VIRGINIA

RANDOLPH

ELLETT

1857 – – 1939

FOREMOST IN LIEARNING AND IN FAITH AND AID

PRE-EMINENT; ALL-TIRELESS; NEVER FOND

BUT RESOULTE IN PROGRESS AND AFRAID

ONLY OF FINDING NO MORE WORK BEYOND

Nested under a canopy of trees in a gated plot surrounded by an iron fence in the famed Hollywood Cemetery is a gravestone dedicated to the pre-eminent educator, Virginia Randolph Ellett, in Richmond, Virginia.  Ellett was an early advocate for the education of girls and in 1890 established a small but well-known school.  By 1897, Ellett began accepting only girl students.  She became renown as an educator in Virginia and beyond.

Honoring Ellett is a plain square-topped white marble tablet embellished with a stylized trumpet angel.  Trumpet angels foretell of the impending apocalypse and that the last Judgment is at hand but also as “embodiments of the resurrection.” According to the article, “Embodying Immortality: Angels in America’s Rural Garden Cemeteries, 1850—1900”, pages 56 – 111, 2007 edition of Markers, XXIV, written by Elisabeth Roark, of the eight common categories of angels found in rural garden cemeteries only the trumpet angels are commonly found in cemeteries before the 1850s.

After the 1850s trumpet angels appear more frequently and often as full sculptures rather than bas-reliefs. The angels are often depicted looking toward the Heavens with an almost serene expression unlike the trumpet angels found in the Book of Revelation. The seven trumpet angels in Revelation “are a ferocious lot; each trumpet blow brings a disaster that destroys earthly life.”

This particular trumpet angel was carved by Rene Paul Chambellan (1893 – 1955) an American artist best known for his architectural sculptures.  His fluid designs were referred by several names—French Modern Style, Zig-Zag Moderne, as well as, Art Deco. 

His work can be found on many prominent buildings such as the Chicago Tribune Building, Sterling Memorial Library on the Yale campus, the Buffalo City Hall, and several works at Rockefeller Center in New York City, such as the Acts of Vaudeville under the marquee above the 1260 Avenue of the Americas entrance:

Atlas at the 630 Fifth Avenue, Main entrance, Chambellan collaborated with Lee Lawrie to create:

and the Fountainhead Figures of the Six Pools in the Channel Gardens.