Original costs associated with The Weaver
- Michael Richman, author of Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor (1976) and other books on French, recounted in a 2002 talk at Peace Dale Library that his study of French's account book showed that the total contract for the Weaver (presumably including the stone base) was $17,500, equivalent to over $222,000 today. This was all paid for by Caroline Hazard.
- Architect Henry Bacon was paid $2000 (equivalent to over $29,000 today) for his design of the base.
- French's account book, according to Richman, shows that he received estimates from two foundries for the bronze casting: Gorham for $4500, and Roman Bronze Works for $3280. French went with the lower bid.
- The stone cutting and assembling was by a firm called Norcross Brothers, who were paid $5000 (about $66,000 today). Norcross Brothers was a premier firm at the time and worked on projects for prominent 19th-century architects including H. H. Richardson and McKim, Meade and White. These include, among others: the Rhode Island State House; Boston’s South Station, Symphony Hall, and Trinity Church; the New York Public Library; the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Millicent Library in Fairhaven MA.
- Regarding the stone itself, Richman noted that while much French-Bacon work is set in a Connecticut granite called Stony Creek, the Weaver, atypically, is set in brownstone. Only one other of French and Bacon’s sculptures, he said, (an 1888 monument to American School for the Deaf founder Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet in Washington, D.C.) used that stone.
- Richman referred to the two benches near the sculpture being added “at Caroline Hazard’s request.” They show up in 1920 photos, and are original to the overall installation. They bear no visible inscriptions.
Jessica Wilson