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Artist
Moses Wainer Dykaar, 1884 - 10 Mar 1933
Sitter
Samuel Gompers, 27 Jan 1850 - 13 Dec 1924
Date
1924
Type
Sculpture
Medium
White marble
Dimensions
Without Base: 59.7 x 40 x 38.4cm (23 1/2 x 15 3/4 x 15 1/8")
Topic
Costume\Dress Accessory\Neckwear\Tie\Necktie
Samuel Gompers: Male
Samuel Gompers: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Labor leader
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the Smithsonian American Art Museum; gift of David E. Dykaar, 1968
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.69.78
Exhibition Label
A leader in the Cigarmakers International Union in the 1870s, Samuel Gompers took issue with those who saw unions as vehicles for political influence or the transformation of capitalism: he believed that the labor movement's sole purpose was to improve wages, hours, and working conditions. Adhering to this limited mission, he organized the American Federation of Labor in 1886 and made it the most influential union in America. When he posed for this bust in the last year of his life, he told the sculptor, Moses Dykaar, "I want bread and butter for the working man and an hour to think."