Lobsterman Statue

Portland, Maine

H. Elroy "Snoody" Johnson made money trapping lobsters and lived in Harpswell, Maine. In 1939 he posed for a sculpture titled "The Maine Lobsterman," kneeling before his favorite crustacean while pegging its claw. The sculpture was supposed to be cast in bronze and made part of the Maine exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair. But Maine ran out of money, so the artist, Victor A. Kahill, just slapped a coat of bronze-colored paint over the plaster model and shipped it to New York.

After the Fair ended, the fake bronze statue returned to Maine and spent several decades being moved from one location to another. No one seemed to want the man and his lobster. The statue was vandalized, repaired, and ended up in a warehouse where it was eaten by rats.

It wasn't until after poor Snoody Johnson died in 1973 that several bronze casts were made of the plaster statue, and in 1975 this one was given a place of honor in downtown Portland.

A close inspection may reveal tooth marks from the rat-nibbled original model, but we aren't promising anything.