Selma Burke (American, 1900 – 1995) was an accomplished artist, artist’s model, arts administrator, educator, and nurse. In 1988, Spelman College awarded Burke with an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. She maintained a long relationship with the College, and frequently interacted with administration, faculty, and students. Burke is perhaps best known for creating the bronze plaque of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that inspired his image on the dime. Although the initials of John Sinnock, the United States Mint’s chief engraver, appear on the dime, it is important to note that the image of Roosevelt is strikingly similar to Burke’s work. Burke also created portrait busts of luminaries such as Mary McLeod Bethune and Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1995, Selma Burke bequeathed her personal papers, as well as a significant collection of artworks—including twelve bronze, marble, and wooden sculptures and plaster studies for her design of Roosevelt’s portrait—to the College.
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