A job lettering gravestones leads to an exceptional life as an artist and teacher.
The story of Truman Bartlett.

Truman Howe Bartlett was born in Dorset on this day in 1835. He would become a famous portraitist and sculptor.

Bartlett began by lettering tombstones. He and his wife eventually moved to Rome and Paris where he began to gain recognition as an accomplished sculptor.

When he returned to the States, he worked for a Boston architect, J. Philip Rinn, and helped formulate a design for the proposed Bennington Monument. It got turned down.

Bartlett found his way to MIT, where he taught for 23 years. He also mounted a display of his own work that ran for 14 year period at the National Academy of Design in New York.

Image courtesy the Vermont Historical Society.

October Archives | October 26