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John Rogers Photograph Collection

Call Number

PR 122

Date

1860-1927, undated, inclusive

Creator

Rogers, John, 1829-1904

Extent

3.5 Linear feet (6 boxes)

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

Collection of photographs portraying sculptor John Rogers, his family, residence, studio and sculpture groups. Included are photographs of sculpture by other artists.

Biographical Note

John Rogers was a prominent American sculptor of the second half of the nineteenth century. The popularity of his work was unprecedented among American sculptors; between 1860 and 1893 he sold approximately eighty-thousand works. His success has been credited to his keen marketing as well as to his passion for addressing themes close to the heart of middle class Americans. Rogers eschewed classical sculpture styles and instead produced extremely detailed, narrative sculpture groups that focused on themes of everyday American life, popular literature, and the Civil War. Cast in plaster in order to be affordable, the Rogers Groups were renowned for their wit, humor, and sentimentality.

Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1829, Rogers counted among his ancestors several generations of New England clergymen and merchants. Rogers's immediate family, however, was not particularly wealthy, and discouraged their son's early artistic efforts on the grounds that the life of an artist would not provide a sufficient salary. Instead, Rogers began working as a machinist and draftsman. He lived in various regions of the country in the course of his career, finally rising to the rank of master mechanic for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Rail Road in Hannibal, Missouri in 1856. He lost this job in the money panic of 1857. Having time on his hands, Rogers decided to give in to his artistic aspirations and traveled Europe in 1858 to study with the masters. His experiences in Paris and Rome were discouraging. He disliked the predominant classical styles that were taught and discovered that even the finest American artists found it difficult to make a living from their work. After only a year abroad, he returned to Chicago to become a draftsman again, leaving behind his hopes of becoming an artist.

In Chicago in 1859, he was encouraged by a friend to submit a small sculpture for a church auction. The piece he submitted, Checker Players, attracted enough attention that within months Rogers decided to move to New York and become a professional artist. There he met with some initial resistance in getting his work into shops. To gain publicity, he hired an African American to sell his anti-slavery work, Slave Auction, in the streets of New York, eventually drawing the notice of prominent abolitionists in the spring of 1860. Within the year he had made a name for himself and was getting positive reviews in the New York press. Stores were eager to stock his groups.

Rogers worked in plaster to keep production costs down and make his sculpture affordable. However, as orders increased, he became frustrated by the slowness and poor workmanship of his plaster casters. He endeavored to learn the trade himself and late in 1860 set up his own workshop, cutting costs and improving output. Although Rogers would produce some works in bronze and marble during his career, he would always be best known for his widely distributed plaster casts.

In the following years, he was increasingly successful. He broadened the audience for his work by placing groups in stores in Boston and Philadelphia. He began advertising in catalogs and periodicals and experimenting with packing methods so he could ship his works long distances. His works addressed a variety of themes, but those addressing the Civil War or portraying comical or literary scenes met with the most success.

In 1864, as his professional success grew, Rogers met and soon after married Harriet Moore Francis, a music teacher at Miss Haines' Gramercy Park Boarding School for Young Ladies. In 1866 they had their first child and began spending summers in New Canaan, Connecticut. By 1877 the family had built a house and made New Canaan their permanent home, returning to New York only occasionally. In New Canaan, Rogers built a studio adjacent to his house in which he sculpted the majority of his later works.

The Rogers Groups flourished in popularity through the 1870s and 1880s, but by 1889, the business began to go into decline as realism went out of fashion. Rogers, however, continued with his creative studio work, and produced one of his most acclaimed figures, a life-sized Abraham Lincoln, in 1892. Lincoln won a bronze medal the following year at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Rogers suffered through the late 1890s from a progressive illness and died in 1904. Although he is not remembered as a great classical artist, his ability to bring the appreciation of sculpture to a wide audience of Americans was considered revolutionary.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into three series based on subject:

Missing Title

  1. Series I: Personal Photographs
  2. Series II: Sculpture by Rogers
  3. Series III: Sculpture by Other Artists

Scope and Content Note

The John Rogers Photograph Collection spans the period from 1860-1927 and primarily contains photographs and documents relating to the family life and artistic career of John Rogers. Also included are photographs of other artists' work collected by Rogers, and photographs of famous acquaintances whose likenesses he sculpted.

Access Restrictions

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as: John Rogers Photograph Collection, PR 122, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Provenance

Gifts of Katherine Rebecca Rogers in 1936, 1937, 1955, 1956; gifts of Adelaide Hegeman Rogers in 1949 and 1955.

Related Material at The New-York Historical Society

Within the Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, additional images of John Rogers and Rogers family members are available in the Cased Photograph File (PR 012), certificates given to Rogers at various exhibitions are in the Certificate File (PR 014), a 1939 calendar showing Rogers sculpture groups is located in the Calendar File (PR 146) and an album containing photographs of Rogers and his sculpture groups is available in the Album File (PR 002-12). For correspondence, published catalogs, and promotional materials relating to John Rogers, see Miscellaneous Manuscripts Rogers in the New-York Historical Society Library. Bronze masters and plaster Rogers Groups are available for study in the Henry Luce III Center of The New-York Historical Society. For further information on John Rogers' life and work, see David H. Wallace. John Rogers: The People's Sculptor. (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press: 1967).

Collection processed by

Jennifer Lewis

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:50:27 -0400.
Language: Description is in English.

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from rogers.xml

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024