Photo courtesy of Chesterwood

Join Lucas Griswold, Senior Manager for Interpretation and Education at Chesterwood, as we explore the power of self-construction and the complex interplay between public and private identities.

Renowned as a meticulous molder of monumental images like Concord’s Minute Man, Daniel Chester French carefully crafted the public persona that propelled him to the pinnacle of American sculpture. He is remembered as a family man, marrying Mary Adams French and helping to raise their daughter, Margaret French Cresson.

By examining French's life and work through a queer historical lens, this program challenges the traditional assumptions about the sculptor's identity. Lucas Griswold, Senior Manager for Interpretation and Education at Chesterwood, presents groundbreaking research that sheds new light on French's life. Through a careful analysis of letters to his close friend Newton Mackintosh, Griswold reveals a deeply personal side of the artist and questions the long-held belief in French's ‘straightness.’

Lucas Griswold is Senior Manager for Interpretation and Education at Chesterwood, a Site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the former summer residence of sculptor Daniel Chester French. Lucas has been working in the field of historical interpretation for over a decade, taking a particular interest in elevating underrepresented stories at historical sites across Massachusetts. An archaeologist by training, Lucas approaches the past as a puzzle that we all may piece together to better understand our present.

Photo: Daniel Chester French and friend Ned Powers having fun posing as cherubs while studying sculpture in Florence, Italy, in 1875.