MODEL DORIS BAUM AND KARL BITTER'S POMONA

In Sara Cedar Miller's 2003 book, Central Park, An American Masterpiece, Miller revealed a numismatic tidbit regarding model Doris Discher Baum, who posed for Herman MacNeil's Standing Liberty quarter. While the controversy surrounding the identity of MacNeil's model is well known, Baum apparently kept her involvement with another statue a secret as well.

In 1916, the Pulitzer Fountain was dedicated at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, along the outskirts of Central Park. The fountain featured a statue of Pomona, the Roman goddess of abundance. While working on the figure, sculptor Karl Bitter was killed in a car accident, and an assistant completed the piece. For whatever reason, Baum chose to keep her identity a secret and later revealed it along with her revelation that she also posed for a piece of American coinage.

"For years people could only guess at the identity of the model for Pomona, but the secret was revealed in 1966 on the once-popular television show I've Got a Secret. Eighty-four-year-old Doris Discher Baum claimed that not only had she posed for the Pomona, but she was also the model for the Miss Liberty quarter first minted in 1916. It may be true, but perhaps in a flight of fancy she identified with Alice Butler from Windsor, Vermont, who was one of the models for Saint-Gaudens Victory across the street as well as the classically profiled Liberty for his ten- and twenty-dollar gold pieces.

"Baum's revelation concerning the Pomona statue was naturally overshadowed by the publicity surrounding the quarter and soon forgotten. It is interesting to note her proximity to Saint Gauden's Sherman Monument and model Alice Butler, who was used for his twenty-dollar gold piece, a fact not lost on Miller. It is also ironic that the Pomona statue and Standing Liberty quarter both debuted in 1916.

As an interesting footnote, Miller claimed that millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt III sold his mansion because "he took offense to his rear view of Pomona."

Author Jim Haas discussed this connection in an earlier article. Follow the link below for more. Here's a video of that segment of the show. I'm old enough to remember watching I've Got a Secret on television, but I don't recall this episode. -Editor