James T. McClellan

1910 - 2005

James T. McClellan was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and raised in Andover. He began his art training at the age of twenty-one studying in Boston with Charles Hopkinson and in New York with Harvey Dunn. In the early 1930s, McClellan enrolled in the George Demetrios School of Drawing & Sculpture which held winter classes in Boston and summer classes in the Folly Cove area of Gloucester. McClellan went on to become Demetrios' studio assistant, a master woodcarver in his own right and an important member of the Cape Ann art community.

For much of his career, McClellan's preferred subjects were creatures from the natural and mythological world—mermaids, phoenixes, griffons, trolls, dolphins, hawks and lions. His interest in Norse mythology is evidenced in the Midgard Serpent, a fabled sea serpent which was so large that it was able to encircle the entire world with its body and still grasp its own tail.

Beginning in 2000, James McClellan began donating pieces of his sculpture to the Cape Ann Museum, finding the organization and his work to be "a good fit." Today, the Museum is proud to be the repository for McClellan's work.