Bryant Baker

Percy Bryant Baker (July 8, 1881 – March 29, 1970) better known as Bryant Baker, was a British-born American sculptor. He sculpted a number of busts of famous Americans (including five presidents). In 1910, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom commissioned him to create a bust of King Edward VII.

Life and career Baker was born on July 8, 1881, in London, United Kingdom, to John Baker, a sculptor. His father and his sculptor grandfather both worked on wood and stone carvings at Westminster Abbey. His brother was Robert P. Baker, also a sculptor of note. He became an apprentice sculptor under his father, and carved Gothic statues for Beverley Minster and decorative elements for the Victoria and Albert Museum. He studied art and sculpting at the City and Guild Technical Institute and later at the Royal Academy of Arts. He was cremated, and his ashes interred at St. Peter's Church in Fordcombe, Kent, England.

Shortly after his death, the contents of his New York studio were purchased and moved to the E. W. Marland Mansion in Ponca City. The mansion is now known as the Ponca City Cultural Center, and Baker's studio and copies of many of his works are on display there.

Baker was a Freemason, and belonged to the Constitutional Lodge No. 294 at Beverley, Yorkshire, England.

Notable works Pioneer Woman, 1930, Ponca City, Oklahoma, tall Portrait plaque of Stephen Tyng Mather, 1930, with castings in dozens of U.S. National Park Service areas Grover Cleveland, 1932, Buffalo, New York, monumental sized Millard Fillmore, 1932, Buffalo, New York, monumental sized L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune, 1934, Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina John M. Clayton, 1934, National Statuary Hall Collection, Washington D.C. (for Delaware) Caesar Rodney, 1934, National Statuary Hall Collection, Washington D.C. (for Delaware) Abraham Lincoln Statue, 1935, Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York Bust of Cordell Hull, 1943, OAS Aztec Garden, Washington, D.C. (see also: List of public art in Ward 2) William Borah, 1947, National Statuary Hall Collection, Washington D.C. (for Idaho) Illustrious Brother George Washington, 1949, George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia William C. Gorgas, 1954, Mobile County Health Department, Mobile, AL Charles Penrose, 1956, formerly in the Newcomen Society of the United States Bust of Sir Winston Churchill, 1958, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Bust of Herbert Hoover - Université libre de Bruxelles - Archives, patrimoine, réserve précieuse

According to the Smithsonian Institution, several copies of Baker's works can be found at the Ponca City Cultural Center in Ponca City, Oklahoma.

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