110 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



William Rush. Mr. Rush received his 

 education in London, and returned in 1787 

 to practise his profession in Philadelphia. 

 His first efforts were directed to modelling 

 in clay, but finding little encouragement for 

 a native artist in Philadelphia he applied 

 himself to the carving of ships' figureheads. 

 In this field he was without a rival, and to 

 a wonderful technical skill he added an 

 artistic sense of beauty and genius for com- 

 position which, had his work been done 

 in more enduring material, would have 

 stamped him as one of the best as he was the 

 earliest of American sculptors. He was the 

 first carver to give an idea of life and motion 

 to a ship's figurehead. Each of his figure- 

 heads was either the lifelike representation 

 of an individual or some symbolic concep- 

 tion expressed in exquisite carving. His 

 most noted productions were "Nature" for 

 the "Constellation," the "Genius of the 



quarter a large figure of Mars. On the highest part of 

 the stern appeared "Wisdom*' and above her head an 

 owl. BREWSTEB, History of Portsmouth, p. 36. 



