Franklin Simmons

Franklin Bachelder Simmons (January 11, 1839 – December 8, 1913) was a prominent American sculptor of the nineteenth century. Three of his statues are in the National Statuary Hall Collection, three of his busts are in the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection, and his statue of Ulysses S. Grant is in the United States Capitol Rotunda.

Simmons was born in Webster, Maine. He spent most of his childhood in Bath, Maine and Lewiston, Maine. He attended Bates College (then called the Maine State Seminary) in 1858. Simmons started sculpting and painting during childhood. He studied with John Adams Jackson.

During the last two years of the American Civil War, he moved to Washington, D.C. and modeled 24 portrait medallions of President Abraham Lincoln, his Cabinet, and generals and admirals. The Union League of Philadelphia purchased most of the medallions. In 1867 Simmons received an honorary A.M. from Bates College and from Colby.

Simmons went to live in Rome in 1868, but returned several times. Among his portrait busts are those of David D. Porter, James G. Blaine, Francis Wayland, and Ulysses S. Grant (1886). He is said to have made a female statue of The Wanderer, meant to depict a Jewess wandering in the desert. He died in Rome, aged 74, and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1867–69), Chelsea, Massachusetts.

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