page_title: Ellen Rankin Copp
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Ellen Rankin Copp / Career
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: John Rankin (1793–1886) English: John Rankin (1793–1886)
context_page_description: Ellen Rankin Copp, also called Ellen or Helen Houser Rankin, was an American sculptor. Her works were featured at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
context_section_description: In 1890 Ellen Rankin Copp won the first medal for sculpture awarded by the Art Institute of Chicago. She created "Maternity" on commission for the Illinois Building, and "Pele" on commission for the Hawaii Building, both at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. The 24-foot-tall statue of Pele was promoted as the "largest statue ever made by a woman." Four more works by Copp were shown at the Exposition: a bronze relief portrait of Harriet Monroe, displayed in the Palace of Fine Arts; a bronze relief portrait of Bertha Palmer, in the Library of the Woman's Building; and two smaller works inside the Illinois Building.
  After the Exposition, Copp took her son to Europe, and pursued further art education in Munich; she showed her "Strength of Nations" sculpture there in 1895.
  Copp made portrait busts of prominent Chicagoans, and one of her grandfather Reverend Rankin, for the city of Ripley, Ohio. In 1896 she submitted an ambitious proposal for a war monument in Texas.
caption: Bust of Rev. John Rankin by Ellen Rankin Copp
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