J[osiah] Wedgwood

Albert Hemstock Hodge (1875-1918)

Portland stone

Exhibition Road façade of the Victoria and Albert Museum)

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), the famous potter who founded the company that bears his name, industrialized the manufacture of pottery, and this combination of excellent design, fine craft, and industrialization made him a particularly appropriate figure for inclusion on the façade of the V&A, an institution originally created in response to what many recognized at the Great Exhibition of 1851 as the nation's potential difficulties in competing with foreign design and manufacturing. According to Wikipedia, Wedgewood, who was Charles Darwin's grandfather, was an abolitionist “remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion.”

Photograph and caption by Robert Freidus

Formatting and perspective correction by George P. Landow

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