Philip Reid

Philip Reid (c. 1820 — February 6, 1892) was an African American master craftsman and artisan who played a key role as the foreman in the casting of the Statue of Freedom sculpture atop the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C. He was born into slavery in South Carolina's historic city of Charleston.

Reid and the Statue of Freedom

Commissioned in 1855, the initial full-size plaster model of Freedom was completed by American sculptor Thomas Crawford in his studio in Rome, Italy, but he died suddenly in 1857 before it left his studio. Shipped by his widow, packed into six crates, it finally arrived in Washington in late March 1859 and was then assembled and put on display in the Old Hall of the House, now National Statuary Hall.

In May 1860, self-taught sculptor Clark Mills was awarded the contract by the Secretary of War to cast Freedom at his foundry off Bladensburg Road, just inside the District of Columbia. In June 1860, casting of the statue began. The first step was to disassemble the plaster model for the statue into its five main sections in order to move it from the Capitol to the foundry. After its arrival at the Capitol an Italian sculptor, according to Mills' son Fisk, was hired to assemble it. However, when the time came to separate the sections, the Italian sculptor refused to help unless given a pay raise. Fortunately, Philip Reid figured out that using a pulley and tackle to pull up on the lifting ring at the top of the model would reveal the joints between the sections. The statue was successfully separated into its five sections and transported to Mills' Foundry.

Philip Reid (sportswriter)

Philip Reid (born 12 November 1961) is a sports journalist with The Irish Times newspaper. His articles on golf are widely quoted by other media outlets.

Career

Reid, a journalism graduate of DIT, began his journalistic career with the Irish Press group of newspapers in 1985. He joined The Irish Times as a staff writer in 1996. Reid is the secretary of the Irish Golf Writers' Association and is a committee member of the UK-based Association of Golf Writers. He lives in Dublin.

Reid has covered every Ryder Cup since 1993. His coverage of the 2006 Ryder Cup, a notable victory by Europe over the USA, was the basis of his book The Cup published by Maverick House. He was one of four international golf journalists invited by the International Herald Tribune to a sports forum assessing US and European chances in the 2008 Ryder Cup.

He is the author of 'The Irish Majors' -- The Irish Majors By Philip Reid: The success of Irish golfers since Pádraig Harrington’s first Major win in the Open at Carnoustie in 2007 has been phenomenal. Irish golfers have won seven out of 22 Majors between that victory and Rory McIlroy’s second career Major at this year’s US PGA Championship, a strike-rate matched only by the powerhouse that is the United States.