Sidney Waugh studied at Amherst College, where his father was a professor of art, and at the MIT School of Architecture. In 1925 he went to Europe where he remained for eight years, studying in Rome and Paris. In the latter city, he was a student of and later assistant to Henri Bouchard. He won the Prix de Rome in 1929 and spent the next three years at the American Academy in Rome and travelling in France and Sweden. He returned to the United States in 1932.
Waugh specialized in architectural sculpture and executed many works for the Federal government. In Washington he was responsible for carving one of the pediments of the Department of the Post Office Building (1934) and the Federal Reserve Board Building (1937). Additionally, he did work for the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburg (1940); designed the Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar Monument in Richmond, Virginia (1938); and sculpted the Pulaski Monument for Philadelphia (1946).
In 1933 Waugh began working for the Steuben Division of Corning Glass Works and was soon producing designs in glass. He continued his career as a sculptor, however; among his later works were ornamental carvings for the Mellon Memorial Fountain near the National Gallery in Washington and marble statues for the United States District Court in that city.
Obviously, Waugh was an active member of the artistic community. He served as president of the National Sculpture Society and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the New York City Art Commission.
