Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French

The definitive biography of Daniel Chester French, the artist who created the statue for the Lincoln Memorial, John Harvard in Harvard Yard, and The Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts.

Harold Holzer is Lincoln scholar and prizewinning author of numerous books on Civil War-era art and history, including Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion and Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America. Holzer appears frequently on radio and television, most recently C-SPAN and CNN and in Lincoln and Civil War documentaries for the BBC, PBS, and the History Channel--a period coincident with French’s life and times. Formerly chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and Foundation, he currently serves as director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, City University of New York. In 2008 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal, and in 2023 the Saint-Gaudens Medal. The National Trust for Historic Preservation protects significant places representing diverse cultural experience by taking direct action and inspiring broad public support. Its purpose is to save the places that shape the American experience, to honor personal and shared stories, and to inspire a more vibrant future. In 1969, French’s daughter, Margaret French Cresson, donated Chesterwood, the former summer home, studio, and gardens of Daniel Chester French in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to the National Trust. Monument Man was commissioned by the National Trust to celebrate and coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Cresson’s gift.