''Middlebury to Her Soldiers'' is a public artwork by

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artists Marshall Jones and Seward Jones, located on the triangle between Merchant's Row and South Pleasant Street in Middlebury, VT,

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. It was fabricated by the Jones Brothers Company of Barre, VT. The

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

sculpture consists of a figure in a Civil War uniform holding a flag in his

proper right Proper right and proper left are conceptual terms used to unambiguously convey relative direction when describing an image or other object. The "proper right" hand of a figure is the hand that would be regarded by that figure as its right hand. ...

arm standing atop a multi-layered granite pedestal. Figures depicting an artilleryman, a cavalryman, a marine, and an infantryman stand at the four corners of the pedestal's central section.

Description

On the west side, the base is inscribed "Middlebury to Her Soldiers". On the east side, the base is inscribed "Donated by S.A. Ilsley Erected 1905". Neither the sculptures nor the base are signed by the artists. The sculpture is made of a light, fine grained medium Barre granite from the Jones Brothers company's quarry. It measures approximately 32 feet 1 inch high, with the base measuring approximately 2 feet 8 inches x 17 feet 6 inches x 17 feet 6 inches. The sculpture has also been referred to as the Soldier's Monument, the Civil War Monument, the Ilsley Monument, and the Spanish American Monument.

Historical information

The sculpture sits over a fire protection cistern which had been made obsolete after a water system had been installed in the village in 1902.

Acquisition

The sculpture was commissioned by Silas A. Ilsley (13 March 1840 – 9 January 1918) on 18 November 1904. Ilsley had served in the New York infantry during the Civil War and moved to Middlebury in 1901 following his retirement from the tinware business in Brooklyn, NY. He donated the monument to the town of Middlebury and the sculpture was dedicated 30 May 1905. The celebration of the dedication was reportedly attended by 7,000 people and included speeches, a parade, and fireworks.

Artist

Marshall Jones and Seward Jones designed the sculpture which was fabricated by the Jones Brothers Company, founded in

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, MA in 1882 and began operations in Barre, VT in 1886. The company's granite shed, now the home of the Vermont Granite Museum, is considered significant by the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and was named one of "America's Treasures" by the

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Condition

This sculpture was documented as needing conservation treatment in 1992 as part of Save Outdoor Sculpture!, a campaign organized by Heritage Preservation: The National Institute of Conservation in partnership with the

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, specifically the

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. Throughout the 1990s, over 7,000 volunteers cataloged and assessed the condition of over 30,000 publicly accessible statues, monuments, and sculptures installed as outdoor public art across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In Vermont, the survey was sponsored by the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance from 1992 to 1993 where 110 volunteers surveyed 242 sculptures dating from 1740 to 1993. The archives from the project are maintained by the

Vermont Historical Society The Vermont Historical Society (VHS) was founded in 1838 to preserve and record the cultural history of the US state of Vermont. Headquartered in the old Spaulding School Building in Barre, the Vermont History Center is home to the Vermont His ...

References

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External links

Burlington Free Press article about Civil War monuments in Vermont dated 29 May 2011.
1905 establishments in Vermont 1905 sculptures Buildings and structures in Middlebury, Vermont Monuments and memorials in Vermont Outdoor sculptures in Vermont Spanish–American War memorials in the United States Union (American Civil War) monuments and memorials Vermont in the American Civil War