Bust of Moncure Conway

myminifactory

The Conway Hall Ethical Society and Trunkman Productions collaborated on creating a bust of Moncure Conway for the documentary "The Empty Niche: The Long Lost Bust of Moncure Conway." When Conway Hall was built in 1929, a niche was designed to display a bronze bust of Dr. Moncure Conway, a renowned writer, abolitionist, and free thinker after whom the building is named. Conway Hall's archives revealed that the bust had been previously displayed at the society's old headquarters, South Place Chapel, but for over 80 years it remained hidden from view with no records of its disappearance. The only surviving bust of Conway, sculpted by Theodore Spicer-Simson, was discovered at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. The bust was scanned using photogrammetry and stitched together to create a 3D printable model, which was then printed to scale and cast in bronze resin before being unveiled at Conway Hall on October 28, 2016. The full documentary is available on YouTube below. Transcript of the speech given by Dr. Jim Walsh, CEO of Conway Hall, at the unveiling ceremony on October 28, 2016: [Link] Moncure Daniel Conway was a prominent American abolitionist who served as a Methodist, Unitarian, and Freethought minister. He wrote biographies of Edmund Randolph, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Thomas Paine, as well as his own autobiography, while living in England and France for most of the final four decades of his life. Efforts have been made to locate the descendants or living relatives of Theodore Spicer-Simson, but none have been found. Please note that the model is available under a share-alike license with strict non-commercial terms.