Selma Burke was a sculptor & member of the Harlem Renaissance movement, best known for her bas-relief portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt She never received credit for her portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt which was later featured on the US dime. #WomensHistoryMonth —In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt sat for a portrait by a young African-American artist from Mooresville. That artist was Selma Burke. However, John R. Sinnock’s signature is on the dime, and he receives credit for the work while Burke’s portrait, which she spent two years working on, is only recognized as an inspiration and model for the final image used on the coin. According to Lisa E. Farrington, author of “Creating Their Own Image, The History of African-American Women Artists,” Sinnock made “barely perceptible alterations.” HONORS As well as a sculptor, Burke was also a lifelong student and educator, winning numerous awards and fellowships. She earned her first degree from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina and eventually graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia. She started her first art school in 1940, eventually starting her second in 1946, and opened the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, which operated from 1968 to 1981. Burke is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She received several honorary doctorate degrees during her lifetime, including one awarded by Livingston College in 1970 and one from Spelman College in 1988. Milton Shapp, then-governor of Pennsylvania, declared July 29, 1975, Selma Burke Day in recognition of the artist's contributions to art and education. Her papers and archive are in the collection of Spelman College. Burke was a member of the first group of women – along with Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel, Georgia O'Keefe, and Isabel Bishop – to receive lifetime achievement awards from the Women's Caucus for Art, in 1979. She received the award from President Jimmy Carter in a private ceremony in the Oval Office. She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1983 and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation Women's Award in 1987. She died in 1995 at the age of 94. 🖊️As the only admin behind this page, I try to research to educate. If you appreciate this effort, you can support to help the page thrive on ko-fi.com/africanarchives. Your support is deeply appreciated! (Or just the ko-fi page for articles/posts roundup)
I’m sorry, but he sat for a lot of portraits by a lot of artists and any critic who looks at her bas relief and then looks at the dime and sees them as the same…well, they are just not the same. About the only thing they have in common is being recognizable as the same individual and both being silver in color and of course being in left profile. The two bas reliefs you show of hers are even much different, and neither one matches up with the dime. Again, sorry. Is it possible that the work of the gentleman who was credited is an exact match?
@AfricanArchives I am today years old! The more you fuucking know, the higher you will go… lt's in our DNA to THRIVE in so many fields under the conditions, lack of resources, and control systems prescribed by others. This is amazing! Black History is American History.
@AfricanArchives @JaneyGodley Thank you for the awareness. 💙
@AfricanArchives Instead of giving us reparations, just give us credit for all the things we've accomplished and Whites either stole or took credit for. Our wealth would rival that of most European nations.
@AfricanArchives She's an excellent artist, but those look like a lot more than 'barely perceptible alterations'. They don't look like the same sculpt. The eyebrow, the ear, the chin & lips, the neck/shoulder, the hair grain. That's not the same.
Summary: Selma Burke, a sculptor and member of the Harlem Renaissance, created the bas-relief portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the US dime, though John R. Sinnock received credit. She was also an educator, winning awards and founding art schools, including the Selma Burke Art Center.
@AfricanArchives This why they hate us
@AfricanArchives I collect coins and I did not know this. Thanks for sharing! 😀
@AfricanArchives Wow, Thank You for the much needed History Lesson! I really wished that I learned it sooner. Thank You Ms. Selma Burke for all of your outstanding contributions❣️🤎⚘️
@AfricanArchives Wow. Thank you. I didn’t know anything about her.