The sculptor Janet Scudder was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and attended the Cincinnati Art Academy and the Art Institute of Chicago. She found work helping to produce monumental sculptures for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, and seeing the work of sculptor Frederick W. MacMonnies at the exposition inspired her to go to Paris to study with him. She moved between Paris and New York for the rest of her life. In addition to her architectural sculpture, including her famous Frog Fountain (1901), she received numerous commissions for plaques and medals such as this one.

Scudder was an advocate for women’s suffrage and for gender equality in the arts. She was close friends with Gertrude Stein, and Scudder hired the American sculptor Malvina Hoffman as her studio assistant when Hoffman arrived in Paris. During the last decade of her life, Scudder lived with Marion Cothren, an author and suffragist.

Janet Scudder (American, 1873–1940), Medal Commemorating the Centennial of Indiana’s Admission to the Union. Bronze, 1916. Diameter: 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm). 1916.170.