About twenty-five carvings of marble building stones, mostly in relief and all incised “HD,” were found in recent years near Philadelphia, bearing dates from the 1930s. Their unidentified creator could have been in the stone building trade and lost his job during the Great Depression, when construction came to a halt. Or it is possible, like William Edmondson, that he earned his income from cemetery work. With the exception of a few pieces, the themes of the carvings fall into three loose categories: biblical, with references like “Adam and Eve” and “Noah’s Ark”; celestial, with sundial elements showing fraternal lodge symbols, patriotic elements like eagles, shields, and scales of justice; and anatomical, like this compelling work created in 1935, which recalls wax anatomy models that were used in Europe during the eighteenth century to educate students of medicine. The latter group could have been commissioned by a doctor and referenced medical books.

Valérie Rousseau, exhibition label for Six Decades Collecting Self-Taught Art: Revealing a Diverse and Rich Artistic Narrative. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2019.