George Washington Tributes

William S. Baker (1825-1897) was a believer in the American hero George Washington and wrote three works that cataloged Washington memorials in the forms of engravings, medallic tributes, and character sketches. In Character Portraits of Washington Baker wrote Among numismatists, Baker's Medallic Portraits of Washington (1885) is the best known and served as the standard collector's guide for nearly a century. In recent years, the Washington medal series has been thoroughly reworked in Neil Musante's masterpiece Medallic Washington (Spink, 2016).

Image: c. 1851 Declaration of Independence medal by C. C. Wright, Baker-53, GW-181 (ex. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Stack's Bowers November 2019, lot 20147, realized $45,600).

Link to William S. Baker works on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/195