American Historical Ephemera & Photography

painted plaster, inscribed title on front side of base "Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations," and marked with name of sculptor "John Rogers / New York." Patent date "1866" at base on reverse side. Base measures approx. 8.5 x 12 in., height approx. 23 in. (some loss to paint scattered across sculpture, light residue near central backside of male soldier figure, some wear and chipping, especially at base).

Genre sculpture showing a Southern woman and her son taking the oath in order to receive food rations from the Union army. An African American boy looks on with interest. 

Always interested in art, John Rogers sought a formal education in sculpture after an early career working as a machinist and draftsman in New Hampshire. Upon returning to the United States in 1859, he modeled The Checker Players in Chicago which launched his career. On the eve of the Civil War, he exhibited The Slave Auction in New York which furthered his reputation on a national scale. During the war, he sculpted statuettes capturing both the lives of soldiers and those on the homefront. It was these Civil War and genre sculptures that became the basis for the so-called "Rogers Groups." Crafted in affordable plaster, they were supremely popular with the middle class in the second half of the 19th century.