Theodore Augustus Mills

The bust of John C. Calhoun sculpted by Theodore Augustus Mills Theodore Augustus Mills (April 24, 1839 – 1916) was an American sculptor. He is known for sculpting the bust of John C. Calhoun in the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection.

Life and career Theodore Augustus Mills was born on April 24, 1839, in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1860, Mills became a student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany.

In the 1840s in South Carolina, Clark Mills developed a method of using life casts from the faces of his sitters to simplify the production of portrait busts. His 1846 bust of John C. Calhoun, purchased by the city of Charleston and at that time considered the best likeness of Calhoun, was made from such a life mask. That mask was used 40 years later by his son Theodore, who actively petitioned the Joint Committee on the Library for the commission of the Senate's official vice presidential bust of Calhoun. Theodore Mills having been born in South Carolina was in his favor, because attempts were traditionally made to choose a sculptor from each vice president's native state. Mills submitted a plaster model and earned the commission in 1895. He has an entry in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists.

Sculptures of Joseph Francis and Joseph Henry sculpted by Mills are held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.