Lori-Suzanne Dell photo
By April of 1939, the Great Depression was nearly over and the United States was ready to celebrate at the World’s Fair in New York, where every state in the Union would have a place to exhibit.
Portland artist Victor Kahill wanted to create a statue for this fair and his composition of a Maine fisherman would grace the entryway in Maine’s Hall.
Kahill asked Bailey Island Captain H. Elroy Johnson to pose for the statue, and though Johnson had his reservations, “Old Snoody” soon agreed. The artist and the fisherman met in front of the Bailey Island Post Office, where Kahill took snapshots.
Artist Victor Kahill with his sculpture in his Portland studio in June of 1939. Courtesy of the Portland Evening Express
Johnson displayed a series of technically-correct poses while Kahill’s camera snapped away. For over an hour Johnson posed, sometimes wearing his hat, sometimes holding a lobster, sometimes working a trap, and once looking to the heavens in thankful reflection. From one angle to the next, Kahill captured every moment.
But, when the sculptor asked the old salt to kneel while working with a lobster, the Captain’s willingness ran out. “A lobsterman doesn’t get down on his knees!” Johnson protested. But, Kahill wasn’t concerned with being correct, he just wanted better composition.
Kahill urged Johnson to continue while kneeling, but Johnson soon popped-up onto his feet, “No Sir! That isn’t right. You just don’t do it that way!” Johnson yelled, “You don’t peg lobsters like that!”
Fortunately, Kahill had all the snapshots he needed for his mammoth endeavor and he returned to Portland to begin his work.
When Kahill was done, his immense plaster model was ready for bronzing, but there were no funds to pay for the casting, despite the blessings of two state agencies. Believing it would “cost more than the stunt would be worth,” the State of Maine refused to contribute.
Kahill eventually raised enough private donations to paint the plaster sculpture and transport it to New York, where it arrived nearly halfway through the summer. When the World’s Fair closed on Oct. 31 of 1939, the statue returned to Maine and was displayed in the lobby of the Columbia Hotel at 645 Congress St. in Portland.
By 1940, as the world turned its attentions to war, Victor Kahill enlisted in the Engineer Corps of the United States Army. Meanwhile, his statue was moved to the lobby of Portland’s City Hall, where “Old Snoody” was photographed inspecting his own likeness. But, Johnson didn’t like the end-result, with him “pegging a lobster like that.”
Eventually, after years of abuse, the plaster statue had become damaged and was moved to the basement of City Hall, where it remained – nearly forgotten for almost 20 years.
By Aug. 3 of 1965, word of Kahill’s death had sparked a renewed interest in the storied statue, which was now on display in the lobby of the Maine Sea and Shore Fisheries Department in Boothbay Harbor.
Maine Sen. Angus King speaks at the 2019 rededication of the statue in Washington, D.C. Courtesy of the Office of Sen. Angus Kin
In 1967, one lawmaker, wanting to see “Old Snoody” displayed in Washington, introduced legislation at the Maine Statehouse in order to appropriate money for the statue. Unfortunately, the proposed bill failed to secure enough support among lawmakers.
Elroy Johnson’s death on Sept. 11 of 1973 once again sparked a renewed interest in the statue. Three years later, while the United States celebrated its bicentennial in the summer of 1976, a band of Harpswell citizens worked to raise funds to place the statue on Bailey’s Island.
A public clambake and several other grassroots fundraisers were held, and by late September, most of the needed funds were raised. Boothbay Foundry owner Norm Therrien was hired to cast the statue in bronze, while donors from Brunswick and the Islands all volunteered to build the pedestal. Elroy Johnson was finally home at Land’s End.
Since Johnson’s death in 1973, three bronze copies of Kahill’s sculpture had been cast by Therrien; one for Bailey Island; one for Portland; and one for display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, where the original plaster sculpture was now safely stored.
By 1979, while Kahill’s bronzed statue was weathering the point at Land’s End, a group of Cundy’s Island Campfire Girls worked to place a copy of “Old Snoody” in our Nation’s Capital. These amazing young ladies raised approximately $35,000.00 for the project.
By June 15th of 1983, “The Maine Lobsterman” memorial was placed on Maine Avenue, in Washington D.C., where one of the projects landscape architects noted “… the focus has to be on the hands, where he pegs the lobster.”
In the end, it was the people of the Midcoast who achieved what the state would not. And, it took a small band of camp fire girls to complete a tale that began nearly 45 years earlier in one of the longest running of our Stories from Maine.
Historian Lori-Suzanne Dell has authored five books on Maine history and administers the popular “Stories from Maine” page on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
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Publish date : 2024-08-14 08:53:00
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