The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis (65 page)

[758]
Frederick Douglass,
The Life and Writings,
edited by Philip S. Foner (New York: International Publishers, 1955): IV: 401.

[759]
Record Group 84, Rome Consulate Italy, Register of Citizens, Dec. 3, 1889-July 9, 1896. Col. Merl M. Moore art history archives at the Smithsonian American Art Museum / National Portrait Gallery Library; Elizabeth Gray, USNARA, Dec. 19, 2007, confirmed the undated entry, which was posted in an alphabetical arrangement that begs the question of what day she visited. Via Ludovisi was a new street not shown on the 1876 Spithöver map. See also
Italy: Handbook for Travellers. Second Part: Central Italy and Rome
(Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1893), 120.

[760]
Amelia B. Edwards,
Barbara's History.
2d ed. (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1864), III, 130-133. Cf.
Murray’s Handbook
(1888), 5.

[761]
Cortazzo,
Recollections,
150: letter, Jan. 4, 1891.

[762]
The street is now Via della Conciliazione. Borgo Vecchio and “P. Moroni” appear on the 1876 Spithöver map, but the designation “Palazzo Moroni” has moved several times since then. Cf. Society of the Divine Savior, accessed, June, 12, 2011, http://www.sds.org/

[763]
Edmonia Lewis to Miss McCandless, undated, published in the
Indianapolis
(IN)
Freeman,
Apr. 1, 1893. For other mentions of the Wheatley portrait, see
New York (NY) Illustrated American,
Personals, Mar. 25, 1893, 376; Hallie Q. Brown, “A Discussion of the Same Subject,” in
World’s Congress of Representative Women: A Historical Résumé for Popular Circulation,
ed. by May Wright Sewall (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1894), II, 724-729; Hezekiah Butterworth,
The Patriot Schoolmaster
(New York: D. Appleton, 1894), 186. See also
Boston
(MA)
Daily Globe,
“Should Have Monument,” Aug. 11, 1894, 5, which noted, “This bust was to be completed in time to be put on exhibition at the World’s fair last year, but through some mistake the order did not reach Miss Lewis in time.” Wheatley died fifty-five years before the invention of photography.

[764]
“Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis (colored) Italy,” Folder heading: Events. Exhibition. Illinois. Chicago. World’s Columbian Exposition. Sculpture I. Chicago Historical Society. Thanks to George Gurney, Smithsonian American Art Museum, for this.

[765]
American Architect and Building News,
“Chicago. The Orange Exhibition.” May 23, 1891, 120:

In a dusky and dusty corner of the same part of the building is an object to be glanced at casually and wonderingly. It is the Carrara marble ‘Cleopatra’ of the little sculptress Edmonia Lewis. The figure is not by any means a wonderful production, but certainly good enough to deserve a little better treatment than to be hidden in the dust of this particularly dirty locality. The marble is so begrimed that it scarcely is recognizable as marble, the end of the tapering sandal is broken, several fingers and toes are missing, and after a few months more of such usage, there would be a chance for restoration as of a veritable antique. Perhaps the Exposition managers are planning for such a result, and expect to bring the work before the public again, with added worth, though perhaps fewer phalanges, as coming from some recent Egyptian excavations. Chicago will stand, is accustomed in fact, to a good deal of general brag and presumption, but this sort of thing would be a little more than they could bear, as younger people than the oldest inhabitant remember when they paid their extra quarter in the early Exposition days, to look upon the same white queen and to have a chat with her dusky-hued creator, who sat by her side. Her ignominious position among the oranges is not the lowest place to which the mighty has fallen, for at the ‘fat-stock’ show she could be found hustled off among the boxes and stalls. The proud daughter of the Ptolemys seems to be claimed by no one, and one wonders whether even Miss Lewis has lost all interest in her.

There are certainly many places where she could fill a long-felt want, and once more become quite a ‘leading lady.’ The statue would most assuredly be more appropriate in the Newberry Library than the huge and poor picture of one of our prominent society women, now conspicuous in World's-Fair circles, which graces the walls of the auditorium of that edifice.

