Artwork Details
- Title
- Hudson Maxim
- Artist
- Date
- 1921
- Location
- Dimensions
- 22 1⁄2 x 20 1⁄2 x 12 1⁄2 in. (57.1 x 52.0 x 31.8 cm)
- Markings
- side of figure's arm incised: M.W. DYKAAR/N.Y. 1921
- Credit Line
- Transfer from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- bronze
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Portrait
- Occupation — science — inventor
- Portrait male — Maxim, Hudson — bust
- Portrait male — Maxim, Hudson — elderly
- Object Number
- 1922.3.1
Artwork Description
Hudson Maxim invented many weapons that influenced modern warfare, including the first smokeless powder made in America and "maximite," the first high explosive able to pierce armor. As a child, he received little schooling and once worked for seventy-five cents to buy his first atlas so that he could "see where Napoleon lived." In 1888 he began experimenting with explosives and a year later built a dynamite factory and smokeless-powder mill in Maxim, New Jersey, a town named for him. Although he developed many forms of "concentrated destruction," Maxim was a firm believer in peaceful arbitration and wrote many books and lectures on the subject.