25. Reverend George Endicott Osgood

In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Date	1920
Material	Bronze
Dimensions	2 1/8 x 1/8 in. (5.4 x 0.3 cm) [diameter x depth]; 2 1/8 x 1/8 in. (5.4 x 0.3 cm) [diameter x depth]; Steel negative mold, 4 1/8 x 4 1/8 x 2 3/4 in. (10.5 x 10.5 x 7 cm)
Description	Medal with a profile view of the father of Helen Nerney Shaw and father-in-law of Petersen's friend, George Nerney. Commissioned by a personal friend.
Markings	Signed right center in square: CP
Provenance / Location	Medal and two die hubs: George Nerney; Mrs. Helen Nerney Shaw; SC, Gift of Mrs. Helen Nerney Shaw. CPAC, Transferred from Special Collections, Iowa State Library. UM99.59abc 2) George Nerney; Mrs. Helen Nerney Shaw; Charlotte Tracey; CPAC, Gift of Charlotte Tracy. UM2011.1 3) encased in Lucite: George Nerney; Mrs. Helen Nerney Shaw; Charlotte Tracey; CPAC, Gift of Charlotte Tracy. UM2011.310
Alternate Title(s)	n/a
Notes / Sources	Papers, SC, Box 4 f.16 Nerney letter of Sept. 21, 1942 noting he has Osgood bronze; image: Transmission (Northern Natural Gas Co.), Vol. VIII No. 2, 1960.

George Endicott Osgood (1854-1930) was an Episcopal clergyman and civic leader in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. The descendant of several prominent Puritan families in Salem, Osgood was the son of a Boston merchant. He graduated from the Episcopal Theological School of Harvard College in 1877 and married Helen F. Reed in 1879 (their daughter Edith married Christian Petersen’s lifelong friend George F. Nerney in 1911). Helen died in 1919 and Osgood married Grace M. Newell in 1927.

Osgood was appointed as rector at St. Matthew’s Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1878 before becoming rector at Grace Church in North Attleboro in 1880, a position he held for the next fifty years. He served as secretary of the New Bedford missionary division of the diocese of Massachusetts from 1894 until his death and established missions which later became All Saints’ Church in Attleboro and St. Mark’s Church in Foxboro. Osgood was also civically involved as chairman of the Attleboro Library Board of Trustees, the president of the North Attleboro Improvement Society, and as president of North Attleboro’s Rotary Club. He remained active until his death in 1930.