Annetta Saint-Gaudens with Urn for Meridian Bird Club

This black-and-white photograph, taken circa 1917, shows sculptor Annetta Saint-Gaudens standing next to her urn that she sculpted for the Meridian Bird Club in New Hampshire. She is facing the camera and faintly smiling; she appears to be holding a sculpting tool near the base of the urn with her right hand. The urn in on a platform and is several feet tall. Depicted on the urn are people standing and dancing. The photo is from the National Park Service, and the photographer is unknown.

Saint-Gaudens designed and sculpted the urn for the Meridian Bird Sanctuary in Cornish, New Hampshire, in commemoration of the play "Sanctuary: A Bird Masque" by Percy MacKaye. The play premiered at the sanctuary in 1913, with President Woodrow Wilson in attendance and both of his daughters performing in the play. The play became popular nationwide and inspired more than 100 bird clubs as well as contributing to the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. 

A native of Flint, Ohio, Saint-Gaudens attended the Columbus Art School before continuing her studies at the Art Students League in New York. She married sculptor Louis Saint-Gaudens (brother of renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens), and they lived in Flint before moving to Cornish, New Hampshire. Annetta maintained connections in central Ohio and donated 12 acres of her family farm near Flint to the Godman Guild to serve as a summer camp for working mothers and their children. Originally named Camp Johnson, today the property is Camp Mary Orton. A profile in the December, 1915 "House Beautiful" magazine shared this quote of hers: "Fields, streams, flowers, animals, and fresh air are every child's birthright."