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Sculptor Zenos Frudakis outside Pennsylvania State Capitol Building with Molly Maguire figure during hearing for a posthumous pardon for John “Yellow Jack” Donahoe. The statue will be placed in the Molly Maguire Historical Park in Mahanoy City.
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Sculptor Zenos Frudakis in his Glenside, PA studio with scale model and full size Molly Maguire sculpture. To the right is a figure of a grieving woman to represent the family members who were not permitted to attend the execution. Currently, funding is not available to produce the female statue. The Mahanoy City Community Development Committee hopes to add it when funding becomes available.
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Sculptor Zenos Frudakis created a larger than life bronze statue of what might be called the unknown Molly. Unknown, because the masculine figure, dressed in a plain suit, has his arms tied behind, and his head is covered with a hood. The man is posed in a venerable position and the bronze hood eerily seems to take the shape of the man’s face—reminiscent another sight that should not be, the hand print in cell 17 of the Mauch Chunk Jail left by Alexander Campbell.
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“Day of the Rope” Sculpture to be Centerpiece of Mahanoy City Historical Park
Long dead but not forgotten, the ghost whispers of purported Molly Maguire, John Donahoe – known as, “Yellow Jack” because of his blond hair, are making their way to the offices of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who awaits the results of a hearing for a posthumous pardon for Donahoe.
John “Yellow Jack” Donahoe was one of ten mining labor martyrs, convicted as Molly Maguires and hanged on "The Day of the Rope," June 21, 1877—four in Mauch Chunk and six in Pottsville.
To commemorate this bitter defeat on the road to ultimately forming a miner’s labor organization, and to improve knowledge of local history, the Mahanoy City Community Development Committee is creating a Molly Maguire Historical Park with signboards and exhibits. The centerpiece of the park is a bronze sculpture of a Molly Maguire by Zenos Frudakis.
Frudakis was initially asked to create a statue of a coal miner with a pick or a shovel. “I thought, having read about the Mollies, that would be fine if I was just doing the theme of coal miners,” He said. “Mollies are a very specific theme.” He wanted his sculpture to depict the historical events.
“I didn’t want to pull any punches,” Frudakis explained. “It was a powerful incident. I wanted to show that! Not make it macabre, but just show the reality of it in a poetic way.”
Frudakis designed a larger-than-life size bronze statue of what might be called the unknown Molly Maguire. Unknown, because the masculine figure, dressed in a plain suit, has his arms tied behind, and his head covered with a hood. The man, posed in a vulnerable position, wears a bronze hood that eerily seems to take the shape of the man’s face—reminiscent of another odd sight, the handprint in cell 17 of the Mauch Chunk Jail left by Alexander Campbell.
After researching the Molly trails, Frudakis joined the voices of the many who agreed with the conclusion of the mock trail held in the Carbon Country Courthouse in 1994, that the original trails were unfair because the Railroad Owners controlled the prosecution and loaded the jury with people who did not speak English.
“The way the trails were handled was an injustice,” Frudakis noted. “To make a sculpture of just a coal miner would have been another injustice. It would have ignored that they had their necks broken or were strangled slowly at the end of the rope. It wasn’t pretty.” Frudakis saw that his challenge was to make, what wasn’t pretty, into art.
The bronze sculpture is to be mounted on a black stone pedestal in front of a rough wall representing the prison wall. Etched into the wall are steps leading to a gallows.
Current plans are to install the statue at the Molly Maguire Historical Park in Mahanoy City on June 21, 2007, the 130th anniversary of the Day of the Rope.
Constructing the Molly Maguire Monument
After making preliminary sketches and models, the process of creating a bronze statue begins by first sculpting a full-size model in oil-based synthetic clay called plastilene. The plastilene never hardens and can be infinitely adjusted. This property has lent it to be used in stop-action animation.
The finished plastilene sculpture is completely covered with a room temperature setting rubber compound. Once set, the rubber is peeled from the plastilene sculpture and filled with wax. The wax mould is encased in a ceramic. Once hardened, the wax model is melted and flows out from the ceramic mold. Hot bronze is poured into the ceramic mould and fills the voids that had been vacated by the melted wax. When cool, the ceramic mold is broken, revealing the bronze statue.
Greek Art, Irish Tragedy
Zenos Frudakis’ father came to the U.S. from Greece, bringing with him a love for the great sculptors Michelangelo, Bernini, Carpeaux and Rodin. Zenos studied by scholarship at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, completing his formal education with a Bachelor in Fine Art and a Master in Fine Art at the University of Pennsylvania.
His figures are known for their expressions of character while maintaining accurate likeness. In 2002, Frudakis received a commission by the Philadelphia Phillies to create four 10-foot tall bronze sculptures of Phillies legends Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, and Richie Ashburn for Citizen’s Bank Park. He is currently working on an Air Force Memorial Honor Guard Sculpture for Arlington National Cemetery.
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