Ivan Mestrovic’s Bronze of Michael Pupin at Columbia University

Abstract

ABSTRACT Michael Idvorsky Pupin (1858–1935) is best known for his pioneering work in electrical engineering and for his contributions to the fields of telephony and telegraphy. Less well known is his career as an academic and scientist at Columbia. This article centers on the history of the bronze bust of Pupin created by the Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic (1883–1962) as a personal gift to the scientist, and which now stands in the hallway of Pupin Hall, Pupin’s renamed laboratory, at Columbia. Pupin, who had been born in poverty in what is now Serbia, was actively involved in the Pan Slavic movement to create Yugoslavia after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I (WWI) as was Mestrovic.