Dr Selma Burke

Selma Hortense Burke
(Dec 31, 1900 – Aug 29, 1995)
was an American sculptor and a member of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Burke is best known for a bas relief portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that inspired the profile found on the obverse of the dime.

She described herself as “a people’s sculptor” and created many pieces of public art, often portraits of prominent African-American figures like Duke Ellington, Mary McLeod Bethune and Booker T. Washington.

In 1979, she was awarded the Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. via Wikipedia

Burke with her portrait bust of
Booker T. Washington, c. 1935

Selma Burke, graduate in sculpting class at Columbia University, c. 1939.

Selma Burke, USA sculptor, 1900-1995
in her studio

Selma Burke created the image that’s on the dime and yet she received no money – or acknowledgment – for doing so… till now

Sculptor and educator who received national recognition for her relief portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which was the model for his image on the dime. Committed to teaching art to others, Burke established the Selma Burke Art School in New York City in 1946 and subsequently opened the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Selma Burke was one of ten children born to a Methodist minister in rural North Carolina. When she was a child, Selma would mold the soft clay of the riverbanks into small figures. In the 1920s, Burke became one of the few African American women to achieve fame during the Harlem Renaissance, which brought many black male artists and writers to the nation’s attention. She later taught at the Harlem Community Art Center and founded the Selma Burke Art School in New York City and the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh. Burke is most famous for her 1944 relief Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which inspired the Roosevelt dime. from https://americanart.si.edu/artist/selma-burke-27983