John Quincy Adams Ward (1830 – 1910) Was born in Urbana, Ohio. At the age of nineteen he was a student of and later became the assistant to the sculptor Henry Kirke Brown for seven years. He was to help Brown with the monument of George Washington which was being erected in Union Square, New York. In 1861 he worked for the Ames Company making decorative objects including bronze sword hilts for the Union Army. He was awarded many commissions for bronzes in New York’s Central Park including: The Indian Hunter, The Seventh Regiment Memorial, Shakespeare, and The Puritan. Ward was a very accomplished sculptor and considered one of the finest artists of his day. He built a home and studio which was designed by his friend Richard Morris, the famous architect, on West 52nd Street in 1882 where he sculpted most of his works. Among the many honors and positions in the art world that he held in his lifetime were: Member of the National Academy of Design (1863) and member of the board of directors of its Museum at its founding in 1870 until 1901, President of the National Academy of Design (1874), First President of the National Sculpture Society in 1893, a post he held until 1905. Ward was also a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Institute of Architects, the National Arts Club, and the Century Association. He was so admired in the world of art that in 1902, at the age of seventy-two he was given the commission to do the pediment of the New York Stock Exchange.