Who
modeled for the Morgan dollar?
03-26-2007 - By Tom LaMarre (Coins Magazine)
Was
Anna Willess Williams really the woman whose likeness appears on the Morgan
dollar? Collectors will probably never know for sure, but the story has been
around for more than a century and is as much a part of numismatics as the
Morgan dollar itself.
 |
| George T. Morgan |
Soon after engraver George T.
Morgan came to the United States from England, he was asked to take part in an
internal Mint competition for the design of a new silver dollar. Legislation
had eliminated the standard silver dollar in 1873, but the Bland-Allison Act of
February 1878 brought it back with a vengeance. Instead of using the Seated
Liberty design, which dated back to the 1830s, government officials wanted
something new.
According
to legend, Morgan completed the design for the dollar’s reverse first,
after many months of work.
According to legend, Morgan completed the
design for the dollar’s reverse first, after many months of work. It
pictured an eagle with raised wings within a wreath, leading some critics to
refer to it as the “buzzard dollar.”
Morgan then supposedly
turned his attention to the obverse. At first he considered using an imaginary
portrait of the “Goddess of Liberty.” But he finally decided the coin
should have a real-life portrait of an American girl, and he began his search
for a beautiful model..
One of Morgan’s friends, portrait artist
Thomas Eakins, told him about Anna Williams, a young art student. An
introduction was arranged, Morgan studied her face and told her of his
intention. Williams didn’t like the idea at all, but her friends changed
her mind.
