Paul Manship

The sculptor Paul Manship studied at the St. Paul Institute of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. While a student, he also worked as a studio assistant to Solon Borglum, Isidore Konti, and Charles Grafly. He was awarded a Rome Prize in 1909 and, in 1912, was named a fellow in sculpture at the American Academy in Rome, where his work was influenced by Assyrian, Egyptian, and early Greek precedents. In 1913 he returned to the United States and his career was established by exhibitions at the Architectural League and Pennsylvania Academy. Among his best known public pieces are the gates for the Bronx Zoo and Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Near the time of his death, Manship completed the statue of Theodore Roosevelt for the memorial to the twenty-sixth president at Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C. He was affiliated with the National Academy, the National Sculpture Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His many honors include a Pierpont Morgan fellowship, a Widener Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the award of Chevalier from the French Legion of Honor. His papers are at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.