Sidney Lanier Facts

Lanier was honored on a U.S. Postage Stamp in 1972, on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of his birth. For the occasion, then-Governor Jimmy Carter wrote:
I, Jimmy Carter, Governor of the State of Georgia, hereby proclaim February 3, 1972, as “Sidney Lanier Day in Georgia” and urge all citizens to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the birth of Sidney Lanier, and ask all Georgians to read some of his masterpieces.” The original proclamation, on display in the back Hallway, was the inspiration for today’s event. All area teachers are encouraged to read Lanier’s poems to their classes on this day.
In 1975, the Sidney Lanier Cottage was restored and opened to the public by the Middle Georgia Historical Society, as well as placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1976, the Cottage was named a Landmark of American Music. In 2004, the Cottage was honored by the Academy of American Poets as one of only 31 National Poetry Landmarks in the U.S. The Cottage had frequently appeared in turn-of-the-century postcards as a Macon "attraction", while still a private residence.
The first battleship to land in Japan during World War II was the USS Sidney Lanier. It is reported that a portrait of Sidney Lanier hung proudly in the Captain’s quarters.
In 1842, at the time of Sidney Lanier's birth, the Cottage was rented by his grandparents, Sterling and Sarah Lanier, who owned Hotel Lanier in downtown Macon (no longer standing), as well as the Exchange Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama and the Montvale Springs Resort Hotel in eastern Tennessee's Blount County. Lanier’s parents, Robert and Mary Jane Anderson Lanier, were living in Griffin, GA at the time. They had come back to Macon briefly to have the child, as there was limited access to medical care in Griffin. The two-story, clapboard home where Lanier spent 10 years of his boyhood is no longer standing; it was located at the corner of Second and Mulberry Streets, where the high-rise BB&T Bank is today.
Sidney Lanier's father, Robert Sampson Lanier, and uncle, Judge Clifford Anderson (his mother’s brother), practiced law on Second Street in downtown Macon. Sidney Lanier, too, practiced law with them for four years. Near the site today is "Sid's Sandwich Shop," named for the poet. Historic Macon Foundation wishes to kindly thank Sid’s Sandwich Shop for generously offering the refreshments today.
Sidney Lanier married Mary Day on December 19, 1867 at Christ Episcopal Church in Macon. Mary Day’s wedding dress is located in the Front Parlor. On display only for this event, is the tiny, rare Book of Common Prayer that Mary Day gave to their eldest of four sons, Charles Day Lanier, on his first birthday. The book was inscribed again to Charles in 1970 by Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. Historic Macon Foundation wishes to thank the Middle Georgia Archives, Washington Memorial Library for the temporary loan of this object for today’s event. The great-grandchildren of Sidney and Mary Day Lanier currently live in New York and Connecticut.
Lanier was self-taught on the flute, piano, organ, violin, banjo, and guitar. He made his first flute from a reed on the banks of the Ocmulgee River and imitated the sounds of the birds. During the last seven years of his life, Lanier made his meager living from music, not poetry. He held the honorable position of First Flute for the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore, Maryland for seven consecutive seasons.
The silver alto Badger flute displayed in the Back Parlor of the Cottage was one of only three alto flutes the Badger Company made. The flute was never actually owned by Sidney, but he played it with the Peabody, making this instrument perhaps one of the first product sponsorships or endorsements in America. After Lanier’s death in 1881, the silver alto Badger flute was purchased by his close Baltimore musician friend and Peabody band-mate, Henry Wysham (Lanier's third-born son's namesake), who gave it to Lanier’s cousin, college roommate, and local band-mate, Willie LeConte, who grew up in the family home just to the left of the Cottage.
Lanier's two masterpieces of poetry were both written in Baltimore, based on nostalgia for his favorite places in his home state of Georgia. "The Marshes of Glynn" was first published anonymously, and "Song of the Chattahoochee" was published posthumously.
During the last 13 years (1868-1881) of his life, Lanier was very ill with the tuberculosis he contracted during his service as a Volunteer in the Confederate Army (he was captured and spent 5 months at a prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland). But despite his illness, Sidney Lanier never stopped writing poetry, composing music, or lecturing and teaching English literature.
Although numerously and popularly cited, Sidney was never officially designated a "Poet Laureate."
The official mascot name, even for athletic teams, for the former Lanier High School in Macon was “The Poets”. This is still the name for the mascot of Lanier High School in Montgomery, Alabama.
Lanier is the only Georgian inducted in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York City, which ceased inductions in the 1950s and thus accounts for the absence of two Georgia Nobel Peace Prize honorees, Former-President Jimmy Carter and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The bronze bust of Lanier (1880) at Macon's Washington Memorial Library is one of two that Baltimore sculptor Ephraim Keyser volunteered (not commissioned) to create after a chance meeting with Lanier.
The massive marble bust of the youthful Lanier (1929) in the collection of Macon's Washington Memorial Library was sculpted by noted American sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, who began the Confederate Memorial at Stone Mountain, GA and sculpted the famed Mount Rushmore American Memorial in South Dakota.
In Georgia, you’ll find many place names honoring Lanier, for example Lake Sidney Lanier, Lanier County, and the Sidney Lanier Bridge that connects Brunswick with the Golden Isles. Today over 40 cities across America have some sort of named tribute or memorial to Sidney Lanier.