[766]
Monumental News,
Among the Sculptors, May, 1892, 181. See also ChT, “Disposition of the Building, June 11, 1891, 2.

[767]
Sherwood,
Hosmer,
324-327; Culkin,
Hosmer,
136-159.

[768]
Official Directory of the World's Columbian Exposition,
Moses Purnell Handy, editor (Chicago: W. B. Conkey Co., 1893), 1059, listed the vague “Lewis, Edmonia, New York. … Statuettes,” in the Women’s Building, while citing Ream’s “Miriam,” “The West,” and “America,” and Whitney’s “marble bust of Lucy Stone.”

[769]
The others included a
nti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells, publisher Ferdinand L. Barnett, and Irvine Garland Penn.

[770]
M. M. Manring,
Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima
(Charlottesville VA: University of Virginia Press, 1998).

[771]
Wells et al.,
The Reason,
61. This pamphlet discussed exclusions of African-Americans and significant differences about how to deal with this issue. The fair had opened May 1. The pamphlet was not released until Aug. 30.

[772]
NYT, “Work of Colored Women,” June 10, 1893. See also Board of Women Managers for the Exhibit of the State of New York at the World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893,
Report
(New York: Press of J. J. Little and Co., n. d.), 53; Monroe Alpus Majors,
Noted Negro Women
(Chicago: Donohue and Henneberry, 1893), 289-294, noted Imogene Howard (younger sister of Adeline, who accompanied Edmonia to Richmond) became a well-known teacher in New York City; BrDE, “Choice Art Exhibit,” Apr. 10, 1893, described African-American art that included
Hiawatha
and
Minnehaha,
“among the sculpture work done by Miss Edmonia Lewis of Boston,” asserting “after being exhibited here will be forwarded to Chicago to be displayed among the contributions which Afro-Americans will make to the world fair;”

[773]
ChT, “Is a Noble Figure,” Mar. 18, 1893; reprinted BrDE,
Indianapolis (IN) Freeman, Newark (OH) Daily Advocate, Washington Heights (IL) Flaming Sword.

[774]
NYT, Personal, Dec. 21, 1897, repeated
Washington (DC) Post, Fort Wayne (IN) News.
See also
Stone,
“Peterson Granite Co.,” Aug. 1899, 268;
and
“John Brown Monument,” Sept., 365;
Granite,
“St. Paul, Minn.—The contract,” Oct. 1, 1899, 28.

[775]
ChT, “Park Commissioners Almost Pass the Lie at Board Meeting,” July 12, 1900;
New York (NY) Evening Post,
quoted in
North Adams (MA) Transcript,
and
Trenton (NJ) Times. Correctionville (IA) Sioux Valley News
added that the design was conceived by the last of John Brown’s siblings and that Jackson Park was the intended site. Julia Bachrach, Chicago Park District historian, May 23, 2007, indicated no record of a John Brown statue in Washington or Jackson parks.

[776]
I. Garland Penn, “The New Negro at Our Show,” AtlC, July 28, 1895. Other newspapers had already picked up news of the appearance of Edmonia’s Sumner: NYT,
Oakland (CA) Tribune, The Anglo-American Times
(London, Eng.),
New Philadelphia Ohio Democrat, Xenia (OH) Gazette
and
Torchlight, Newark (OH) Advocate, Lima (OH) Times-Democrat, Waterloo (IA) Courier, Ironwood (MI) News-Record, Warren (PA) Ledger, Coshocton (OH) Democratic Standard, New Philadelphia (OH) Democrat,
and
Fort Wayne (IN) Gazette.

[777]
ChRec, “The Negro department of the Atlanta Exposition,” Nov. 15, 1894.

[778]
ChRec, “Atlanta Exposition,” Jan. 10, 1895.

[779]
Henry McNeal Turner, “To Colored People,” AtlC, Jan. 13, 1895.

[780]
Black codes
were laws meant to limit the rights and liberties of African Americans prior to post-Reconstruction Jim Crow laws.

[781]
Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, quoted in AtlC, “Negro Progress,” Oct. 22, 1895.

