Background
Story, William Wetmore was born on February 12, 1819 in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Joseph and Sarah Waldo (Wetmore) Story.
Story, William Wetmore was born on February 12, 1819 in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Joseph and Sarah Waldo (Wetmore) Story.
Bachelor of Arts, Harvard, 1838, Bachelor of Laws, 1840. Doctor of Civil Law (honorary), Oxford (England) University, U. Bologna (Italy).
Admitted to bar, circa 1840, practiced with firm Hillard and Sumner. United States commissioner in bankruptcy. Commissioner United States courts in Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania.
Reporter United States Circuit Court, District of Massachusetts.
Sculptor, from 1847; lived in Rome, Italy, from 1856. Exhibited sculpture, London, 1862.
(became leading figure Anglo-American sculpturer). United States commissioner fine arts World’s Fair, Paris, France, 1879.
Decorated by Italy, France.
Principal works include: Cleopatra (described in Hawthorne’s Marble Faun), Libyan Spy (now in National Gallery Art, Washington, District of Columbia), Saul, 1863, Medea, 1864 (at centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, now Metropolitan Museum, New York City), Salome, 1870, Jerusalem in Her Desolation, 1873 (now in Pennsylvania Academy Fine Arts, Philadelphia), Alcestis, 1874, statue Judge Joseph Story (his father). Author: (legal textbooks) A Treatise on the Law of Contracts Not Under Seal, 1844, A Treatise on the Law of Sales of Personal Property, 1847. (collections essays) Robadi Roma, 1862, The Graffiti d’Italia, 1868, Vallambrosa, 1881, Excursions in Arts and Letters, 1891.
(treatise) The Proportions of the Human Figure, 1866.
Contributor poems, essays Boston Miscellany and Pioneer.
Married Emelyn Eldredge, October 31, 1843. Children: Thomas Waldo, Julian Russel, Joseph, Madame Edith Story Peruzzi.