Biography - Chronology Outline of Mary Edmonia Lewis's life and art
1844
Born Mary Edmonia Lewis, she claimed birth
"on or about" July 4,
1844, in Greenbush (now Rensselaer), NY.
1844-1858
The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis, A Narrative Biography analyzes her
conflicting references to this period and her family in light of her brother's accounts and other documentation. Her
brother was born in Haiti, but it seems likely her father was from Newark NJ.
1859
Entered Oberlin College, Oberlin
Ohio as Mary E. Lewis.
1861
Asked to be called M. Edmonia Lewis for the new term.
1862
January
27:
Accused of poisoning white coeds. Racial tensions flare.
January
31: Savagely assaulted at night.
February
26: Defended by colored attorney John Mercer Langston; Exonerated by judicial hearing.
September: Signed her earliest known surviving work, a
drawing of an antique statue, "Edmonia Lewis," reproduced in The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis.
1863
[January
1:
Emancipation Proclamation declared slaves in rebelling states to be forever
free.]
February:
Accused of stealing brushes and paints, then accused of stealing a picture
frame. Charges were quickly dismissed. However, Oberlin College denied Edmonia her final term
and graduation.
Frederick Douglass
met Edmonia in Oberlin and advised her to go
east.
Visited
New York and proceeded
to Boston with letters of introduction to William Lloyd Garrison.
Encouraged by
abolitionist sculptor William Brackett.
Produced medallions of John Brown and other
celebrated abolitionists.
[July: Boston's
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
was martyred with his colored troops as
they charged
Fort Wagner.].
1864
January: Met Lydia Maria Child, a feminist and founder of
the New England abolition movement. Mrs. Child soon began to publicize Edmonia's talent.
August: Anne Whitney and others helped Edmonia with her bust
of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw -- against the wishes of Mrs.
Child. Edmonia had never met Shaw and composed the portrait from photographs.
October: Previewed her bust of Colonel Shaw to
Mrs. Child and Maria Weston Chapman in her studio. She also had a statuette of Sergeant William H. Carney,
another hero of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.
November 15: After experiencing production problems,
Edmonia finally showed the Shaw bust in public at the National Sailors' Fair --
establishing her as a portrait artist. She would sell one hundred plaster copies
and some photos with the
blessing of the Shaw family. The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis, includes a rare photo of the plaster
bust and a photo of Col. Shaw.
December: Anna Q. Waterston published a poem about
Edmonia and her bust of Col. Shaw.
1865
January: Mrs. Child publicized the Shaw bust in
The National Anti-Slavery Standard and The
Liberator.
February: Made a plaster bust of Maria Weston Chapman.
[April: Civil War ended.]
July: Headed to Richmond, Va., to teach freed slaves.
August: Sailed for Europe with commissions for marble
copies of busts of Shaw, Abraham Lincoln, Horace Mann, and others.
September: Encouraged by America's most famous sculptor, Hiram Powers, and others in
Florence, Italy.
[December: Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment
banned slavery throughout the United States.]
1866
January: Moved to Rome, Italy.
February: With the help of Harriet Hosmer,
Lewis rented the historic studio once occupied by the famous neoclassical sculptor Antonio
Canova; Retired actress Charlotte Cushman introduced her to
her circle of feminist artists -- later called "strange sisterhood"
and "white marmorian flock" by Henry James -- and began to promote her
work.
February: Created the first Emancipation statue
by an African American, the prayerful Freedwoman
and Her Child. The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis provides descriptions and outlines the circumstances surrounding the fate
of this historic work, which we believe was never rendered in marble in spite of
a fleeting success and historic recognition in the press.
March:
Featured in English periodicals, Athenæum and Art-Journal.
Newspapers and magazines across Europe and North America carried the story of
"A Negro Sculptress."
Summer: Began a second Emancipation
statue (originally called The Morning
of Liberty), Forever Free, in
which the prayerful freed woman image is toned down and accompanied by a protective man -- reflecting
the ideal Victorian family.
