The following biography is from Greta Elena Couper, great-granddaughter of sculptor William Couper. She is a writer and educator in Los Angeles, California, and concentrates her research on 19th century art history and the psychology of travel.

William Couper was one of America's most noted sculptors of the latter 19th-early 20th century. His realistic, dignified portrayals of military heroes, historical figures, and other public figures and of allegorical figures representing literary and moral subjects are seen in numerous public places, institutions, and museums. Among these are a series of monuments for the National Military Park in Vicksburg; fourteen busts of scientists for the American Museum of Natural History in New York Cit...