Text: Anonymous, “The School Teachers' Monument to the Poet Poe,” Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), vol. LXXVII, no. 92, August 31, 1875, p. 4, col. 2

[page 4, column 2, continued:]

The School Teachers’ Monument to the Poet Poe. — The monument which the public school teachers of Baltimore, aided by Mr. Geo. W. Childs, of Philadelphia, intend to erect over the remains of the poet, Edgar Allan Poe, in Westminster churchyard, corner of Green and Fayette streets, Baltimore, has been completed, with the exception of some finishing touches, by Hugh Sisson & Co. The monument is of white marble, and stands eight feet high, resting on a granite base six feet square. The design of the monument is simple and chaste. On the granite slab are two other bases of marble. On these rests the die block, three feet two inches square, surmounted by a heavy cap, carved with an ornamental lyre in the centre of each face. On the front of the die block is a beautifully chiseled medallion of the poet, carved in the purest Italian statuary marble, after a plaster cast by Volck, the sculptor, from a photograph in the possession of a member of Poe's family. The likeness in marble is said to be correct. The other faces of the die block have been prepared as tablets, on which suitable inscriptions will be cut when furnished by the committee. All the other work is finished. As a whole, no purer or more tasteful monumental design has been achieved in Baltimore in many years.

Professor William Elliott, Jr., president of the Baltimore City College, is the chairman of the committee of arrangements superintending the erection of the monument, who have awaited its completion to call a meeting at which the programme of exercises attending its inauguration will be decided on. It is expected that in October the monument will be formally dedicated. It has not been decided who will participate in the exercises, except that Professor Elliott will read a history of the monumental enterprise. There may be, however, other features of the inauguration, and a number of the prominent literary men of the country may be invited to participate in the honors to Poe.