Sculpted the Old Arrow-Maker and His Daughter
(Wooing of Hiawatha),
and the Marriage of Hiawatha.
1867
May: Charlotte Cushman decided to raise funds to donate Wooing of Hiawatha to the Boston YMCA.
Opened shop briefly on Via della Frezza.
Tuckerman’s Book of the Artists praised her.
Murray's Handbook of Rome and Its Environs listed her as one of
"the most celebrated artists of Rome."
Moved her studio to Via di San Nicola da Tolentino. The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis, suggests how the
new location -- illustrated with maps -- was strategically important to her success.
October: Marble bust of Dioclesian
Lewis exhibited to great acclaim at A. A. Childs in Boston.
Produced marble copy of Shaw bust --
illustrated in A History of African
American Artists from 1792 to the Present -- for a member of the Shaw family
.
Completed Forever
Free in marble and shipped it to abolitionist Samuel Sewall in Boston.
Forever
Free (now at Howard University) is the earliest surviving Emancipation
work by an African-American artist.
1868
February: Revealed her Roman Catholic affiliation to
Whitney (she received baptism as an adult). Forever Free
arrived in Boston to the consternation of Samuel Sewall, who consigned it to the
A. A. Childs Gallery. The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis, A Narrative Biography, marks this as a turning point in her relationship
with Mrs.Child.
Modeled Hiawatha, Minnehaha, Indians in Combat, and Hagar in the
Wilderness -- her third vision of the prayerful freed woman.
August: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News
pictured Edmonia and the Old Arrowmaker and His Daughter (Wooing of
Hiawatha).
Winter: Modeled bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from
glimpses of him on the street. The question of why none of her celebrity
friends introduced her to the poet is taken up in The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis, A Narrative Biography.
1869
February: Marquess of Bute, one of the richest men
in the world, made the first of several large purchases.
July: Returned to Boston where she was honored by the Freedmen's Union; raised funds to donate Forever Free and Longfellow.
Visited her aunts near Niagara Falls.
Denied
accommodations in upstate New York, she was forced to seek shelter overnight.
August 29: Visited Saint
Francis
Xavier Church in Baltimore and offered them a Madonna.
October 18: After more than a year of controversy, Edmonia Lewis received honors
at Boston's Tremont Temple with the presentation of Forever Free to
Rev. Leonard Grimes, a leading black abolitionist. Attending the
reception were Rev. J. D. Fulton, Rev. Robert C. Waterson, William Lloyd
Garrison, William Craft and William Wells Brown. Not reported as in attendance:
Wendell Phillips, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel E. Sewall, and Lydia Maria Child.
1870
Isabel Cholmeley, her best friend, showed
off her
portrait bust in which Edmonia's hair symbolically represented her two racial
legacies.
Dr. Harriot K. Hunt commissioned Hygeia for her grave in Mount Auburn
Cemetery, Cambridge MA.
August: Exhibited Hagar in the Wilderness in Chicago
where she advertised as "The Young and Gifted Colored Sculptor."
Sat for photographic portraits by Chicago photographer Henry Rocher.
1871
Medallion of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Laura Curtis
Bullard interviewed Edmonia for The Revolution magazine.
Began life-size statue of John Brown for
the Union
League Club of New York City.
1872
Spring: Won a gold medal for Asleep and a
certificate of excellence for Love Caught in a Trap at the National
Exposition of Paintings and Sculpture. Academy of Arts and Sciences, Naples.
September / October: visited New York City to promote use the of her bust of Horace
Greeley (who was running for president) by Leslie's Illustrated News.
1873
Spring: Sold a copy of antique Young Augustus (Young Octavian) to
feminist Elizabeth Buffum Chace.
May: Headed for California. On her way, she
delivered an elaborate Lincoln
bust to Central Park in New York City. Her July confrontation with a racist
editor is analyzed in detail in The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis.
