Q. David Bowers
LITTLE, Harry B.
Born in 1883 in Hingham, Massachusetts, Harry B. Little received his formal education at Harvard, graduating in 1904. He returned to his alma mater in 1907 to do post-graduate work, after which, in 1909- 1910, he studied in Paris at the Atelier Duquesne. Returning to the United States, he entered the Boston office of Cram & Ferguson, after which, in 1916, he opened his own office. In 1920 he formed a partnership with Philip H. Frohman and E. Donald Robb. Frohman, Robb & Little became well known in the field of church architecture. The firm's commissions included the Episcopal Cathedral in Baltimore, the National Episcopal Cathedral in Washington, and the Trinty College Chapel (Hartford). Harry B. Little died on April 4, 1944.
Commemorative credit: 1925 Lexington-Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar (furnished some suggestions after viewing Chester Beach's motifs; three of Little's four suggestions were used).
LUKEMAN, Augustus H.
Born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Augustus and Minnie Tucker (Curtis) Lukeman, on January 28, 1871, Augustus Henry Lukeman spent his youth in New York City. At the age of 11 he began studies in art at the National Academy of Design. Beginning about the same time he worked for Launt Cooper, who was creating a heroic statue of Gen. Burnside. Later Lukeman studied anatomy at Bellevue Hospital and art at Columbia.
Augustus H. Lukeman went to Paris to study under Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguiere at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Returning to the United States, he worked 15 years in New York City in the studio of Daniel Chester French, although most of Lukeman's work was on his own commissions. His statuary groups, Peace and Power, were featured at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo; and at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis his Music group and his individual figures of Speed, Heat, Light and Power were acclaimed. Augustus Lukeman produced statues of McKinley, Kit Carson, John Adams and others, and executed commissions for the Appellate Court Building (New York City) and the Royal Bank Building (Montreal), and other patrons.
His studios were in New York City (145 West 55th Street in 1915) and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1915 the Commission of Fine Arts suggested Lukeman as an alternate possibility for the design of coinage in the event that the sculptors first recommended (Robert I. Aitken, et al.) could not do the work; Lukeman never became involved. When Gutzon Borglum was fired from his commission to create the Confederate Memorial at Stone Mountain, Georgia, Lukeman continued the work.
On December 2, 1933, he married Helen Emeline Bidwell in a ceremony in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The couple had no children. Augustus Lukeman died on April 3, 1935.
Commemorative credit: 1934-1938 Boone Bicentennial half dollar.
MANSHIP, Paul
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, December 25,1885, the son of Charle S. H. and Maryetta (Friend) Manship, Paul Manship began his education as an artist in painting classes at the St. Paul Institute of Art, but he soon discovered that he was color-blind. He turned to modeling with clay and to commercial illustration, going to New York in 1905 to work under sculptor Solon H. Borglum. Two years later he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he became a pupil of Charles Grafly. Later, he worked in the Philadelphia studio of Isadore Konti. In 1908 he was in Spain, and for much of the next several years he worked in Rome, where he was inspired by classical sculpture, thus setting the tone for much of his later work. Returning to America, Manship became an award winning medalist and produced numerous works at his New York City studio, many of which were widely distributed in numismatic circles and described in the pages of The Numismatist and other hobby publications.
The artist was also well known as a sculptor of statues and plaques. Manship created a fountain for Fairmount Park (Philadelphia), a fountain group for Cochran Memorial Park (St. Paul, Minnesota), the Paul J. Rainey Memorial gateway to the New York Zoological Park (Bronx Zoo), the Woodrow Wilson Memorial for the League of Nations (Geneva), and the Prometheus Fountain at Rockefeller Center (New York City). Paul Vitry, curator of sculpture at the Louvre, published an appreciation of Manship's work.
On January 1, 1913, he married Isabel McIlwaine in New York City. The couple had four children, Pauline, Elizabeth, John, and Sarah Jane Manship. Paul Manship died in New York City on January 31, 1966.
Commemorative credit: 1935 Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar (as part of a Works Progress Administration project Manship supervised Henry Kreis' design for the coin).
MARTIN, Chester Y.
Chester Young Martin was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on November 2, 1934, the son of Woodfin B. and Mabel Willett Young Martin. His grammar and high school education was in Chattanooga. Following four years of active Air Force duty he graduated from the University of Chattanooga (now the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) in 1961, after which he found employment as a commercial artist. Over the next several years he won many awards for his watercolors, oils, and acrylics including first and second prizes in a 1967 contest for a California postage stamp design. His Sixth Day bronze relief sculpture is in Brookgreen Gardens (South Carolina).
In the 1980s he entered three medallic competitions and won all three: 50th anniversary issue for the Society of Medalists (1981), Brookgreen Gardens wildlife medal (1983), and the 1984 World Food Day medal for the FAO. Martin attended Prof. John Cook's international medallic workshop at the Pennsylvania State University in 1984, having become involved with the American Medallic Sculpture Association and its international counterpart, FIDEM. Martin's medals done privately before 1986 are in such collections as the American Numismatic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, the British Museum, and the Royal Swedish Coin Cabinet.
This sequence of events led to his joining the sculpture and engraving staff at the United States Mint in 1986, filling the first opening in that department in 12 years. His works for the Mint include: 1988 International Mint Directors' Conference medal, congressional medal honoring Andrew Wyeth (presented in 1990), and the reverse for George Bush's presidential medal. In recent years Chester Y. Martin has assisted with the production of several commemorative coin designs. His medals have been signed "MARTIN" or "CY. MARTIN," while his coins have been signed "CYM."
He married Patricia A. Parnell in Chattanooga, August 16, 1963. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have one child, Sharon M. Pruitt.
Commemorative credits: 1989 Congress Bicentennial silver dollar (he made the models from William Woodward's design), 1990 Eisenhower silver dollar (made the model from Marcel Jovinc's design), 1991 Mount Rushmore silver dollar (he made the model of the obverse from Marika H. Somogyi's design).