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Lewis, Mary Edmonia “Wildfire”
4 articles on Lewis, Mary Edmonia “Wildfire”
Lewis, Edmonia
Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition
Word Count: 5501844?–1911?
Believed to be the first woman sculptor of African American and Native American heritage. Edmonia Lewis often drew upon her dual ancestry for inspiration. Her best-known work, Forever Free (1867, Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), was inspired by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, the document issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 calling for the freeing of slaves in the United States. Created in marble, Forever Free depicts a man and a woman who have learned of their freedom. In an expression of gratitude, the woman kneels with her hands clasped; the man rests his foot on the ball that held them in bondage, raising his arm to display the broken shackle and chain on his wrist.Little is1843 ...
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Source: African American National Biography
Word Count: 1929 Includes: Further Reading(c. 1844–after 1909), sculptor, was born to an African American father and a mother of African American and Mississauga descent, whose names are not known. The Mississauga, a Chippewa (Ojibway in Canada) band, lived in southern Ontario. Information about Lewis's early life remains inconsistent and unverified. She was probably born in 1844 or 1845, most likely near Albany, New York. Orphaned by age nine, Lewis and her older brother, Samuel, were taken in by their maternal aunts, Mississaugas living near Niagara Falls. Lewis joined the tribe in hunting and fishing along Lake Ontario and the Niagara River and in making and selling moccasins, baskets, and other souvenirs. Although she later gave her Mississauga name as “Wildfire,” Lewis's translation from the Chippewa may have been intended to authenticate her Indian background and appeal ...
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Source: Black Women in America, Second Edition
Word Count: 2423 Includes: Messages Trapped in Stone | Bibliography(b. 4 or 14 July 1845?; d. c. 1911),
sculptress. Edmonia Lewis was the first major sculptress of African American and Native American heritage. Her early biographical circumstances are sketchily known at best. Although Lewis claimed 1854 as her birth date, it is more likely that she was born in 1843 or 1845. Various sources, including the artist herself, claimed Greenhigh, Ohio, and Greenbush, New York, as well as the vicinity of Albany, New York, as her birthplace, but none can be verified.Lewis's father, employed as a gentleman's servant, was African American; her mother was a Chippewa Indian who may have been born near Albany. It was she who presumably named her daughter “Wildfire.” Lewis appears to have spent little if any time with her father and instead lived with her mother's tribe. Orphaned ...
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Source: Grove Art Online
Word Count: 797 Includes: Bibliography(b. New York, 1845; d. after 1911).
American sculptor. Born to an African-American father and a American Indian mother, she was the first Black American sculptor to achieve national prominence. During her early childhood she travelled with her family in the Chippewa tribe, by whom she was known as Wildfire. At 12 she attended school at Albany, NY (1857–9), then a liberal arts course at Oberlin College, OH (1860–63). Lewis then went to Boston (1863) to study with Edward Brackett (1818–1908) and Anne Whitney. Her medallion of the abolitionist John Browne and a bust of the Civil War hero Col. Robert Shawwere exhibited at the Soldiers’ Relief Fair (1864), Boston; the latter sold over 100 plaster copies, enabling Lewis to travel to Rome (1865). There she was introduced to the ...
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