Carl Henry Conrads was born in Breisig, Kingdom of Württemberg (present day Germany) in 1839. He emigrated to New York City in 1860 and enlisted the next year in Company G, 20th New York Volunteers serving 13 months. He then re-enlisted in Battery F and was discharged in 1863. He saw action in the battles of Antietam, the Seven Days before Richmond and Fredericksburg. While stationed in Virginia he witnessed the naval battle between the Monitor and Merrimac.
Carl Henry Conrads (1839-1920)
In 1866, he moved to Hartford, Connecticut and was hired as chief sculptor by James Goodwin Batterson for what was to become in 1871 the New England Granite Works. He went on to create many sculpture models that were turned into bronze, marble and granite monuments, gaining national recognition for his model used to produce the colossal Private Soldier (Old Simon) monument located in Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, MD.
This photo taken by C. Seaver, Jr. of the finished statue at Rhode island Granite Works in Westerly, RI shows Conrads’ model standing in the background on the left edge of the photo.
Sculptor and sculpture historian, Lorado Taft, said of him:
a German of good training, has identified himself with sculpture in granite, and has done much creditable work well adapted to the requirements of that ungrateful material.
In 1878, Conrads was commissioned to produce a sculpture representing Hope for the Boardman family monument to be placed in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, CT.
(Photo taken by Beverly Lucas, Director of the Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation)
On 9 February 1878, the Hartford Courant ran this article mentioning the monument.
Among the monuments one lately up at Cedar Hill in the city deserves special mention, illustrating a prominent characteristic of the excellence which marks the designs of the [New England Granite Work]. We refer to the modeling of the human figure so frequently a feature of the more elaborate class on monuments work. The statue in question is symbolic of Hope is is one of the best works of Mr. Conrads’ sculpture at the New England Granite Works. The figure is seven feet in height and is not only graceful in outline but is wonderfully expressive, the drapery being managed with rare skill and the attitude marked by dignity and repose. The whole study evincing much care and thought.
In 1880, Conrads was commissioned to produce the sculpture to be used the Alexander Hamilton Monument to be placed in New York City’s Central Park.
The invitation sent to Conrads. (Photo sent by Tasha Caswell, Digitalization Lab Manager at th eConnecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford, CT)
Anyone familiar with what the weather in the Northeast in late November can be like will relate to the 23 November article in the New York Times about the unveiling.
Visitors who when up town in public conveyances see the ceremony had a bleak time of it….[I]t was the coldest day of the season, and the usual insolence of the employees was increased by the nipping frost. Arrived at the Park, these visitors were compelled to make a long detour to reach the statue, not being permitted by the extreme zealous Park Police to walk through a carriage drive that led straight to the spot. The 500 visitors were well muffled up, as they needed to be, for the wind swept the elevation like a hurricane.
Alexander Hamilton monument, Central Park, New York, NY
In 1883, Conrads was commissioned to produce the sculpture for the General Thayer monument to be set on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY.
Invitation sent to Carl Conrads (Photo taken by Tasha Caswell, Digitalization Lab Manager at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford, CT)
Colonel Sylvanus Thayer monument, located next to The Plain, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY
In 1886, Conrads was commissioned to produce the sculpture to be used in the Milner monument that was carved from Westerly White granite and set in Westerly’s River Bend Cemetery.
Milner Monument, River Bend Cemetery, Westerly, RI
Another member of the Capitol Gang, John Francis Brines, carved the granite statue using Conrads’ model.
In 1889, Conrads was commissioned to produce the sculpture to be used for the casting of a bronze statue of General John Stark to be placed in front of the New Hampshire State Capitol. Architect John A. Fox designed the New England Granite Works pedestal made of Concord granite.
The invitation sent to Conrads. (Photo sent by Tasha Caswell, Digitalization Lab Manager at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford, CT)
General John Stark monument, in front of the New Hampshire State Capitol.
The New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the Revolution placed the order for the memorial and the committee selected the $8,000 proposal by New England Granite Works. Conrads used a Trumbull’s portrait for Stark’s face and modeled the body on his assistant sculptor, John Francis Brines. The statue was dedicated Oct. 23, 1890, in front of the New Hampshire State Capitol.
In 1894, the Committee for the State of New Hampshire would order a second General Stark statue from New England Granite Works. This time it was to be made from Italian Carrara marble and be placed in the United States Capitol in Washington, DC.
This letter explains why the second Stark statue was different from the first (Photo sent by Tasha Caswell, Digitalization Lab Manager at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford, CT)
National Statuary Hall in the U. S. Capitol, circa 1900-1910 (Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection)
The pedestal was made of Concord, NH granite from the quarry owned by New England Granite Works.
Stark statue, National Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol
The statue can be found today standing in The Crypt of the United States Capitol.
In April of 1899, The New England Granite Works received an order for a statue on pedestal placed by the Denver Marble and Granite Company of Denver, CO. Company architect, Albert Fahmer, designed the pedestal to be carved from Concord granite.
Markham monument, Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, CO (Photo taken by Digginrellies or Find a Grave_
The group statue was sculpted by Carl Henry Conrads. According to Materials and Visual Cultures of Religion,
In the summer of 1900, Denver acquired an unusual sculpture to mark the resting place of pioneer attorney Vincent Daniel Markham (1826-1895) and his wife Mary (ca. 1834-1893)….According to instructions in the will he wrote shortly before his death, [Markham’s] executors chose a monument to illustrate the inscription ‘Humanity and Charity Our Religion.’ Markham specified a cost of $5,000-7,000 to be taken from [the] estate….He left the form of the monument up to his executors…who held a competition and chose from over 30 proposals the entry of William Greenlee’s Denver Marble and Granite Company. Greenlee had submitted the subject of the Good Samaritan aiding the Israelite, a design he obtained from the New England Granite [Works] of Hartford, Connecticut. It was carved in the east, shipped by rail to Denver, and assembled by Greenlee’s firm.
Markham monument, Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, CO (Materials and Visual Cultures of Religion)
In 1903, Conrads left New England Granite Works and retired soon after, moving to West Hartford, CT where he died on 24 May 1920. On 9 January 1922 his wife, Helen Roemer Goetz-Stadtmuller Conrads, ordered a simple headstone from New England Granite Works to mark his grave in West Hartford’s Fairview Cemetery.
The New England Granite Works order (Photo sent by Tasha Caswell, Digitalization Lab Manager at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford, CT)
Fairview Cemetery, West Hartford, CT (Photo taken by Marty Aligata for Wikipedia)
Even after Carl Conrads left New England Granite Works, the company continued to use his models. In 1914, the company used his model of the Archangel Gabriel for their Heublein family monument located in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, CT.
