American Art Collaborative

Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) manufactured railroad cars in Detroit until he retired in 1900. He established the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to house his collection of Asian art, as well as paintings and decorative arts created by James McNeill Whistler. The obverse of Paul Manship’s medal depicts Freer and the neoclassical building on the National Mall designed by Charles Adams Platt (see 1965.16.98 and 1965.16.99) to house Freer’s collection