283 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
IDEAL SCULPTURE for CEMETERY MEMORIALS 
The higher types of cemetery memori- 
als that embody fine, original expres- 
sions of ideal sculpture are so rare as 
to make each one of much importance 
in the elevation of cemetery art. Sev- 
eral distinguished examples of this class 
of memorials, executed by Miss Nellie 
V. Walker, the Chicago sculptor, have 
been illustrated in these pages from time 
to time, and we show herewith another 
one, that is generally regarded as the 
best thing Miss Walker has done in this 
particular field of sculpture. 
This is the D. F. Diggins memorial at 
Cadillac, Mich., an unusually interesting 
example of Miss Walker’s Rodinesque 
type of cemetery memorials in which 
she has made very successful use of 
spirit figures half-emerging from rough 
blocks of granite, so as to convey a 
message in purely ideal and symbolic 
terms. It is a conception of rare im- 
aginative beauty and monumental feel- 
ing. Four faintly outlined figures are 
emerging from an immense block. A 
benign, graceful presence bends pro- 
tectingly over a child and joins hands 
with two other spirit figures that occupy 
the front of the mass. The spirit of 
generosity and service to humanity is 
further suggested by the inscription 
wrought into the base of the block: 
“That best portion of a good man’s life 
— his little nameless, unremembered acts 
of kindness and of love.” The work is 
executed in Westerly granite, and has 
been given an unusually impressive set- 
ting of foliage, which unfortunately does 
not show in the winter photograph from 
which our illustration was made. 
The composition of the figure and the 
blending of the sculptured parts with the 
mass of the block has been very effect- 
ively done to produce a genuinely sculp- 
tural and monumental effect. 
Miss Walker, who is the daughter of 
an Iowa monument maker, has of recent 
years specialized in this form of sculp- 
ture, and several of her original sym- 
bolic sculptures have been erected as 
family or individual cemetery memorials. 
Her Stratton monument at Colorado 
Springs, Colo., takes the form of a great 
Westerly granite block, roughly sur- 
faced, with faintly outlined figures 
emerging from the rugged front. 
Her “Memorial to a Young Girl” is 
in form of a monumental tablet of good 
architectural lines hollowed out to form 
a background for an angel that stoops 
to kiss a young girl standing upright. 
The face is a delicately wrought type of 
girlish countenance, and the work as a 
whole combines the qualities of good 
architecture and sculpture. This group 
DIGGINS MEMORIAL, CADILLAC, MICH. 
Nellie V. Walker, Sc. 
was awarded the John C. Shaffer prize 
of $100 for the best piece of sculpture 
at a recent exhibition in Chicago and 
has been highly complimented in that 
city. 
Miss Walker’s latest work in her par- 
ticular field of sculptured cemetery me- 
morials is the monument erected for 
Mrs. Johannes Decker, at Battle Creek, 
Mich., which has also been shown in 
these pages. It embodies a bronze fig- 
ure of Memory standing in front of a 
low wall or tablet that makes an ef- 
fective architectural background for the 
figure. Memory stands in a graceful 
and natural attitude, with one hand on 
either end of the tablet, and holding a 
wreath that rests on the corners of the 
supporting member. Both figure and 
drapery have been treated with rare 
sculptural workmanship and the face is 
one of unusual expression and beauty. 
It is encouraging to note in these newer 
sculptured cemetery memorials that even 
in a private memorial the same careful 
consideration may be given the monument 
and setting as in a public monument. It 
is possible in the cemetery, as well as in 
the park or public square, to follow the 
principle that a monument should be so 
placed as not only to recall symbolically 
the services of the person, but to be a 
distinct ornament to the place in which it 
stands. A monument should be so placed 
that it is in proper relation to its site, be 
it street, cemetery or park ; that its com- 
memorative or particular character is in 
harmony with its surroundings. 
