On the top proper left side of the center base as inscription references the sculptor: "Belle Kinney, Sc".

Fifty years later, in 1911, S. A. Cunningham, a longtime editor of the Confederate Veteran magazine[1] wanted to commission a memorial to Owen.

[citation needed] To obtain state government approval for a memorial, William W. Spencer, a member of the Indiana House of Representatives, put forth a resolution to authorized its creation:Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring therein, that the Governor of this State be authorized to permit the surviving Confederate prisoners who were confined in Camp Morton during the War between the States to erect a tablet to the memory of Col. Richard Owen for the kindness shown said Confederate prisoners, and that the Governor be authorized to designate the spot where said tablet shall be placed, either in the Statehouse, on the grounds of the Statehouse, or on the soldiers' monument in the city of Indianapolis.

[6] Initially, Cunningham planned to commission a memorial tablet and asked for donations in the Confederate Veteran from anyone who had been under Owen's command at the camp.

[7] Cunningham received more than $1,100 in contributions[8] and had Belle Kinney Scholz, a sculptor and the daughter of a Confederate soldier, create a bronze bust instead of a tablet.

[13] Regarding the Owen bust, Kinney Scholz said: It was my aim to portray such a man as he might look while pondering over the meaning of the great struggle in which he was then taking part – his sympathetic heart touched by the suffering it caused, yet realizing its necessity...no work I have ever done gave me as much pleasure as the Owen bust.