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Will Rogers

Will Rogers
Usage Conditions Apply
Artist
Jo Davidson, 30 Mar 1883 - 2 Jan 1952
Sitter
Will Rogers, 4 Nov 1879 - 15 Aug 1935
Date
1938 (cast 1951 or after)
Type
Sculpture
Medium
Bronze; chocolate brown patina
Dimensions
With Base (Base part of object): 47.6 x 59.7 x 39.1cm (18 3/4 x 23 1/2 x 15 3/8")
Topic
Will Rogers: Male
Will Rogers: Performing Arts\Performer\Actor\Stage actor
Will Rogers: Society and Social Change\Philanthropist
Will Rogers: Journalism and Media\Journalist\Columnist
Will Rogers: Performing Arts\Performer\Actor\Movie actor
Will Rogers: Performing Arts\Performer\Comedian
Will Rogers: Natural Resource Occupations\Agriculturist\Cowboy
Will Rogers: Journalism and Media\Journalist\Humorist
Will Rogers: Performing Arts\Performer\Showman
Will Rogers: Journalism and Media\Broadcast journalist\Commentator
Will Rogers: Politics and Government\Public official\Mayor\Beverly Hills, CA
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Object number
NPG.67.52
Exhibition Label
Born Oologah, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
Will Rogers, who was part Cherokee, once told a Boston audience, “My ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower—they met the boat.” He spent his youth in traveling circuses as a rope artist and roughrider, later adding jokes to his lariat tricks. Eventually he wound up on the vaudeville circuit, and by 1912 on Broadway, where he became a star of the Ziegfeld Follies. He also embarked on a motion picture and then a radio career that would establish him as America’s homespun philosopher. When he died in an airplane crash in 1935, Rogers was arguably the nation’s best-loved personality.
Provenance
(M. Knoedler & Co., Inc.), New York; purchased NPG 1967
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Exhibition
Bravo!
On View
NPG, South Gallery 321 Mezzanine