Alexander Phimister Proctor

Born in Bosanquet, a township in Ontario, Canada, to Alexander Proctor and Tirzah Smith-Proctor. The fourth child of 11, and the last to be born in Canada.

Family moves to Clinton, Michigan by covered wagon, and in the following eight years lives in Newton and Des Moines, Iowa.

Family crosses the prairie to live in Denver. Proctor is baptized and pledges never to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco (a pledge he kept his entire life)

At age 16, Proctor kills an elk and a bear in the same day. Dissects, studies and sketches each animal.

Receives commission for 20 illustrations for the book Hands Up, written by Sheriff Dave Cook, the most noted peace officer in Colorado at the time.

Hunts and sketches in Yosemite for six months with friend Alden Sampson. While there, Proctor and Sampson climb and reinstall cable hand-holds on top fifteen hundred feet of Half Dome. After completing this difficult challenge, Proctor is determined to become a successful sculptor.

Tries mining to strike it rich and pay for art training in New York City. The plan does not live up to expectations, so Proctor sells his Colorado homestead to fund education.

Studies at National Academy of Design and the Art Students’ League.

Meets fellow sculptor John Rogers, who encourages Proctor to start on the model of Fawn in wax. Photograph of Fawn model appears in Harper’s Weekly, and the plaster is shown at the annual Century Club exhibit. While sketching at the menagerie in New York, Proctor develops the ability to retain an action picture in his mind by closing his eyes, opening them for a split second, and shutting them again.

Opens first studio, with W.W. Deming, in New York. Learns that the Greeks and Egyptians fashioned their own tools, and decides to make his own tools to increase his modeling control. Noted New York art dealer N.E. Montross handles some of Proctor’s paintings.

Visits family in Snohomish, Washington; hunts and sketches bear and elk in Alberta, Canada.

Hunts and sketches in the Cascade Mountains. Receives telegram inviting him to participate in the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Arrives in Chicago to begin his first big commission: 37 models for the Columbian Exposition. While there, he meets renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Margaret (Mody) Daisy Gerow, a painter and sculptor working for Lorado Taft.

Marries Margaret “Mody” Gerow.

Sails for Paris to study French methods of sculpture at the Académie Julien. Also studies under Denys Pierre Puech and Jean Antoine Injalbert at Académie Colarossi. Wins first prize at annual competition in Paris for The Boxer-Pug. Prize is a 100 golden franc piece.

Receives telegram from Saint-Gaudens asking him to model the horse for a statue of General Logan to be placed in Chicago.

Accepts commission; returns to New York City to work with Saint-Gaudens.

Creates another horse for Saint-Gaudens; this time he sculpts General Sherman’s horse, which now resides in Central Park, New York City.

Trip to Montana with Henry Stimson (later to become U.S. Secretary of State) to sketch, hunt and review area for a national park.

Begins work on Standing Pumas for Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York. Visits Blackfoot Indian reservation in Montana to sketch and model Indians and animals.

Receives the Rinehart Scholarship, which funds three years of study in Paris. While in France, he meets many French sculptors, works on puma sketches and models the Indian Warrior for the Rinehart Committee.

Receives commission to do the Quadriga for the American Pavilion at the International Exposition of 1900 in Paris, France. Returns to Paris.

Returns to New York. Awarded the Prix de Rome, which he turns down because it would mean doing classical statues.

Returns to New York. Receives commission for sculptures to be exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York.

Exhibits nine small bronzes, mostly animals, at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York.

Completes Sentinal Lions for the Frick Building, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Receives commission for a copper griffin for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, St. Louis, Missouri. Also creates a sculpture of Louis Jolliet for the Exposition. Makes a number of models for the House of Primates at the Zoological Park, New York City.

Completes Lions for McKinley Monument and completes the decorations for the elephant house at the Bronx Zoo. Receives commission for two tigers for the entrance to Nassau Hall, Princeton University.

Receives commission to do four tigers for the 16th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. Works on Buffalo Heads for State Dining Room in the White House.

Receives commission for bronze Bison Keystones for the Arlington Cemetery Bridge, Washington, D.C.

Hunts and sketches in Canada’s Banff and Waterton Lakes areas. Meets George Pratt and his brother Herbert Pratt. Herbert commissions two Tigers and one four-foot Buffalo for his estate at Glen Cove, Long Island, New York.

Antelope hunting trip to Edmonton with Alden Sampson.

One-man show at the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon. Receives commission for four, large bronze Buffalo for the Q Street Bridge, Washington, D.C. Visits 200,000-acre Wainwright game preserve to study and sketch buffalo.

Hunting trip with George Pratt to Alberta.

Big game hunting trip to Fort Steele, British Columbia, with George Pratt to gather specimens for the Smithsonian.

Works on Indian Pursued. Chief Little Wolf, a Cheyenne Indian, poses for the sculpture. Proctor performs secret ceremony to become a blood brother to Chief Little Wolf.

Travels to Portland, Oregon to work on several bas-reliefs. Attends a round-up in Pendleton, Oregon. Starts The Buckaroo. Completes work on small bronze Indian head called Jackson Sundown. Homesteads 120 acres near William Hanley’s ranch. Hanley is cattle king of Eastern Oregon, and later U.S. senator.

Completes the buffalo portion of the Buffalo Hunt and then selects Jackson Sundown, nephew of Chief Joseph, as the model for the statue’s horse rider.

Moves to Lapwai, Nez Perce reservation with Mody and their seven children to model Jackson Sundown. Camps with the Indians in a tepee.

Receives commissions for Bronco Buster, On the War Trail, Pioneer and Mohawk Indian.

Moves to Palo Alto, California. Needs a larger studio, so Stanford University leases Proctor a room in the engineering building.

Drives 1500 miles to Browning, Montana, in search of a new model for On the War Trail and Mohawk Indian. Spends the summer at Many Glacier modeling Blackfoot Indians. Returns to California in late fall with Big Beaver, his model, to complete On the War Trail.

Receives commissions for The Rough Rider and Circuit Rider.

Sells Palo Alto home and moves to Hollywood, California. He knows he can find models from movie sets for the recent commission for the Pioneer Mother group.

William Mitchell Kendall, chairman of the American Academy in Rome, offers Proctor a studio at the Academy. Proctor accepts and becomes their Resident Sculptor.

Arrives in Rome.

The Pioneer Mother project is cast in bronze in Rome and transported to Kansas City, Missouri.

Travels to Brussels, Belgium.

Returns to U.S. and settles in Wilton, Connecticut.

Receives commission for General Robert E. Lee and Young Soldier.

General Robert E. Lee and Young Soldier dedicated in Dallas, Texas with President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiling the statue.

Sells Wilton, Connecticut home and moves to New York City.

Works on drypoint etchings of wild animals. Mody has heart problems.

Bear hunting trip to Southeastern Alaska. Shoots his limit of four bears.

Proctors move to Seattle, Washington. Receives commission for Mustangs for the University of Texas, Austin.

Lives for a year at Rancho Los Palos, Texas, while modeling a stallion, five mares and a colt for Mustangs.

Moves to North Bend, Washington.

Begins serious work on autobiography, Sculptor in Buckskin, and continues to sketch and paint.

Mody Proctor dies.

Proctor moves back to Palo Alto, California.

Hunts in Alaska. Kills a bear 69 years after killing his first bear at age 16-two days before his 85th birthday.

The Mustangs completed in 1939 are finally cast, following the World War II bronze shortage.

Dies in Palo Alto at the age of 89.