Hart, Joel T. (Joel Tanner), 1810-1877

Joel Tanner Hart was born in Clark County, Kentucky, February 10, 1810 to Josiah and Judith Tanner Hart. As a young man, he built stone walls and chimneys for a living and by the age of twenty-one was working in Pruden's marble yard in Lexington, Kentucky carving headstones and monuments. Hart began his career in sculpture when Shobal Vail Clevenger, a young sculptor from Cincinnati, encouraged him to sculpt a marble bust of Cassius Marcellus Clay. From then on, Hart received commissions to make busts of Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, John J. Crittenden, Robert Wickliffe, and Rev. Alexander Campbell. Although Hart was more enthusiastic about his poetry than his sculpture, very few of his verses were ever published in his lifetime. He died in Florence, Italy, March 2, 1877, but eight years later, his remains were brought back to Kentucky for reburial in the Frankfort Cemetery.

From the description of Papers, 1837-1881. (Centre College). WorldCat record id: 506011313

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