Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (American sculptor, 1876 - 1973) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father was a professor of Paleontology at Harvard and from him she developed her interest in animals. She studied sculpture in Boston with Henry Kittleson before enrolling at the Art Students League where she studied under Herman Atkin MacNeil.

Her earliest works consisted of domestic animals and dogs beginning with her 1903 exhibition at the Society of American Artists in New York of her sculpture of two horses titled Winter Noon. She exhibited the same sculpture again at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 and continued exhibiting throughout her life.

She spent much time at the Bronx Zoo sketching and modeling the wild animals there. She went to France and Italy to study as was popular with American artists at that time, receiving many awards and honors for her works there.

She won the Purple Rosette of the French Government and was made a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur for her equestrian group of Joan of Arc.

In 1923 she married the philanthropist Archer Huntington and in 1931 Mr. Huntington purchased 10,000 acres and built Brook Green Gardens ( http://www.brookgreen.org ) near Charleston, South Carolina as a home and studio for his wife. There she entertained all of the famous artists of the day providing a location and the tools needed for her to work undisturbed by the impositions of the outside world. Anna Hyatt Huntington was one of the most prolific American artist of the 20th century, producing hundreds of models that were cast in bronze and some even in aluminum.

Her studio at Brookgreen Gardens is open to the public and houses not only examples of her works but the works of many of the most famous and talented artists of her time.

The Life of Anna Hyatt Huntington is documented in the following books:

Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture by Beatrice Proske (1968)

Anna Hyatt Huntington by The National Sculpture Society (1947)

Rediscoveries in American Sculpture by Janis Conner & Joel Rosenkranz (1989)

Dictionary of American Sculptors by Glenn Opitz

Masters of American Sculpture by Donald M. Reynolds

American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1965)

Exhibition of American Sculpture Catalogue by the National Sculpture Society (1923)

Biographical Information above taken from: http://www.bronze-gallery.com/sculptors/artist.cfm?sculptorID=75

Sidenote: Anna Hyatt Huntington sculpted the bronze statue of Sybil Ludington which sits on the shore of Lake Gleneida in Carmel, New York (Putnam County, New York). A smaller copy of the statue is located on the grounds of the DAR Headquarters in Washington, DC.

216.45.193.37 23:53, 10 October 2005 (UTC)information compiled by Mike Nelson, ( mnelsonjr@yahoo.com )Carmel, NY resident.