Jamaica Plain Historical Society: Sculptor Evelyn Longman And The Slocum Monument At Forest Hills Cemetery

Press release from the Jamaica Plain Historical Society:

November 10, 2021

There are four sculptures by Daniel Chester French at Forest Hills Cemetery but one is actually largely the work of his only woman assistant, his protégé Evelyn Beatrice Longman (1874 -1954). The sculpture that she worked on is the Slocum Monument. A larger-than-life relief of an angel carved in a single shaft of pink Tennessee marble, it sits under a stand of hemlock trees on Rhododendron Path off Poplar Avenue. Research by Dana Pilson, a Curatorial Assistant at Chesterwood (the home and studio of Daniel Chester French which is operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation) has shed more light on Longman, who worked in a time when it was unusual for a woman to be a professional sculptor. [1]

This press release was produced by the Jamaica Plain Historical Society. The views expressed here are the author’s own.