William Ordway Partridge (April 11, 1861 – May 22, 1930) was an American sculptor, teacher and author. Among his best-known works are the Shakespeare Monument in Chicago, the equestrian statue of General Grant in Brooklyn, the Pietà at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, and the Pocahontas statue in Jamestown, Virginia. Life and career He was born in Paris, the younger son of George Sidney Partridge, Jr. and Helen Derby Catlin. His father was the Paris representative for the New York City department store A.T. Stewart. His mother was a cousin of the painter George Catlin. His brother, Sidney Catlin Partridge, became a bishop of the Episcopal Church. Education Partridge's family returned to New York City in 1868, and enrolled him in Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, followed by Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn. He entered Columbia University in autumn 1881, but had to withdraw because of poor health. He traveled to Europe in 1882, and studied in Florence in the studio of Fortunato Galli, where he became friends with the young Bernard Berenson. Although he never formally enrolled at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts, he audited classes there in autumn 1883, and studied briefly in the Paris studio of sculptor Antonin Mercié. He returned to New York City in Spring 1884, and enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He appeared in a New York City production of David Copperfield, and moved to Boston, where he supported himself by giving dramatic readings of Shakespeare and the Romantic poets. He continued to sculpt, and received encouragement in this from his cousin, the sculptor John Rogers. In 1887, he married Augusta Merriam, a wealthy widow from Milton, Massachusetts, who was 15 years older. They traveled to Europe that year, where he studied briefly in the Paris studio of painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. There he formed a close friendship with the neo-Gothic architect Ralph Adams Cram. The couple moved to Rome, where he studied in the studio of Polish sculptor Pio Welonski. They returned to Milton, Massachusetts in 1889, where he established his own studio. Sculptures Partridge created two larger-than-life bronze statues of Alexander Hamilton, executed 15 years apart. The first was commissioned by the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn, installed in front of the club's headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, and dedicated on October 4, 1893. For months before and after that dedication, Partridge's full-size plaster model of Hamilton was on exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition