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Contribution #326 of 365
Philip Reid
Foundry Craftsman Who Helped Cast the U.S. Capitol's Statue of Freedom
1860–1863
The contribution
How this work helped shape America
Born enslaved in South Carolina around 1820, Philip Reid became a highly skilled foundry craftsman whose labor was critical to producing the bronze Statue of Freedom for the United States Capitol. He helped determine how to separate the statue's massive plaster model and worked on the molds, furnaces and bronze casting. Reid gained freedom in 1862 and was a free man when the completed statue was installed in 1863.