Sculptress On Sickbed Hears She Is To Carve Memorial

Mrs. Fraser Told By Hospital Staff Of Her Selection To Execute Lee-Jackson Statue – Says She Is “Thrilled”

[New York Bureau of The Sun]

New York, June 8-Mrs. Laura Gardin Fraser, noted sculptress, who is recovering from a sinus operation in the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital here, was visibly cheered today, according to hospital authorities, by the news that her model had been selected for a $100,000 heroic equestrian bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson, to be erected in Wyman Park, Baltimore.

She Was “Thrilled”

Although Mrs. Fraser has been too ill since her operation on June 3 to see members of her family and friends, and could not be interviewed, members of the hospital staff who told her of her good fortune in an effort to speed her recovery said that she had expressed herself as being “thrilled” with the award.

Mrs. Fraser, whose studio is at 328 East Forty-second street, has been awarded more important commissions for medals than any other woman in the world. She is the only woman to whom the Numismatic Society ever has awarded the Saltus Medal, highest award for the medallic art.

Designed Lindbergh Medal

Among the many medals she designed was the one bestowed by Congress upon Col. Charles A. Lindbergh for his transatlantic flight and the special Medal of Honor of the National Geographic Society given to Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd for his fight over the South Pole. She also designed a bronze replica of the famous J. H. Darling cartoon, “The Long, Long Trail,” which was printed first in the New York Tribune at the time of the death of Theodore Roosevelt.

Statue To Be Erected In Summer Of 1938

The S. Henry Ferguson memorial equestrian monument to Gen. Robert

E. Lee and Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson. which is to be erected in Wyman Park, will not be completed until early in the summer of 1938, R. J. McKinney, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, announced yesterday. Mrs. Laura Gardin Fraser, New York sculptor, was selected to carve the statue, which will cost $100,000. The award was made Sunday at the museum after a jury had studied six entries.

As art adviser to the memorial committee, Mr. McKinney yesterday asked the competing sculptors for permission to hold a public exhibition of their models. Four of the six competitors had consented last evening.

Meanwhile. Mr. McKinney’s office was bombarded with suggestions about the monument. Most of the inquirers, many of whom were descendants of soldiers who fought on both sides during the Civil War, wanted to know when the monument would be completed.