SPEAKER_00: Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanaka. This month we're highlighting Indigenous women from around the globe. Today we're talking about the first known professional sculptor of African American and Indigenous descent. She found inspiration in her heritage, refusing to bow to the expectations of a woman of color. Let's talk about Edmonia Lewis. Very little is known about Mary Edmonia Wildfire Lewis's early life. When asked about herself, she often embellished, treating her own story like one of her sculptures. We know that she was born in the 1840s in New York, or maybe Ohio. Her father was a free Black man of Haitian descent. Her mother was Chippewa. Edmonia's father worked as a gentleman's servant, while her mother sold Native American trinkets to tourists. Both of them died by the time Edmonia was nine years old. In their absence, Edmonia and her older half-brother were raised by their maternal aunts. As members of the Chippewa tribe, the aunts raised Edmonia and their culture. She grew up in the outdoors, swimming and fishing. By the 1850s, Edmonia's brother had struck gold—literally—during the gold rush. His earnings helped send Edmonia to Oberlin College in Ohio in 1859. Oberlin was one of the first U.S. higher learning institutions to admit women and men of all races. Edmonia studied art at Oberlin, but being one of only 30 students of color was exhausting and dangerous. In her third year, she was attacked and left to die by a white mob who believed she had poisoned two of her white roommates. Edmonia took the case to court and won. But Oberlin asked her to leave anyway after she was accused of stealing art supplies. Edmonia then headed to Boston, once again financed by her brother. There, she met the sculptor Edward Brackett. Brackett became something of a mentor, drawn to Edmonia's raw talent. Edmonia began selling clay and plaster medallions that featured portraits of abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, and Wendell Phillips. In 1864, Edmonia got her first real taste of financial success. She created a popular bust of Civil War Colonel Robert Shaw and sold enough copies to pay for her move to Europe. Edmonia traveled throughout the continent before landing in Rome. During this time, it was common for sculptors to hire Roman stone-crafters to chisel their marble for them. But Edmonia didn't have the funds for that luxury, so she chiseled her own. Rome was a fruitful place for Edmonia. In her first year, she created Old Arrow Maker. The piece embodies a scene from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha. Minnehaha braids mats of flags and rushes, while her father makes arrowheads of jasper. The beautiful scene was noteworthy during a time when many other artists were portraying indigenous people as violent and uncivilized. Edmonia also made a piece in Rome called Forever Free, Morning of Liberty. The sculpture depicts a black man standing and a black woman kneeling at the moment of emancipation. At that point, Edmonia was internationally recognized. She was able to sell her sculptures for thousands of dollars and was commissioned by wealthy patrons. Notable figures like Frederick Douglass and Ulysses S. Grant appreciated her work and even sat for portraits. Edmonia spent four years sculpting her largest and most famous piece of work, The Death of Cleopatra. This 3,000-pound marble structure depicts the moment Cleopatra died by suicide following the loss of her crown. The piece was so important to Edmonia that she went back to the United States to sell smaller pieces just so that she could return to Rome with the funds to finish the project. In 1876, Edmonia was invited to participate in the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. She traveled alongside the sculpture to be considered by the selection committee. The committee voted to place it in a gallery in Memorial Hall that was designated for American artists. It was a highly controversial piece of work. Some people thought it was commanding, while others thought it was too realistic and graphic. The image of Queen Cleopatra's lifeless body splayed across her throne was uncommon in 19th-century art. Some museum curators believe Edmonia wanted to capture Cleopatra in this moment as representative of the queen taking control of how she'd be recorded in history, a concept Edmonia was fond of. After spending some time in Memorial Hall, the sculpture went on its journey. It was first stationed in a Chicago saloon as the centerpiece. Then a racehorse owner bought it and placed it on the grave of a beloved horse at the Harlem Racetrack in Chicago. Over the years, the racetrack morphed into other public sites. As the scenes around the sculpture changed, Cleopatra remained steadfast in this location. But to the art community, she was lost for almost a century. In the 1980s, the sculpture was relocated to the Forest Park Historical Society in the hopes of being rescued and renewed. The death of Cleopatra found its final home in the early 1990s, when the Historical Society donated it to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Despite her international acclaim, Edmonia struggled with reconciling her fame and her identity. She wanted to be celebrated exclusively for her work, and often lamented that it took moving to Rome to find opportunities where she wasn't constantly reminded of her race. Though some of her work is still on display today, many of Edmonia's sculptures have disappeared. Still, it's undeniable that in a white man's world, Edmonia set herself apart. On September 17, 1907, Edmonia Lewis died in London. All month, we're talking about Indigenous women. For more information, check out our Facebook and Instagram pages, at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
