Ernst Plassmann

Ernst Plassmann (14 June 1823 – 28 November 1877; alternate spelling, Plassman) was a German-American sculptor and carver.

He moved to New York City in 1853, and in 1854 established "Plassmann's School of Art", which he ran the rest of his life.

[3] In New York he became known for his statue of Benjamin Franklin (1870–1) in Printing House Square,[4] depicted as a printer by including an issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette in his left hand.

The heroic statue of Chief Tammany, a legendary Delaware Indian chief, was part of the façade of Tammany Hall on 14th Street (1868/9),[7] while the 1869 8.5 feet (2.6 m) bronze statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Commodore Vanderbilt, is located at the south façade of Midtown Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal.

[8] A Plassmann sculpture stands in the freight depot of the New York Central Railroad (1870), aside from various metal works, including medals.