Celebrating Hermon MacNeil, Designer of the Standing Liberty Quarter
This past weekend, we celebrated the 155th anniversary of legendary American sculptor, Hermon A. MacNeil’s birth. Without MacNeil’s contributions to numismatics, our country would have never been graced with one of the most celebrated quarter designs of all time: The Standing Liberty Quarter. Like many coin designers of the American Coin Renaissance period, MacNeil had nothing to do with numismatics until he was contracted by the United States Mint.
Born on his family’s farm in Everett, Massachusetts on February 27, 1866, MacNeil came from humble beginnings. To further his interests in the fine arts, MacNeil moved on to study at the Massachusetts Normal Art School as a teenager. Upon his graduation in 1886, MacNeil acquired a position as a teacher for industrial art and modeling at Cornell University. After two years of teaching, MacNeil sought his continuing education in Europe, following in the footsteps of other famed sculptors such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Returning to America, MacNeil went on to contribute to the renowned World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in America. In addition to creating numerous sculptures for the Electricity Building of the fair, MacNeil also contributed to several of the architectural sculptures exhibited. It was at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair that MacNeil met his wife, Carol Brooks. Eventually the two would work together to create the William McKinley Monument in Columbus, Ohio. Over the next two decades, MacNeil created a variety of renowned works including four bas-reliefs in the famous Marquette Building of Chicago and the sculpture known as The Sun Vow, which is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
MacNeil’s involvement in American numismatics did not begin until 1915, when Mint Director Robert Wooley took steps to replace the designs of the Barber Dime, Quarter, and Half Dollar. Hermon A. MacNeil was chosen to design the new quarter, replacing the Liberty Head designs of Sixth Chief Engraver of the US Mint Charles E. Barber. Initially, MacNeil was only slated to design the obverse of the new quarter, but the Mint eventually decided that he should redesign the reverse as well.
The obverse of MacNeil’s Standing Liberty Quarter features Lady Liberty poised at an open gate, holding a shield in her left arm and an olive branch of peace in her right hand. Produced in 1916, the original design of MacNeil’s quarter caused quite a bit of controversy, as it portrayed Lady Liberty with her breast exposed. By the second year of issue, the design was altered so that Lady Liberty’s breast was covered by chainmail armor.
The reverse of the Standing Liberty Quarter features a majestic eagle flying to the right with wings pointed upwards, surrounded by stars on the edge of the design. In 1917 the design was altered slightly to move three stars beneath the eagle.
One hundred years after the debut of MacNeil’s Standing Liberty Quarter, the U.S. Mint honored the design with a 2016 Gold Standing Liberty Quarter. And now nearly 150 years after Hermon MacNeil was born, we still honor him for his tremendous numismatic contributions.
