An antique dealer, Frank Cutadean, kept an antique shop at 638 W. Main St. in Lexington, Ky. named Antiquities when in the mid 1980s related that a couple of sculpted plaster busts portraying Afro-American subjects had recently been delivered to him by two men who were cleaning out a building where stored along with other cast aside objects. Evidently dry untended storage outside a living area. Perhaps a decade after Cutadean’s initial purchase he decided to sell and exhibited each at a monthly antique show held in a tobacco warehouse on Angliana Ave. at Lexington, Ky. where I purchased both. Soon after purchasing I sold one of the then unknown subjects as likely sculpted by Isaac Hathaway. The new owner enlisted Addison Malone, a researcher at UNC in Durham, N.C., who identified the bust as Dr. John Edward Hunter.  Both busts with dry sooty surfaces when delivered to Cutadean, with Dr. Hunter having fresh chipping from indifferent handling and R.C.O. Benjamin’s with half the paint lost presumedly due to severe heat and humidity while enduring a lengthy storage period.  Dr. Hunter’s chipping was later restored by Terry Boyle in Cincinnati.  R.C.O. Benjamin’s, recently identified likeness, remains in the same condition as when purchased.

Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin (1855-1900) the subject of the near life size polychromed bust was born in the Caribbean on St. Kitts. He gained U.S. citizenship in 1876 after arrival at NYC in 1869 at age 14.  Benjamin was a highly educated African-American activist who was the first practicing black attorney to pass the Bar in California. His law degree was achieved in Memphis, Tennessee where he first passed the bar studying under Samuel Lowrey in Nashville who was considered nationally one of the leading black attorneys of his day.  He published and owned several newspapers, was an author, minister, poet, temperance advocate, and a victim of a hate consumed cowardly assassination. He came to Lexington in 1897 with wife and two children where he edited a colored weekly newspaper, The Lexington Standard.  FOOTNOTE (1)   An Oct. 3^rd, 1900 Lexington Leader article titled in big bold type, Shot in the Back That is the Way Editor Benjamin Was Killed “In Self Defense” by Democratic Challenger Moynahan In Lexington’s “Bloody Precinct”.  The article states that on Tuesday Oct. 2^nd, 1900 Benjamin had registered to vote and returned later with three or four potential colored voters to the 32^nd precinct where he was attempting to register the men.  A police officer John Doyle, was harassing the men with non essential questioning when Benjamin interrupted the conversation proclaiming the grilling was unlawful which infuriated Mike Moynahan, the challenging eves dropping candidate and poll worker, who slugged Benjamin in the face before beating him with the butt of his pistol shamefully.  FOOTNOTE (2)  Moynahan was arrested for assault and later that evening released.  He locates Benjamin that evening about 7:30 PM at the polling station firing four shots while Benjamin is fleeing outside down the street.  Officer Doyle is at the time pressing his foot to the door of the polling station preventing anyone from leaving.  One shot connects fatally through Benjamin’s back exiting the chest through his heart.  A Louisville Federal Court had Moynahan under indictment from the previous Nov. election, eleven months earlier, for assaulting a Negro voter, Richard Curd, at the poll.  As with Benjamin the victim had his back turned when Moynahan bashed him in the head.  FOOTNOTE (3) In Benjamin’s case the jury found Moynahan acted in self defense ignoring the only witness’ testimony , who happened to be on the street, that Benjamin was running away never returning fire.  Moynahan is acquitted.  A gun was reported found in Benjamin’s pocket at the scene, by police officer Doyle, which had not been fired with a corroded chamber.  As despicable a human Moynahan is he was enabled by the police and the judicial process who share equal shame.  The court had not brought Moynahan to trial in eleven months for the previous assault charge though acquitted him of murder, two days after the crime, the same Thursday of Benjamin’s funeral.  A familiar example of systemic homicide.  The press dutifully reported the incident so they institutionally stand alone innocent of Benjamin’s death.  Later in life Moynahan murders again.  The Lincoln Lodge of Masons led the procession at the funeral. Benjamin’s bust’s left jacket lapel has an inserted badge with the Masonic logo.

R.C.O. Benjamin was a community organizer with polished oratorical skills reinforced by a law degree who was campaigning various areas of the South to achieve equal treatment for his race. He almost certainly would have soon left Lexington, having spent three years here, for another targeted area so to energize a local movement.  He advanced the cause for equal justice through ownership and as editor of colored newspapers In Birmingham, Nashville, Pittsburg, Los Angles & San Francisco before coming to Lexington. FOOTNOTE (4)  A selfless benevolent vision by a man who likely fathomed his fate traveling the Southern circuit with the goal of empowering his people to achieve equality.  A couple of white press articles refer to him as cheeky which translates to courage considering the turf and times. He published six books in his abbreviated life and had he been able to continue his mission elsewhere he may have impacted the civil rights movement to a degree not to be witnessed again for half a century. 

