CRAWFORD, Thomas (1814-1857), American sculptor, was born of Irish parents at New York, March 22, 1814. He showed at an early age great taste for art, and learnt to draw and to carve in wood. In his nineteenth year he entered the studio of a firm of monumental sculptors in his native city; and at the age of twenty he went to Rome and became a pupil of Thorwaldsen. The first work which made him generally known as a man of genius was his group of Orpheus entering Hades in Search of Eurydice, executed in 1839. This was followed by other poetical sculptures, among which were the Babes in the Wood, Flora, Hebe and Ganymede, Sappho, Vesta, the Dancers, and the Hunter. Among his statues and busts are especially noteworthy the bust of Josiah Quincy, executed for Harvard University (now in the Boston Athenaeum), the equestrian statue of Washington at Richmond, Virginia, the statue of Beethoven in the Boston music hall, statues of Channing and Henry Clay, and the colossal figure of Armed Liberty for the Capitol at Washington. For this building he executed also the figures for the pediment and the bronze doors. The groups of the pediment symbolize the progress of civilization in America. Crawford's works include a large number of bas-reliefs of Scriptural subjects taken from both the Old and the New Testaments. He made Rome his home, but he visited several times his native land,—first in 1844, in which year he married, next in 1849, and lastly in 1856. His studio at Rome was very attractive to visitors, and for some time he ranked as sculptor next after Gibson. His works always bore the stamp of original invention and freshness of thought, although in execution they were open to criticism. During his last years he suffered from a tumour on the brain, which deprived him of sight; ...