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Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Frank Gaylord, Sculptor, Papers, A&M 4501, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Born in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1925 to Richard and Thelma Gaylord, Frank Gaylord reportedly began his sculpting career at the age of three, crafting animals out of clay when his grandmother refused to make them for him. Gaylord went on to attend Washington Irving High School in Clarksburg, graduating in 1943 and subsequently being drafted by the United States Army a few weeks later. Serving with the 1st Battalion, 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 17th Airborne Divison in the Second World War, Gaylord received the Bronze Star for Valor for his actions and spent many months in a military hospital recovering from injuries he endured while serving.

Upon returning stateside, Frank Gaylord enrolled in the School of Art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the GI Bill. However, after two years of studying in Pittsburgh, Gaylord transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1950. Prior to graduating, Frank Gaylord married Mary Cornwell of Clarksburg, West Virginia, daughter of John and Mabel Cornwell.

In 1951, Frank and his wife Mary moved to Barre, Vermont where Frank became an apprentice stonecutter at the E.J. Bachlender Company honing his skills carving gravestones, markers, and other assigned projects. Gaylord eventually struck out on his own and in time made his mark in the field. Among the many commissions he recieved were monuments celebrating historical figures including Presidents Calvin Coolidge and John F. Kennedy, Boston Pops conducter Arthur Fiedler, state governors, and playwright William Shakespeare. Other notable works include many religious sculptures and sculptural tributes to the American pioneer family and Little League baseball.

Gaylord's most ambitious work, "The Column," more collectively known as the Korean War Memorial is located near the Lincoln Memorial, on the west end of the National Mall. The memorial was many years in the making, with progress hampered by competing interests resulting in a final monument composed of disparate if not conflicting elements. Frank Gaylord's Column features nineteen soldiers representing an ethnic cross-section of America and all branches of the United States military. Cast in stainless steel and standing slightly over seven feet tall, the figures are on patrol, interspersed among juniper bushes and polished granite slabs representing the landscape and agrarian features of the Korean pennisula. Also featured at the memorial are: a 30 feet in diameter Pool of Remembrance; a United Nations Wall honoring the 22 countries that contributed to the war effort; and a Murla Wall, 164 feet in length and composed of more than 2,400 photographic images. Dedicated in 1995 by President Bill Clinton on the 42nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, the memorial was the culmination of Frank Gaylord's career although it continued to trouble him in his later years.

A 2002 commemorative stamp issued by the United States Postal Service prompted Gaylord to sue the United States for copyright infringement in 2006. Over the course of the next eight years, Gaylord and the United States went back and forth in the court system before finally reaching a verdict in 2015 in favor of Frank Gaylord.

The Gaylord Family hails from Ardeley, Hertfordshire, England with Edward Gaylor leaving the European country sometime between the years of 1720 and 1750. A Revolutionary War soldier Edward was married to Barbara Nichols and together they had one son, John Gaylor, who was born in Virginia in 1772. The first generation of Gaylords had arrived on the North American continent, and six generations later spawned the sculptor Frank C. Gaylord. Other notable Gaylords includes James Irwin Gaylord, Civil War veteran and Richard C. Gaylord, World War I veteran.

Over the course of Frank and Mary Gaylord's marriage they had three children together. Their first, John Richard Gaylord, was born in 1954, but unfortunately died eight years later in 1962 of congential heart disease. Their second and third, Leanne and Victoria, joined the family shortly following the death of their brother. Leanne met and married John Triano, beginning a family of their own. John quickly became a part of Frank's studio and assisted with the financial and legal aspects of the business. Frank Gaylord passed away in March of 2018 at the age of 93. He was preceeded in death by his wife in 2005.

*adapted from West Virginia and Regional History Center Newsletter vol. 35, no.1-2, 2020 and Ancestry.com, accessed Feburary 09, 2021 02/09/2021, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/.

Scope and Contents

Papers of Frank Gaylord (1925-2018). Frank Gaylord was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1925 earning national recognition for his work on the Korean War Memorial located in Washington, D.C. A large portion of this collection consists of photographic material documenting the sculptures of Frank Gaylord, including his work on the Korean War Memorial, among others. To a lesser extent, the collection also includes materials regarding Gaylord's financial and legal matters including Gaylord v. the United States, financial ledgers, and price listings. Also featured in the collection are audiovisual materials related to Gaylord's art and family life, and other material.

Series include:

Series 1. Biographical Information (Box 1)
Series 2. Photographs (Box 2-Box 7)
Series 3. Correspondence (Box 8)
Series 4. Printed Materials (Box 9; Box 10, Folders 1-20)
Series 5. Guestbooks (Box 10, Folders 21-23)
Series 6. Audio/Visual Materials (Box 10, Folders 24-26)
Series 7. Financial/Legal (Box 11)
Series 8. Writings (Box 12)
Series 9. Scrapbooks (Box 13)
Series 10. Oversized (Box 14-Box 18)
Series 12. Digital Files
Series 13. Addendum of 2020, Slides (Box 7)
There is no longer a Series 11 or Box 19. This content, which included various National Sculpture Review publications dated from 1954-2002, has been deaccessioned.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Art on postage stamps
• Gaylord, Frank
• Korean War Veterans Memorial (Washington, D.C.)
• Korean War, 1950-1953
• Sculptors -- Letters and papers
• Sculptors -- United States
• Steel sculpture -- United States