Charles Rudy achieved national status as a sculptor for his work on public buildings across the country, as well as for his prizewinning sculptures. After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and on a Cresson Traveling Fellowship in Europe, Rudy settled in Ottsville, Pennsylvania, with his wife in 1936, where he lived until his death in 1986. The Michener’s Rudy Collection, one of the main repositories of the artist’s work, includes bronze and plaster sculptures along with plaster molds (with associated rubber molds and plaster positives) and the artist’s tools.