Coal Miner (statue)
Coal Miner is a public artwork by Polish American artist John J. Szaton (1907–1966) which is located in two US State capitals; the original, commissioned in 1963 in Springfield, Illinois, as well as a copy on the west lawn of the Indiana State House in Indianapolis The statues commemorate coal miners who had lost their lives in those states' mining industry. The tall statue rests on a square, granite base supported by a cement foundation that is thick. Historical information Illinois The Coal Miner statue was originally commissioned in 1963 by the State of Illinois, after 15 years of advocacy work by coal miner, artist, and poet Vachel Davis (1898–1966). The Illinois legislature appropriated $15,000 for the construction and casting of a memorial to Illinois coal miners. Davis, who was acquainted with artist John J. Szaton, recommended that he submit a sketch for the monument based on Davis's 1946 painting American Coal Miner. The legislature accepted Szaton's initial sketch. After submitting an model of the sculpture, which was approved, Szaton received a contract to create the full-scale piece. Szaton created a full-scale plaster sculpture in his Tinley Park studio before casting the statue in bronze. The plaster sculpture is still able to be viewed in the Tinley Park Historical Society Museum. The sculpture, dedicated in Illinois in 1964, was intended to commemorate the Illinois coal miners who had been killed in the state's coal mines. It is installed on the north end of the Illinois State Capitol's lawn in Springfield, Illinois, and faces Second Street. The dedication ceremony took place on October 16, 1964, with speeches from Illinois governor Otto Kerner, Jr. and Paul Powell, former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Michael F. Widman Jr. represented the United Mine Workers of America at the dedication ceremony, standing in for John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, who was ill and unable to attend. A letter from Lewis commended the State of Illinois for being the first to honor their coal miners with such a memorial. A plaque was added in 1981 citing Szaton as its sculptor. The Illinois statue is owned and administered by the State of Illinois. Indiana In 1965 the Indiana General Assembly appropriated funds to commission a copy of the sculpture to memorialize Hoosier coal miners who had been killed on the job. The Indiana statue was dedicated in 1967. As with the Illinois sculpture, it is a public artwork. Indiana's statue of The Coal Miner is owned and administered by the State of Indiana, Department of Administration. Szaton's wife donated the full-scale plaster sculpture to the Tinley Park Historical Society in 1986. Reproductions of small-scale versions of the monument have been mass-produced; over 200 have been given as gifts by the coal industry over the years. Artist John J. Szaton was born in 1907 in Ludlow, Massachusetts. He apprenticed under well-known Illinois sculptor Lorado Taft, who invited Szaton to come to Chicago after meeting him on a lecture tour of various high