August Zeller (7 March 1863, Bordentown, New Jersey – 11 January 1918, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was an American sculptor and teacher.

[5] The title referenced the massacre of infant boys carried out under King Herod's orders, after he was told of Christ's birth.

The sculpture was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1884: Mr. August Zeller's group in marble of a mother and child, representing 'The Slaughter of the Innocents'—a work which, with faults inseparable from unsophisticated youth, displays true feeling, unwearying industry, and a serious aim.

And—so true is it that when a man makes his meaning perceptible, even if only to a few, he must already have considerable technical skill—the head and raised arm of the principal figure in this group might do credit to more than one sculptor of national reputation.

[1][2] August Zeller, the young Bordentown sculptor, is the successful competitor of a score or more who submitted designs for a memorial granite monument to be erected on the battlefield at Gettysburg by the 92d [sic 96th] Pennsylvania Volunteers.

The accepted design represents a soldier lying at full length on the ground, with head raised and musket levelled.

Colonel Henry Royer gave an address at its dedication: "We are here to unveil the beautiful stone which marks the spot where our regiment fought twenty-five years ago.

[2][13][3][4] The monument took two years to complete, and required five larger-than-live figures to be cast in bronze, and an estimated 100 tons of granite to be dressed.

[1] Six months later, in May 1891, Zeller left the École des Beaux Arts and began working as a student and praticien sculptor in the studio of Auguste Rodin.

On October 22, 1892, Zeller married his housekeeper, Louise Gerber, in a civil ceremony at the Palace of Versailles with Rodin in attendance as a witness.

Following his arrival in the United States, Zeller spent several months in Washington D.C. working on the then-under-construction Library of Congress Building.

In 1897 Zeller won the competition to create a bust of Judge Joseph Allison, which was installed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Building.

[15] In 1898–1899 Zeller created "The Last Supper," a white marble high-bas relief over the altar of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, in Rockledge, Pennsylvania.

Architects Cope and Stewardson gave Maene the contract for the architectural sculpture of the Quadrangle Dormitories at the University of Pennsylvania.

Over the summer of 1900, Henry F. Plasschaert modeled in clay, and Zeller, Edmund T. Wright and William John Kaufmann carved in limestone, the 69 bosses (humorous grotesques) along the second story of the Upper Quad.

[18] That same year, Zeller modeled in clay a bust of the popular entertainer and folk hero "Captain Jack" Crawford.

The finished bust was mounted on a tall pedestal, bedecked with small figures depicting Crawford's life in the West.

"[20] Friend and fellow Carnegie faculty member, Haniel Long, a 29-year old poet and writer, read his newly composed poem "To a Dead Sculptor" at Zeller's memorial service.