos Taft and Mary Lucy Foster.
4.
Lorado Taft's father was a professor of geology at the Illinois Industrial University.
5.
Lorado Taft lived much of his childhood at 601 E John Street, Champaign, Illinois, near the center of the UIUC campus.
6.
The house, now known as the Lorado Taft House was built by his father in 1873.
7.
Lorado Taft taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago until 1929.
8.
Lorado Taft lectured at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois.
9.
Lorado Taft asked if he could employ some of his female students as assistants for the Horticultural Building.
10.
Later, another former student, Frances Loring, noted that Lorado Taft used his students' talents to further his own career, a not-uncommon situation.
11.
William Colvill to go in the Minnesota State Capitol rotunda, the state art commission asked the opinion of Lorado Taft who was in the city at the time.
12.
In some settings, Lorado Taft is better known for his writings than for his sculpture.
13.
In 1903, Lorado Taft published The History of American Sculpture, the first survey of the subject.
14.
In 1921, Lorado Taft published Modern Tendencies in Sculpture, a compilation of his lectures given at the Art Institute of Chicago.
15.
In 1898, Lorado Taft was a founding member of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony, which is currently a field and research campus for Northern Illinois University in Oregon, Illinois.
16.
Lorado Taft designed the Columbus Fountain at Union Station in Washington, DC, in collaboration with Daniel Burnham.
17.
Lorado Taft was a member of the National Academy of Design, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters; he headed the National Sculpture Society in the 1920s, exhibiting at both their 1923 and 1929 shows, and he served on the Board of Art Advisors of Illinois.
18.
Lorado Taft served on the US Commission of Fine Arts from 1925 to 1929, and was an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects.
19.
Lorado Taft maintained his connections with his alma mater throughout his life.
20.
Lorado Taft died in his home studio in Chicago on October 30,1936.
21.
Lorado Taft was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at Elmwood Cemetery near Bloomington, Illinois.
22.
The last major commission that Lorado Taft completed was two groups for the front entrance to the Louisiana State Capitol Building, dedicated in 1932.
23.
Lorado Taft left unfinished a vast work to be called the Fountain of Creation which he planned to place at the opposite end of the Chicago Midway to the Fountain of Time.