August/September: First internationally renowned woman
sculptor to exhibit in San Francisco and San Jose. Showed Asleep, Awake, Cupid
Caught, Lincoln, and The Marriage
of Hiawatha.
December:
Visited Saint Louis MO where she received commissions from former slave James Peck Thomas
and his elegant wife.
1874
January: Feted in New York before her return to Rome.
William
Wells Brown profiled her in the Rising Son. His source and opinion
are discussed in The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis.
1875
July: Sold copies of Senator Charles
Sumner in New York and Albany.
October: Placed several statues on exhibition in Saint
Paul, Minnesota. The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis discusses her circumstances and the
likelihood she used the show in St. Paul to visit her brother on the frontier,
to ask his help in financing her secret Centennial project.
1876
May: Exhibited The Death of Cleopatra, The
Old Arrow-maker and his Daughter, and portraits John Brown,
Charles Sumner, and Longfellow at the International Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia. The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis covers her at the Centennial -- visitors,
critics, judges, and interviews -- in more detail than
ever.
1878
Modeled busts of John Cardinal McCloskey, and
former President U. S. Grant in Rome.
September: Exhibited the Death of Cleopatra and her portrait busts in Chicago at the Interstate Industrial
Exposition.
Made bust of Chicago Bishop Thomas Patrick Roger Foley.
Visited Indianapolis with her bust of Grant.
Left Death of
Cleopatra in storage in Chicago.
December: The NY
Times and other newspapers reported she presented a bust of John Brown to Rev. Henry Highland Garnet in New
York. She would not live in America because of its racism
("the land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor"), she sailed
back to Europe. The Times wrote she was "seeking equality
abroad."
1879
January: Suit against
James Peck Thomas and his wife went to court in Saint Louis
Fall: Exhibited the 'Veiled' Bride of Spring in
Syracuse, New
York, and Cincinnati.
Another hostile
interview occurred, not published until 1880 -- analyzed in The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis,.
1883
Prepared a bas-relief altarpiece representing the
Adoration of the Magi for the
Protestant Episcopal Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin, Baltimore,
and a statue of the Holy Virgin for the Marquess of Bute.
1884
Joined other American
artists in Rome to sign petitions to protest U.S. tariffs on art.
1887
Met Frederick Douglass in Rome and accompanied him and his wife to Naples.
1892
The Death of Cleopatra was reported decorating a Chicago saloon.
1893
Lived in Paris, France, where she created a bronze Phillis Wheatley
for exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition
in Chicago. New Yorkers exhibited her bust of Hiawatha
there.
1895
Bust of Charles Sumner was exhibited at Atlanta World's
Fair by one of her fans.
1896
Edmonia's brother died in Bozeman MT, leaving Edmonia a sum of money. Edmonia gave her address as "c/o U.S. Consul Paris, France."
1898
September: Visited New York, NY.
1899
Spring: Visited Chicago
1901
Lived in London, England. The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis follows her moves within London, the preparation
of her will in 1905, and opines as to her likely friends and neighbors.
1905
Made her will in
London, England.
1907
Checked into Hammersmith Infirmary as
"Mary Lewis, age 42." September 17: Died in London, England.
Death notice goes unnoticed for more than a
century.
1909
Bogus news story claimed, "she is
still with us," misleading fans for decades.
1915
Gambler and art collector John Condon died, leaving The Death of
Cleopatra to mark the grave of his beloved racehorse forever, according
to the deed to his racetrack.
1988
A fire
inspector rescued The Death of Cleopatra from a Chicago scrap yard.
1995
Smithsonian American Art Museum
acquired and restored The Death of Cleopatra.
2010-2011
Searching for the Last Days:
Death record
discovered, verified, and reported.
2012
Publication of The
Indomitable Sprit of Edmonia Lewis, A Narrative Biography, by Harry
Henderson and Albert Henderson.
last updated 01/27/2013
© 2005, 2012 A.K.H.
