Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on December 21, 1872, Helen Mears was, according to the little information and few anecdotes of her childhood that survive, destined from earliest age for sculpture. She attended public schools and Oshkosh State Normal School (now a branch of the University of Wisconsin). In 1892 she won a commission for a sculpture of a woman and winged eagle design entitled ╥Genius of Wisconsin╙ for the Wisconsin Building at the World╒s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. While executing the work at the Art Institute of Chicago, she received some encouragement from Lorado Taft. The success of the piece, which was later installed in the Wisconsin State Capitol, enabled her to travel to New York City and enroll in the Art Students╒ League. Shortly afterward she became an assistant to and student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In 1897╨1899 she studied in France and Italy.
On her return to New York City in 1899 Mears established a studio on Washington Square and embarked on a brief but highly successful career as a professional sculptor. Her craftsmanship, artistic sensibility, and energy won her a place among her colleagues. Among her commissions were bronze busts of George Rogers Clark (for the Milwaukee Public Library) and Dr. William T. G. Morton (Smithsonian Institution), bas-relief portraits of Saint-Gaudens (Peabody Institute, Baltimore) and Edward MacDowell (Metropolitan Museum), a three-panel bas-relief work entitled ╥The Fountain of Life,╙ which was exhibited successfully at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904 and elsewhere, and a full-length statue of Frances E. Willard, commissioned by the State of Illinois and placed in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol in 1905. A number of pieces were left in various degrees of incompleteness at her death in New York City on February 17, 1916.
