National Sculpture Society

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Founded in 1893, the National Sculpture Society was the first organization of professional sculptors formed in the United States. Although its founding members included several architects, the purpose of the organization was to promote the welfare of sculptors in America. The founding members included such well known figures of the day as Daniel Chester French, Augustus St. Gaudens, Richard Morris Hunt, and Stanford White and ones lesser familiar today, such as Herbert Adams, Paul W. Bartlett, Karl Bitter, J. Massey Rhind and John Quincy Adams Ward, who served as the NSS's first president.

Since that time the NSS has remained dedicated to promoting figurative and realistic sculpture. Membership worldwide in 2006 is around 4,000 members, including sculptors, architects, art historians and conservators. The NSS publishes Sculpture Review on a quarterly basis.

The first woman to gain admission into the NSS was Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson in 1895, followed by Enid Yandell in 1899. In 1946 Richmond Barthé was likely the first African-American to be admitted.