Landmark
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Lawrie’s early South Dakota figure for the Colonnade of States at the St. Louis World’s Fair.
Archive article
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
St. Louis · 1904
At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, the Colonnade of States represented the states formed from the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Lee Lawrie’s early commission for the programme was South Dakota.
The fair gave Lawrie an important early public platform, placing his work among the monumental state personifications made for the exposition.
L. O. Lawrie has chosen an aboriginal type for his “South Dakota.” The head hardly seems worthy of the superb body, which is one of the most sculpturesque conceptions among these personifications of the states. Mr. Lawrie has stalwart qualities of mind which, coupled with much skill of the hand, give guarantee of an exceptional career.
Lorado Taft, Sculptors of the World’s Fair: A Chapter of Appreciations, Brush and Pencil, December 1903