Akers

Akers, BENJAMIN PAUL, an American sculptor, born near Portland, Maine, U.S., 10th July 1825; died at Philadelphia, 21st May 1861. For a time engaged in a printing-office, he studied sculpture, and after opening a studio in Portland, executed busts of Longfellow and others. He visited Italy in 1851-2, and again in 1855. His finest works were executed at Rome, such as 'Una and the Lion,' 'St Elizabeth of Hungary,' 'Dead Pearl-diver,' and a head of Milton; the last two of which have been described in Hawthorne's Marble Faun, called in England Transformation.