 Dr. John Edward Hunter (1859-1956), was the first African American surgeon to be offered privileges at any hospital in Lexington, Ky. Born a slave in Virginia and soon adopted as a child by a couple in Ohio. He studied pre-med at Oberlin in Ohio before receiving his medical degree at Case Western Reserve while working to pay for his education. His hospital employment after graduation included Cleveland General, Mayo Clinic, Chicago General, and Boston General before 1890 when landing a stay, at age 41, to St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Ky. There he practiced into his eighties. FOOTNOTE (5) One of his many accomplishments was being instrumental in the establishment of Dunbar High School in 1922. His bust is available for purchase from the present owner for 12,000-. 

Dr. Hunter’s arrival at St. Joseph Hospital finds Isaac Hathaway studying at Chandler Normal School / College in Lexington. The future sculptor leaves for Boston, Massachusetts in 1894 for more academic study in the art department at the New England Conservatory of Music where he is credited with sculpting his first bust in 1896, a miniature of the bishop of the AME church in Philadelphia, Richard Allen. Later in his career he press molds 12″ versions of the Reverend Allen among other notables for more affordable distribution. These busts sold for a dollar and could be purchased on the installment plan of 25 cents a week until paid in full.  After two years study in Boston, Hathaway enrolls at the Cincinnati Art Academy, and by 1897 he returns to teach English at Keene High School in Jessamine County until 1902 when opening “The Isaac Hathaway Company”. The business was located on Pine St. (a bisecting street to Davis Bottoms) in Lexington where “Manufacturers of plaster casts of the human anatomy, accurately reproduced for medical school, and private purposes. Death masks and busts a speciality…..” were sculpted. Hathaway reports to C. Frank Dunn in the publication (“In Kentucky” Vol. II , No. 1 Spring 1947, pp 24-25, 44-46) that his prior studio was in a cleared chicken coop at his dad’s home in Davis Bottoms where Dr. Hunter’s and Benjamin’s bust would likely have been sculpted. A renowned Afro-American surgeon of the community for the previous seven years elevated Dr. Hunter as a must sculpt subject for the returning artist to record at Lexington in 1897. Quite possibly Dr. Hunter’s bust was Hathaway’s second full life size bust accomplished as an academically trained artist. Hunter’s bust is more elaborate, with the subject rising above an open book, than other notables subsequently sculpted. Benjamin’s bust is reported to be Hathaway’s first. FOOTNOTE (11)

By 1915 Isaac Hathaway is teaching ceramics in the summers at Branch Normal College, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and instructing English, Literature, and Expression at a local high school through the traditional school year. He remains there until 1937 when moving to the Tuskegee Institute to establish their ceramics department. In 1947 he moves to Montgomery, Alabama to teach at Alabama State College. That summer Professor Hathaway introduces ceramic instruction at Auburn Polytechnic Institute which later became Auburn University, ironically a school he could not have enrolled as a student. He was offered a professorship at Auburn though declined, having previously committed to accept the same position in Montgomery. FOOTNOTE (12) Professor Hathaway establishes ceramic programs at six Southern African American Colleges and one all white university. His penetration of racial barriers and being the first African American to accomplish several firsts among his people is impressive. Hathaway’s career is punctuated with milestones of similar magnitude as Dr. Hunter’s and Benjamin’s dedicated lives. Then there is his art which viewed anonymously stands proudly among any bust sculpting peers of his day in America. Twice in 1945 & 1951 he is awarded commissions to design commemorative coins of Booker T. Washington and his friend & colleague George Washington Carver. The online resource: “The Davis Bottom History Preservation Project, The Hathaway Family Part 1 & 2” gives an excellent short bio of the artist. The exhibition catalog “Isaac Scot Hathaway 1871-1967 Sculptor” Feb. 15-March 16, 1996 printed for the Univ. of Arkansas at Pine Bluff another valuable resource.

Isaac Hathaway was born at Lexington in 1872 raised by his father Robert Elijah (Lige) Hathaway, a former Bourbon Co. Ky. slave to U.S. Senator Garrett Davis. After blooding the nose of Senator Davis’ son in 1864, Robert Hathaway flees to join the Union Army so to avoid a whipping prior to Senator Davis returning home. FOOTNOTE (6) Surely the escape from slavery was a more significant factor. The nose bleed simply a catalyst for Robert deciding now’s a good moment. The rigors of military campaigns probably much more debilitating than his bondage though the new plight was tempered by no longer being chattel goods coupled with serving a worthy personal cause.  He trained at Camp Nelson with a colored regiment and later served and engaged in several engagements including Chickamauga where he bore reminders. FOOTNOTE (7)  Elijah self- educated when young and after the war eventually became a minister among his other occupational pursuits. A pivotal day for Isaac was when the widowed Reverend Hathaway took the nine year old, who lost his mother Rachel when two, to a Cincinnati Art Exposition exposing the youth to classical sculpture of famous Americans none of whom were black.  Isaac is puzzled by the omission after a failed search for Frederick Douglass, remember he is a child.  His father’s response to his son’s bewilderment which was remembered as accompanied with a smile, “He is a great man, but you won’t find his statue here. We will have to wait for some Negro to produce his sculpture.” FOOTNOTE (8)  This Isaac accomplished 28 years later in 1907 along with a hundred more notables in his lifetime. 

