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Biography
Eli Harvey (September 23, 1860 – February 10, 1957) was an American sculptor, painter and animalier. Harvey was born in Ogden, Ohio, a Quaker community in Clinton County, to William P. and Nancy M. Harvey. He attended art school in the Cincinnati Art Academy where he studied painting with Thomas Satterwhite Noble and sculpture with Louis Rebisso. In 1889 he moved to Paris where he continued his studies, with Lefebvre, Constant, Doucet and finally Frémiet. In 1897 he began exhibiting sculptures of animals at paris salons and continued doing so until returning to the United States in 1900, by which time he was firmly committed to animal sculpture. His work was exhibited at both the Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo, New York, 1900) and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Saint Louis, Missouri, 1904) and a decade later at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, California, 1915). Harvey also produced architectural sculpture for the lion house at the New York Zoological Park and two lions for the Eaton family mausoleum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Harvey's most popular work was a life-sized elk produced for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and used at their buildings and in cemeteries around the United States. His home is included on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, Ohio.
Elk, or Elk at Rest
"The Order of Elks commissioned him to create a statue of the elk. and so pleased were they with the result that they ordered numerous replicas to be made." These include the following:
| Year | Location | Image |
|---|---|---|
| 1904 | Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana |  |
| 1904 | Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, Colorado | |
| 1905 | North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island | |
| 1907 | Clinton County Historical Society, 149 East Locust Street, Wilmington, Ohio | |
| 1907 | 318 Prince Street, over entrance, Alexandria, Virginia | |
| 1909 | Riverside Cemetery, Waterbury, Connecticut |  |
| Between 1904 & 1915 | Elks Opera House, Prescott, Arizona |  |
| 1917 | Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota |  |
| 1923 | Mohawk Trail, Florida, Massachusetts |  |
| 1924 | B.P.O. E., Route 11 South, Kirkwood, New York | |
| 1925 | Toledo Memorial Park, Sylvania, Ohio | |
| 1925 | Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, New York | |
| 1936 | Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira, New York | |
| 1937 | Elks National Home, Bedford, Virginia | |
| Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terra Haute, Indiana |  | |
| Greenlawn Cemetery Newport News, Virginia |  | |
| Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York |  | |
| Roselawn Cametery, Pueblo, Colorado |  |
Work
Harvey's works can be found in :
- Clinton County History Center, Wilmington, Ohio
- Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
- R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana
- Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
- Eaton Mausoleum, Toronto, Canada
- Bronx Zoo, Bronx, New York
- Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
- St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
- Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California
- Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Alexandria, Virginia
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, District of Columbia
- Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania
- Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
- Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Kirkwood, New York
- National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
- Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming
- Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
- Bridgemarket, New York, New York