EDMONIA LEWIS  

Biography - Chronology of Mary Edmonia Lewis 

1844

Born Mary Edmonia Lewis, she claimed birth "on or about" July 4, 1844, in Greenbush (now Rensselaer), NY.

-1856

For a time, she lived in Canada and travelled with a tribe of Indians. Her mother, a Native American artisan, and her father, an African American, died.  Her older brother, who was born in Haiti, paid for her board and private day school while he went west to make his fortune.

1856-1858

Attended New York Central College, a radical center of abolitionism and coeducation in McGraw, New York, as Mary E. Lewis.

1859

Entered Oberlin College, Oberlin Ohio, also a radical center of equality and anti-slavery.

1861

Asked to be called M. Edmonia Lewis.

 1862

January 27: Accused of poisoning white coeds. Racial tensions flare.

January 31: Savagely assaulted at night. 

February 26: Exonerated by judicial hearing. 

September: Signed her earliest known surviving work, a drawing of a statue, "Edmonia Lewis."

1863

[January: 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.  

Oberlin College denied Edmonia her final term and graduation. 

Met Frederick Douglass who advised her to go east.

Proceeded to Boston with letters of introduction to William Lloyd Garrison.

Encouraged by abolitionist sculptor William Brackett; took a space in the Studio Building.

Produced medallions of John Brown and other celebrated abolitionists.

[May: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw paraded black troops through Boston on their way to war.]

[July: Colonel Shaw was martyred with his troops as they charged Fort Wagner.].

1864

Lydia Maria Child, a feminist and founder of the New England abolition movement. began to publicize Edmonia's talent.

August: Anne Whitney and others helped Edmonia with her bust of Colonel Shaw.

October: Showed her bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw to Child and Maria Chapman.

November: Sculptor Harriet Hosmer endorsed the Shaw bust. 

Memorialized Sergeant William H. Carney, another hero of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, with a statuette.

Sold 100 copies of Shaw bust. 

December: Anna Q. Waterston published a poem about Edmonia and her bust of Shaw.

1865

January: Child promoted the Shaw bust in The National Anti-Slavery Standard and The Liberator.

February: Made a 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: Rented historic studio once occupied by the famous neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova; Met actress Charlotte Cushman who introduced her to her circle of feminist artists -- later called "strange sisterhood" and "white marmorian flock" by Henry James.

February: Created the first Emancipation statue by an African American, the Freedwoman and Her Child.

March: Featured in English periodicals, Art-Journal and Athenæum.

Summer: Began a second Emancipation statue, The Morning of Liberty, later called Forever Free. 

Sculpted the Old Arrow-Maker and His Daughter (Wooing of Hiawatha), and the Marriage of Hiawatha.

1867

May: Cushman decided to raise funds to donate Wooing of Hiawatha to the Boston YMCA.

Opened shop on Via della Frezza. 

Praised in Tuckerman’s Book of the Artists.

Listed in John Murray's Handbook of Rome and Its Environs, as one of "the most celebrated artists of Rome."

Moved her studio to Via di Nicola da Tolentino.

September or October: Bust of Dioclesian Lewis exhibited at A. A. Childs in Boston.

Produced marble copy of Shaw bust.

Completed Forever Free in marble and shipped it to abolitionist Samuel Sewall in Boston.

1868

February: Revealed her Roman Catholic affiliation to Whitney.

Child scolded Edmonia for putting Forever Free into marble without a commission.

Models Hiawatha, Minnehaha, Indians Wrestling, and Hagar in the Wilderness.

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.

1869

February: Marquess of Bute, one of the richest men in the world, made the first of many large purchases.

July: Returns to Boston where hse is honored by the Freedmen's Union; raised funds to donate Forever Free and Longfellow. 

August: Visited her aunts near Niagara Falls. Denied accommodations in upstate New York and forced to seek shelter overnight.

August: Offered a Madonna to Saint Francis Xavier Church in Baltimore.

November: Honored in Boston at the presentation of Forever Free to Rev. Leonard Grimes, a leading black abolitionist. 

1870

Isabel Cholmeley, her best friend, showed a portrait bust of her.

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.

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 Elizabeth Buffum Chace. 

May: Headed for California. Delivered Lincoln bust to Central Park in New York City.

August/September: First internationally renowned woman sculptor to exhibit in San Francisco and San Jose. Showed Lincoln, Asleep, Awake, Cupid Caught, and The Marriage of Hiawatha. 

1874

January: Feted in New York before her return to Rome. 

Profiled in the Rising Son, by William Wells Brown.

1875

July: Sold copies of Senator Charles Sumner in New York and Albany.

October: Exhibited several statues in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  

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 Exposition celebrating the Centennial in Philadelphia.

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 at the Interstate Industrial Exposition in Chicago.

Made bust of Chicago Bishop Thomas Patrick Roger Foley. 

Left Death of Cleopatra in storage in Chicago.

December: Presented a bust of John Brown to Rev. Henry Highland Garnet in New York and sailed home.

1879

Fall: Exhibited the 'Veiled' Bride of Spring in Syracuse, New York, and Cincinnati.

1883

Prepared an altarpiece representing the Adoration of the Magi for the Protestant Episcopal Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin, Orchard street, Baltimore and a statue of the Holy Virgin for the Marquis of Bute.

1884

Protested U.S. tariffs on art together with other American artists in Rome.

1887

Met Frederick Douglass in Rome and accompanied him and his wife to Naples.

1892

Death of Cleopatra was reported decorating a Chicago saloon. 

1893

Hiawatha and Phillis Wheatley were exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

1895

Bust of Charles Sumner was exhibited at Atlanta World's Fair.

1896

Gave address as "c/o U.S. Consul Paris, France."

1898

September: Visited New York, NY. 

1901

Reported living in London, England.

1907

Died in London, England.

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.

19952010

Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired and restored The Death of Cleopatra.

2010

Death record discovered, reported in January 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 03/24/2012