[782]
Salt Lake City
(UT)
Broad Ax,
“The Colored Race at Atlanta,” Dec. 7, 1895. See also ChT, “Exhibit of the Negroes,” Nov. 24, 1895;
Appletons' Annual Cyclopædia … for the year 1895,
s. v. “Exposition, Cotton-States International …The Negro Building
.
”
 

[783]
AtlC, “In the Fine Arts Hall,” Nov. 22, 1895. See also Bearden and Henderson,
A History,
89.

[784]
Boston
(MA)
Evening Record,
“At Atlanta,” Oct. 14, 1895, continued, “The other piece worthy of the name [Art] is a painting by H. O. Tanner, entitled, ‘Learning to Play the Bagpipes.’ Tanner is in Paris where he has been for several years, and he is said to be doing good work. Whether he has about forgotten that the blood of the African runs through his veins or not the attendant at this exhibit was unable to say.”

[785]
Bozeman
(MT)
Courier,
Apr. 6, 1896; See also U. S. census, 1880: Malissa Broose
[
sic
]
, married to Charlie Broose, lived in Butte City, MT, with four children. Samuel W. Lewis married Melissa Bruce, Aug. 1, 1883. See also
Bozeman
(MT)
Daily Chronicle,
Apr. 12, 1927; State of Montana, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate #Boz. 773, Apr. 1
1
, 1927. Lewis, his wife, and son are buried in Sunset Hills Cemetery.

[786]
Samuel Lewis, will, dated Mar. 26, 1896, proved Jan. 20, 1898, District Court, Bozeman, MT, bequeathed shares and deposits in a savings and loan society in San Francisco to “my sister Edmonia Lewis, now residing in the city of Paris France.” After settling fees and many claims against the estate, Melissa Lewis sent $8142.75 to Edmonia on Feb. 12, 1898.

[787]
Record Group 84, Records of Foreign Service Posts, Consular Posts, Rome, Italy, Volume 261. 350/38/29/02, USNARA. See also
Murray’s Handbook
(1899), 7.

[788]
New York (NY) Age,
reprinted in H. R. Butler, What the Negro is Doing, AtlC, Oct. 30, 1898; Passenger list,
SS Umbria,
Sept. 10, 1898, records an entry for “Miss E. Lewis, spinster,” no age given; Culkin,
Hosmer,
136, notes Harriet arrived in New York ten years earlier on the
Umbria,
perhaps influencing Edmonia’s choice of liner.

[789]
Bath (ME) Daily Times,
Sept. 20, 1873, which mentions earlier items in the
Portland (ME) Transcript
and the
Bath (ME) Daily Times,
was described by McBlain Books, Hamden CT,
African Americana Catalog
155 (2003), Section 7, Item 693, accessed December 2, 2010, http://www.mcblainbooks.com/Cat155/cat155section7.html
.

[790]
New York
(NY)
Age,
op. cit.

[791]
Progress: For the Promotion of the Fine Arts
was published monthly 1900-1902 as the magazine of the International Art Association of Chicago.

[792]
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896). The Supreme Court held that separation, not caste, was the object of public policy as it rejected the right of an octoroon who appeared to be white to sit in a “white only” railroad car.

[793]
Lizzie Isabelle, “Women of Our Race Worthy of Imitation,” ChRec, Oct. 3, 1889. See also Roger Lane,
William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 316: “Edmonia Lewis was represented by a bust at the Quaker City Exposition of 1889, and two at Allen Chapel in 1891.” Dorsey’s scrapbooks do not identify the bust;
Philadelphia
(PA)
Weekly Standard,
“The Great Exposition…at Allen AME Chapel,” Oct. 24, 1891, reported: “Miss Edmonia Lewis, sculptor, has two excellent busts of John Brown and Charles Sumner.” DSCUP 77.49.

[794]
Eva Carter Buckner, “What Constitutes a Negro!” in
Negro Trail Blazers of California,
edited by Delilah Leontium Beasley (Los Angeles: 1919), 269-270.