Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Taft, Lorado

TAFT, Lorado, sculptor, b. in Elmwood, Peoria co., Ill., 29 April, 1860. He was graduated at Illinois state university, Champaign, Ill., in 1879, studied at the École des beaux arts, Paris, during 1880-'3, and afterward with Marius Jean Antoine Mercié and others for two years. He has executed several busts and medallions, a statue of Schuyler Colfax, which was unveiled in Indianapolis in 1888, and reliefs for Michigan regimental monuments on the Gettysburg battle-field. He is engaged on a statue of Gen. Grant for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Taft is instructor in sculpture at the Chicago art institute.