Jean Pond Miner Coburn (1866–1967) was born in

Menasha, Wisconsin Menasha () is a city in Calumet and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 18,268 at the 2020 census. Of this, 15,144 were in Winnebago County, and 2,209 were in Calumet County. The city is located mostly in Winn ...

. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and is most notable for her work ''

Forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

''.

Early life

Jean Pond Miner was born in

on the 8th July 1866. Her parents were Rev. H. A. Miner, a Congregationalist clergyman and Harriet Pond Rice. In her early life the family moved to

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. During her education she was known among her classmates as a strong artist. After two years as a special student in

Downer College Downer College was a women's college in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, chartered in 1855 and opening in September, 1856. History It was founded in 1854 as Wisconsin Female College under the auspices of the Wisconsin Baptist Convention to prepare women for m ...

, she went to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and began her art studies at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

with

Lorado Taft Lorado Zadok Taft (April 29, 1860, in Elmwood, Illinois – October 30, 1936, in Chicago) was an American sculptor, writer and educator. His 1903 book, ''The History of American Sculpture,'' was the first survey of the subject and stood for decad ...

, where she found particular interest in sculpture. After working only three months she took the second honors of the institution. Soon after, she was sought as an instructor, and at the end of the year accepted a position as student teacher.

Work

Her statue ''Hope'' was among the first that met with recognition and was placed in the McCowen Oral School, in

Englewood, Chicago Englewood is a neighborhood and community area located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is also the 68th of the 77 community areas in the city. At its peak population in 1960, over 97,000 people lived in its approxima ...

. The woman's art club (also known as The Palette Club) recognized her work and conferred upon her the honor of active membership, and her figure ''Wisconsin'' was locally celebrated. Her group especially prepared for the

1893 World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

was called ''Leave-Taking''. During the Exposition, Miner and

Helen Farnsworth Mears Helen Farnsworth Mears (; December 21, 1872 – February 17, 1916) was an American sculptor. Early years Mears was born December 21, 1872, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, daughter of John Hall Mears and Elizabeth Farnsworth Mears (pen names "Nellie Wildw ...

were both named artists-in-residence at the Wisconsin Building. At that time, Miner was commissioned to create a work of art representing the state. The result was her most famous work, ''

'', which was later given the honor of a prominent position at the

Wisconsin State Capitol The Wisconsin State Capitol, located in Madison, Wisconsin, houses both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature along with the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor. Completed in 1917, the building is the fifth to serve as the Wi ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{Source-attribution, {{cite book, last1=Willard, first1=Frances Elizabeth, author1-link=Frances Willard, last2=Livermore, first2=Mary Ashton Rice, author2-link=Mary Livermore, title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life, url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Jean_Pond_Miner, edition=Public domain, year=1893, publisher=

Charles Wells Moulton Charles Wells Moulton (1859–1913) was an American poet, critic, editor, and publisher. He was the founding editor of ''The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review'', and the publisher of ''A Woman of the Century A, or a, is the first Lett ...

1866 births 1967 deaths Sculptors from Wisconsin 20th-century American sculptors 19th-century American sculptors American women sculptors 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists People from Menasha, Wisconsin American centenarians Women centenarians