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Clark Mills

American, 1810 - 1883

BiographyClark Mills was born in Onondaga, New York, in 1810. He was orphaned at a young age, and went to live with a maternal uncle, from whom he ran away at age thirteen. After finding work in various unskilled jobs, he trained as a millwright, cabinetmaker, and an ornamental plasterer, before beginning to practice sculpture in Charleston, SC. Self-taught as a sculptor, Mills developed a new technique for creating life masks that was both more efficient and less expensive. This technique resulted in his receiving commissions for portrait sculptures of well-known figures of the period. His 1844 marble bust of John C. Calhoun won him not only acclaim and a mayor’s gold medal, but financial support from wealthy South Carolinians. With their support, Mills was able to travel in 1847 to study sculpture in Richmond, VA, and Washington, DC. He was then selected by Congress to create an equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson: it was the first monumental equestrian statue cast in bronze in the United States. Mills established his own foundry in order to complete the work, which was dedicated in 1853. He also produced an equestrian statue of Washington for Washington, DC, in 1860, and cast the Capitol dome’s Freedom statue from Thomas Crawford’s design. Mills’ son, Theodore Augustus Mills, also became a sculptor and worked as Mill’s assistant.

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