Taft, LORADO (1860- ), an American sculptor, born at Elmwood, Ill. In 1879 he graduated at the University of Illinois, and in the following year he went to Paris, where he studied for three years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1886 he settled in Chicago, where he became instructor in sculpture in the Art Institute and lecturer in the university extension department of the University of Chicago. His works comprise a statue of Schuyler Colfax, in Indianapolis; a statue of General Grant, and decorations for the Horticultural Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, which included two groups, The Sleep and the Awakening of the Flowers and The Painting of the Lily. Taft is the author of the History of American Sculpture, the best work yet written on that subject.