The Private Sketchbook of George T. Morgan
America's Silver Dollar Artist
Description:... George T. Morgan was an artist a sculptor and numismatic designer in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. One of his most famous works of art is instantly recognizable as an American classic: the Morgan silver dollar, minted in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Carson City, Denver, and San Francisco from the 1870s into the early 1900s. Today most collectors know Morgan as the father of this legendary silver coin. Some specialists are familiar with his designs for commemoratives and medals. Fewer know of his significant work in U.S. pattern coins. But who exactly was George T. Morgan? Enter Karen Lee of the Smithsonian Institution's National Numismatic Collection. With the discovery of Morgan's long-lost sketchbook, and unique access to family photographs and personal documents, Lee finally reveals the man behind the coins. Her amazing new work, The Private Sketchbook of George T. Morgan, is an eye-opening immersion into the designer's life and times. Central to this beautifully illustrated volume are nearly 80 pages of Morgan's personal and professional sketchbook the entirely of the creative journal that he carried from his native England to the United States in the 1870s. Morgan worked out his designs in this book not over the course of weeks or months, not even simply for a few years, but over his decades-long career with the U.S. Mint. Art historians know how rare it is to have access to an artist's original sketches in a single source. This sketchbook could easily have been lost to history over the nearly 100 years since Morgan died in 1925. Recently brought to light, it shows us the creative process of one of America's unsung artistic geniuses.
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