One of the leading architectural sculptors of early twentieth-century America, Weinman was brought to the United States at an early age. As a teenager in New York, he studied art and came to the attention of Saint-Gaudens. By the time he opened his own studio in 1904 Weinman had worked with many of the period's well-known sculptors, including Saint-Gaudens, Philip Martiny, Charles Niehaus, Olin Warner, and Daniel Chester French. Also in 1904 Weinman produced his first nationally recognized work, the heroic "Destiny of the Red Man," for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Capable of varying his technique according to the spirit of the undertaking, Weinman produced monuments, idealized allegorical figures, realistic portrait statues and busts, animal studies, and architectural reliefs, such as those on the Morgan Library and the Municipal Building in New York and the pediments for the National Archives in Washington. He also designed numerous medals and coins, including the United States dime and half dollar of 1916.