While the young Cyrus Dallin was working in one of his father's mines in Utah, some of the miners discovered a bed of soft white clay, from which he modeled two life-size heads. His work attracted attention and financial support to underwrite his studies in art. Dallin moved to Boston in 1880, opened his own studio, and then sailed for France. While in Paris Dallin encountered the touring Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and began to produce works that glorified the American Indian. The Medicine Man is one of four Indian sculptures that he executed. It was exhibited in the 1899 Salon and the 1900 Paris Exposition, where it received a silver medal.

The Fairmount Park Art Association purchased the sculpture and installed it at a site designated by the artist. At the dedication ceremony in 1903, Francis LaFlesche, a distinguished Native American, spoke about the representation of the holy man: "In many of the religious rites the priest appeared in such a manner. The nudity is not without its significance; it typifies the utter helplessness of man, when his strength is contrasted with the power of the Great Spirit, whose power is symbolized by the horns upon the head of the priest."

Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).