The leading American sculptor of the twentieth century, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) received his first important commission, the statue The Minute Man (dedicated in 1875), from the town of Concord, Massachusetts. Commemorating the centennial celebration of the battles of April 19, 1775, it is sited at the North Bridge, on the side of the Concord River where the colonists fought.

Of the statue, French would later say: “Perhaps as important a moment in my life was when the good people of Concord, Massachusetts, rashly voted to trust to an inexperienced sculptor a statue of a Minute Man to commemorate the opposition that the British regulars experienced at Concord Bridge. This action resulted in a statue that I think I can say without blushing is better than the citizens had a right to expect.”

Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, French moved with his family to Concord in 1867. He briefly attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began to study sculpture during the winter of 1868-69 under the tutelage of artist and fellow Concord resident Abigail May Alcott (youngest siste of Louisa May Alcott). Naturally talented, his brief formal art training included a month-long apprenticeship with John Quincy Adams Ward in 1870, augmented by evening drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. In Boston, during the winters of 1871 and 1872, French attended anatomy lectures given by William Rimmer and took drawing lessons from William Morris Hunt.

French traveled abroad extensively. He established studios in Washington, D.C., Boston, and New York City. In 1897 he purchased the estate that would become Chesterwood, a summer home and studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

One of the more prolific artists of his time, French is best known for the seated figure of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., dedicated in 1922. Among other works are the equestrian statues of General Ulysses S. Grant (dedicated 1899) in Philadelphia and General George Washington (1900) in Paris; three pairs of bronze doors (1894–1904) for the Boston Public Library; the Standing Lincoln (1909–12), Lincoln, Nebraska; the statue of Ralph Waldo Emerson (dedicated 1914) in the Concord Free Public Library; the Alma Mater statue (1900–03) at Columbia University; and The Four Continents (1903–07) at the former United States Custom House in New York City.

French died in 1931 at age 81 in Stockbridge and is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, where Mourning Glory, also known as The Melvin Memorial, which he considered one of his best pieces, is sited.