The Weeping Angel monument in the Hingham (Massachusetts) Cemetery was placed in 1896 by my great, great grandfather, John Sewall Hooper, for his beloved wife, Maria, a few years after her death. My grandfather, 
grandmother and several other Hooper ancestors are also resting nearby.
During my own times of personal difficulty I visit our Angel to meditate and ask for guidance. The thoughts and words that come to me each time I visit her strengthen my faith, inspire my spiritual growth and encourage me to share her with as many people as I can. As I started to share my story, I found that many other people had spent time with "Our Angel" and found her to be comforting in times of need.
I also became fascinated by the history of her sculptor, William Wetmore Story. Born in Salem, MA, in 1819, Story graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and practiced law in Boston before listening to his own angel and turning to his true calling as an artist, sculptor, writer and poet.
Story was the son of the prominent Boston lawyer and Associate US Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story, who is perhaps best remembered for presiding over the Amistad slave ship trial. William originally followed his father’s path into law practice, but upon his father's death in 1845, William was asked by The Trustees of the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA to create a memorial sculpture of his famous father. When he resisted due to his lack of formal training, they granted him time and money to take his young family to Italy where he could learn how to become a master sculptor. It would turn out to be a trip that would change his life dramatically. In Rome, he discovered his passion for sculpture and the fine arts and abandoned his law practice and Boston residence forever.
Perhaps best known for his marble sculpture of Cleopatra, on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Story captured the ill-fated Egyptian queen despondent, fidgety and disheveled in the moment she came to grips with the fall of her empire. This was a radical departure for fine art sculpture which had always been more romantic and ideal, but it made him world famous for his use of emotion and psychological drama in sculpture and earned him praise as "the Michelangelo of his time."
Other William Wetmore Story works of note include memorial sculptures of Francis Scott Key in San Francisco, US Supreme Court Justice John Marshall in the US Supreme Court, Science Professor Joseph Henry outside the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, Edward Everett on the Boston Common, philanthropist George Peabody in London, England and many others.
Upon the death of his dearly beloved wife, Emelyn, in 1895, he created the original weeping angel monument which he called, "The Angel of Grief Weeping at the Dismantled Altar of Life." It sits where she was laid to rest in the "Artist and Poets" cemetery in Rome. William Wetmore Story died later that same year. Our weeping angel monument is the final work of one of America's greatest sculptors.
Since then many other replicas have been created, most notably the weeping angel at Stanford University in California which was commissioned by the founder's wife, Jane Stanford upon the death of her brother. She is more commonly known as "the Earthquake Angel" since she was severely damaged and subsequently rebuilt after the Great Quake of 1906 in San Francisco.
I refer to her as "Our Weeping Angel" because I want to share this beautiful image and the powerful healing, comfort and compassion she offers with everyone.
Please feel free to call or email me for more information, to share your angel stories or to discuss any of the artwork, poetry and imagery I have created. I also hope you will read about our healing work and consider becoming one of our Earth Angels.
John Hooper Dean
jack@ourweepingangel.org
