For photos, book recommendations, and links to things that we discussed in this episode, please visit our ORIGINAL SHOWNOTES; to read about Susan’s adventures in French cooking, check out THIS POST.
Are you going to be in London in June? Please join us at our London Local’s Meet-Up Dinner on June 25th, for more information and to get tickets, visit our friends at Like Minds Travel.
Grab one of the last couple of spots in our OCTOBER NEW ENGLAND FIELD TRIP, or come out to the Meet-Up Dinner in Boston on October 21st! Information and sign-ups are also here at Like Minds Travel.
Portrait of Harrum Sultan (Roxelana) circa 1500s, artist unknown, Public Domain
Kidnapped as a young girl and sold into slavery in a foreign land, Hurrem Sultan captured the heart of a king… and transformed the course of an empire. (more…)
In honor of not only National Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day and National Women’s History Month, we’ve remastered and re-edited our coverage of Jane Addams, the Mother of Social Work, into one episode. This show, like all of our episodes, is broken into chapters with good stopping and restarting points.
Library of Congress
TIME TRAVEL WITH THE HISTORY CHICKS
For the links and media that we discussed in the episode, please click on over to our original shownotes here: JANE ADDAMS SHOWNOTES
Our New England Field Trip to Boston and Newport from October 16-23, 2022, is filling fast, with just a few more open spaces left. We would love to travel with you, and the folks at Like Minds Travel did a spectacular job organizing the tours around our former subjects, and the dinners for maximum fun…we’re so very, very excited!
And, finally, here is a direct link to our new merch shop if you’re thinking, “I would love a t-shirt, tote, sticker, magnet…something to support The History Chicks!” (And there is always a button to the right, scroll down, that says Shop our Shop! —->)
Edmonia Lewis was a sculptor; an artist. Period. Despite getting attention as a female sculptor of mixed race, the first Black and Native American professional sculptor in the world- she wanted to drop the descriptors and simply be known for her work.
Edmonia in Rome, Circa 1870
Mary Edmonia Lewis was born on July 4, 1844, in Greenbush (now known as Rensselaer) New York to Samuel and Catherine Mike Lewis. She had an older, half-brother (also named Samuel) and even untangling this bit of information has been a battle for historians. Edmonia was a great sculptor and a wise marketer who knew what subjects to focus on that would sell, and what story to give any reporter sitting in front of her that would get her attention even if it was contradictory to previous interviews. There were no journals or cache of letters left to spell out the truth of her life, so it’s still being puzzled together 215 years after her death.
What is known is that her father was Black, her mother was Native American and they both passed away when Edmonia was a child. She was raised by maternal relatives, and educated aaaaalmost through college at Oblerlin, thanks to her brother who funded her education from wealth earned during the California Gold Rush.
After a move to Boston and some advantageous introductions to a community of abolitionists (and abolition art collectors) she began her career as a sculptor, earned enough to move to Rome (after a European, Grand tour) and set up her own studio that was so important it was literally on the map of Must See places tourists should visit.
Edmonia had to learn anatomical sculpting the old-fashioned way, by copying masters’ work like this one of Moses by Michelangelo.
Her neoclassical style, combined with subjects that focused on both her Black and North American Indigenous heritage, busts of famous people…and also of people who commissioned her services…set her on a path to artistic superstardom.
She did a series of pieces focused on Indigenous Americans, this is Old Arrow Maker, but Hiawatha was also a popular subject of hers. Smithsonian
And honoring her heritage and the Emancipation Proclamation, Forever Free, 1867, remains one of her most popular pieces. Howard University
Rome provided a community of artisans and, more importantly, a community of ex-pat, women sculptors that allowed Edmonia to have an active, colorful, and productive life. Her statutes were sold all over the world, appeared at worlds’ fairs (oh yes, including *that* one) and she was a global celebrity…
…who faded into the ether after about 20 years, and soon dropped from popularity into obscurity. We flesh out all the details in the episode, but Edmonia died in London on September 17, 1907. She was 63 years old.
Created for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Death of Cleopatra had quite an adventure after the fair. Smithsonian American Art Museum
The website maintained by authors of Edmonia Lewis: A Narrative Biography is at Edmonia Lewis.com.
A peek into one of Edmonia’s trips to the US, to Cincinnati in 1878 is fun to see how she worked to market her pieces, how she moved in American society, and sold one piece in particular, Veiled Bride of Spring, on the website Queens of Queen City
Would you like to join us as we visit that statue of Ben Franklin and remember Edmonia…and a whole week of more fun and history in Boston and Newport this October? Check out the tour at Like Minds Travel, spaces are filling fast!
On February 20, 21, and 22, 2022 The History Channel will be airing a three-night documentary on the life of Abraham Lincoln! You’ll learn a bit about Mary during that production, but her seamstress and friend, Elizabeth Keckley deserves some love, too. Today, we’ll take a trip in our Way Back machine to 2016 when we first covered this remarkable woman!
For all the information discussed in the media section, please visit our original shownotes: ELIZABETH KECKLEY
“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant”- Only authenticated photo of Emily, circa 1847 wikicommons
For a woman who’s known as one of the greatest poets who ever lived, she didn’t do a lot of remarkable things when she was alive. She was raised in Amherst and rarely left that town, had many dear friends, wrote a lot of letters, wrote even more poetry that no one saw, was anonymously published only a handful of times during her lifetime, and died in her mid-50s. She championed no causes and left no journal but what she did leave was a secret treasure trunk of nearly 2000 poems. (more…)