Another glimpse of Isaac Hathaway’s upbringing by a single parent is when Isaac relates a 1915 visit by the Reverend Hathaway while Isaac was living in Washington D.C.  Robert Elijah Hathaway wants to visit Garrett Davis, his old playmate and son of his former master who now has an office in the Pension Building at the Capitol.  Isaac was astonished and protested the aspect of this proposed visit: “What ! After all those fights, and you ran away!” His father calmly replied: “Why, yes—what’s that got to do with it.” When father and son entered Mr. Davis’ office the elder Hathaway greeted Davis, “Do you know who I am?” Neither had laid eyes on the other for 51 years.  After a short pause to digest the moment Davis at once embraced him, exclaiming “Why it’s little old Lige”.  They were so overcome that Isaac went down the hall so not to interrupt the touching scene.  Upon his return, he heard Davis saying, “Well, well Lige how things have changed, and all for the better.” Handing the former slave his card Davis said, “Lige I want you to promise to come out to my house this afternoon for a long talk of old times.” FOOTNOTE (9)  

Couple this incident with the anecdote of the young Isaac’s visiting a museum in Cincinnati escorted by a single parent who recognized an adolescent artist’s need for exposure to the better examples of the fine arts offers a keen perception of Robert Elijah as a father.  The Reverend Hathaway lives initially with seven or eight in a modest shotgun house bordering two railroads in the Lexington low lands. His home eventually reduces to six including Isaac and his two in-laws along with his two daughters.  This circumstance should allow further insight to family priorities.  The Reverend Davis’ two surviving daughters also had distinguished careers.  Eva a nurse her sister Fannie a school teacher and principle.  FOOTNOTE (10)  The elder Hathaway obviously another super star which makes it a quintet, with assistance from his in-laws while all are navigating the racial obstacle course. 

Condition of R.C.O. Benjamin’s bust: About half of the paint has vanished having been stored an extended period without temperature or humidity control. See images for areas of abrasions observed: One large chunk is an old loss at the bottom of the subject’s right jacket lapel. Chip out of top of left ear. Right ear looks as though there may have been a chip that was long ago smoothed to a lower profile than the left. A shallow slash at top of right eye socket extends to bridge of nose, a small divot on the forehead, small shallow wound atop the end of his nose, three slashes to the left shoulder, chunk out of base molding with a vertical crack extending 4” up from the loss, a two inch series of shallow concentrated small chips to the underside of the base molding, and a sooty surface which I have only once dusted with a soft haired brush. The previous 30 years of  Benjamin’s tenure has resided in a HVAC controlled building inside a closed door cupboard. This being the first 21st century offering.

Footnote 1 Online Resource: “Black Past” article titled Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin by Rico Thompson 6-04-2024
Footnote 2 The Lexington Leader Oct. 4th 1900
Footnote 3 Ibid note 2
Footnote 4 Ibid note 1
Footnote 5 A Story of St. Joseph Hospital Lexington Ky. The First 120 years by Frances Krumpelman, SCN pages 142-144
Footnote 6 Online resource: “The Davis Bottom History Preservation Project The Hathaway Family Part 2 Page 6 referencing Rhussus L. Perry’s 2-02-1939 Federal Writer’s Project paper interview with Robert Elijah Hathaway
Footnote 7 Online Resource: “The Davis Bottom History Preservation Project The Hathaway Family Part 1 page 6
Footnote 8 Ibid note 5 page 6
Footnote 9 Ibid Note 6 page 8
Footnote 10 Ibid Note 7 pages 2 & 3
Footnote 11 Note 6 page 6
Footnote 12 “Isaac Scott Hathaway 1874-1967 Sculptor” Exhibition Catalog March 16th 1996 through April 16th 1996 University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff page 16

** The Benjamin bust was identified by a respected source when leaving the Angliana Ave. show as Paul Laurence Dunbar. That tip for identification was mistaken. Dunbar and R.C.O. Benjamin share slight resemblance and membership to a Masonic order which is logo’ed on the bust’s lapel. I errored in running with the notion and not initially confirming, Sorry ! Dunbar’s life mask and photographs reveal a different hair line, fuller face, and darker skin which discounts him. Photographic images of Benjamin firmly confirm the latter the subject of the bust. Many innocents have served time for testified misidentification. Recently I published an advertisement in Maine Antique Digest offering the bust as Dunbar along with an on-line entry. Fortunately that will only cost an ample dosage of embarrassment not a penal stay. Considering the situation I am thankful there were no responses.