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Founded in 1893, theNational Sculpture Society (NSS) was the first organization of professionalsculptors formed in theUnited States. The purpose of the organization was to promote the welfare of American sculptors, although its founding members included several renownedarchitects. The founding members included such well known figures of the day asDaniel Chester French,Augustus St. Gaudens,Richard Morris Hunt, andStanford White as well as sculptors less familiar today, such asHerbert Adams,Paul W. Bartlett,Karl Bitter,J. Massey Rhind,Attilio Piccirilli, andJohn Quincy Adams Ward—who served as the first president for the society.
Since its founding in the nineteenth century, the National Sculpture Society (NSS) has remained dedicated to promoting figurative and realistic sculpture. During the years 1919 to 1924, four works commissioned from members of the National Sculpture Society were funded by philanthropistPaul Goodloe McIntire, includingGeorge Rogers Clark (1921) byRobert Ingersoll Aitken atCharlottesville, Virginia.[1] Membership worldwide in 2006 was around 4,000 members, including sculptors, architects, art historians, and conservators. Its headquarters, library, and gallery are located inmidtown Manhattan.
In 1951, the NSS started publishingSculpture Review, a quarterly magazine. The name of the NSS publication was changed in 2024 to "Sculpture Quarterly".
Past presidents of the society have includedJohn Quincy Adams Ward,James Earle Fraser,Chester Beach,Wheeler Williams,Leo Friedlander,Neil Estern, andCecil de Blaquiere Howard.
The first woman to gain admission into the NSS wasTheo Alice Ruggles Kitson, in 1893. She was followed a few years later byEnid Yandell and Bessie Potter Vonnoh in 1898; Janet Scudder in 1904; Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1905 and Evelyn Longman andAbastenia St. Leger Eberle in 1906. In 1946,Richmond Barthé was likely the firstAfrican-American to be admitted.
In 1994, the NSS held their first exhibition outside the United States at the Palazzo Mediceo Di Seravezza in Italy. Titled “100 Years of the National Sculpture Society of the United States of America in Italy” it ran from the 16th of July through the 4th of September and was curated by Nicky andStanley Bleifeld along with Costantino Paolicchi in collaboration with Lodovico Gierut and Paolo Giorgi. Among the 60 notable American sculptors whose work was selected for the exhibition wereStanley Bleifeld,Andrew DeVries, Neil Estern, Leonda Finke,Bruno Lucchesi, Barbara Lekberg,Richard MacDonald and Elliott Offner.[2]
