Known as “The Spirit of Achievement” or, more simply, “Achievement,” the Jesse Parker and Cora Best Taylor Williams memorial in Westview Cemetery illustrates the success of the Williamses, who relocated to Atlanta in 1900.
J. P. Williams built and ran the Georgia, Florida, and Alabama railway. Upon his death, Cora took over the management of the railroad. She ran the company until she passed. In her will, she asked that a hospital for women and children be built where their house once stood, at approximately 542 Peachtree Street. The hospital turned over management to Crawford Long Hospital, now Emory Midtown, in 1992. While the building no longer exists, the Jesse Parker Williams Foundation still exists and gives out health-related grants.
The memorial was created by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon. It’s listed as part of the Smithsonian’s Save Our Sculpture database.
Hello , my name is Terry Rigg. I am the design director for National Sculpture Society’s quarterly magazine, Sculpture Quarterly. I found your photo of Daniel French’s Jesse Parker monument while doing an image search on the web. Would it be possible to use your image in the upcoming summer issue? It would possibly be a small insert, support image for the story. I would need a hi-resolution image file and your verbal approval, and a photo credit line that we can place with the photo. Is this something you would approve of? If yes, just respond with a verbal approval and the photo credit line. Thank you for your consideration, and if we do use your photo, I will figure out a way to get you a copy of the magazine.
I emailed the National Sculpture Society directly and never received a response. This isn’t the type of something I will grant approval in a comment section.