Francis D. Millet

Francis Davis Millet was a painter and muralist whose works are in the collections of major museums, including the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Detroit Museum. His work also appeared in the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and in the Government Pavilion of the Paris Exposition of 1900. In addition to painting, Millet designed U.S. military medals for veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine Insurrection. Following service in the Union Army during the Civil War, Millet received an undergraduate degree in 1869 and a master’s degree in 1872, both from Harvard University. He studied painting at the Royal Academy in Antwerp from 1871 to 1873, traveled extensively, and reported on the Turkish War for the New York Herald from 1877 to 1878. He was secretary of the American Academy in Rome, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a member of the National Academy of Design as well as numerous other painting, muralist, and art societies in the U.S. and England. The multitalented Millet also wrote travel books, translated Tolstoy, and, with Daniel Burnham in 1890, wrote a book on the planning and design of the World’s Fair. Millet died in the sinking of the Titanic and is memorialized with his friend, Archibald Butt, in the Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain in Washington, D.C. Millet’s papers are collected in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.