Coin (Dollar)

Description

This silver dollar coin is known as the Morgan dollar after its designer and engraver, George Thomas Morgan. He was recruited from London to work with the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia and soon challenged with redesigning the image of Liberty for coinage. Morgan studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), where examples of his medallic work are in the collection. Through PAFA, Morgan met artist Thomas Eakins who introduced him to a local educator Anna Willess Williams (1857-1926). Ms. Williams became the model for the Goddess of Liberty image on the obverse. A front page article called "A Face We Often See" written by Alice Graham McCollin for The Ladies' Home Journal [1892, vol. ix, no. 8] comments that Williams sat for Morgan in Eakins's home in 1876. Ms. Williams is recorded as being reluctant for any renown, and lived modestly as a teacher in Philadelphia.