Hermon Atkins MacNeil

American sculptor and medalist Hermon Atkins MacNeil is known for designing the Standing Liberty quarter, which was minted from 1916-30, and for sculpting Justice, the Guardian of Liberty on the east pediment of the United States Supreme Court building. He graduated from Massachusetts Normal Art School (now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design) in Boston, then became an instructor in industrial art at Cornell University from 1886-89. He later studied under Henri Chapu and Alexandre Falguière in Paris and was granted a scholarship to study in Roma for four years.

After returning to the USA, MacNeil became a well-known sculptor of Indian subjects, commemorative works and medals, including the designing of the medal of award for the 1915 Pan American Exposition in San Francisco, and the quarter dollar for the United States government. He also taught art and was married to Carol Brooks MacNeil (1871-1944), a distinguished sculptor and student of Frederick MacMonnies.

The Sun Vow is one of MacNeil’s best known works. It was created in 1899, but the cast was not made until 1919. The 183 x 83 x 137 cm work is located in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and shows an Indian initiation rite. A plaster model was exhibited in Amsterdam. The Indian Runner is known by various names: Snake Dance, The Returning of the Snakes and The Moqui - Prayer for Rain. Designed in 1896, the 57 cm high figure was cast in bronze the following year and is now located in the Art Institute Chicago. The run, in which the runner grabs snakes with his hands, is a Hopi ceremony asking for rain. In 1931, MacNeil took up the subject again in a medal. The bronze medal Hopi Prayer for Rain medal has a diameter of 7.3 cm. The Observer could not be clearly identified. In Ambush is the most likely of MacNeil’s sculptures. It may have been a later unused study for the sculpture group Coming of the White Man, created in 1904.