The Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis (61 page)

[535]
SFDEB, Sept. 8, 1873. Mrs. C. L. Low purchased the
Marriage of Hiawatha.

[536]
SFPaA, Sept. 6, 1873.

[537]
SFC, “San Jose Invaded,” Sept. 30, 1873.

[538]
SFC, “Farmer’s Festival,” Oct. 2, 1873.

[539]
San Jose Library, “Edmonia Lewis Sculptures. http://www.sjpl.org/tags/edmonia-lewis (visited Feb. 18, 2011).

[540]
SFDEB, Oct. 2, 1873.

[541]
SJWM, Sept. 27, 1873.

[542]
San Jose (CA) Patriot,
quoted in P. M. Montesano, “Mystery of the San Jose Statues,” Urban West, Mar.-Apr. 1968, 25-27.

[543]
SFC, “Farmer’s Festival,” Oct. 2, 1873; SFEl, Personal, Oct. 4, 1873;
San Jose (CA) Evening News,
“Oldest Janitor in San Jose,” Oct. 16, 1917, reported, “Mrs. Knox-Goodrich paid Miss Lewis $500 for the bronzes.” The “bronze” description was in error. Was the price also in error? The original prices were $650 for
Asleep
and $500 for
Awake.
Did she buy two for the price of one, or did she pay $500 each? The buyer was a trustee of the library.

[544]
SJWM, editorial, Oct. 18, 1873.

[545]
SFDMC, Arrivals at the Hotels, Oct. 23, 1873
.

[546]
San Jose (CA) Patriot,
cited by Lauren Gilbert, San Jose Public Library, to author, Mar. 8, 2011.

[547]
Appletons’ Cyclopedia of American Biography
(1888), s. v. “Lewis. Edmonia;” Pauline E. Hopkins, “Artists” Famous Women of the Negro Race,
Colored American Magazine,
Sept., 1902, 362-367, etc.

[548]
SFC, advertisement, “Geo. F. Lamson,” July 15, 1889, 7.

[549]
Boston (MA) Daily Traveller,
Nov. 17, 1880.

[550]
Lail Gay, “Edmonia Lewis
.
”

[551]
SJWM, Advertisement, Sept. 22, 1873. See Kirsten Pai Buick,
Child of the Fire,
22-24, plate 3-4.

[552]
SFC, “Farmer’s Festival,” Oct. 2, 1873.

[553]
Henry Wreford, “A Negro Sculptress.”

[554]
Cf.
Appletons’ Annual Cyclopædia … of the Year 1866,
s. v. “Fine Arts;” Tuckerman,
Book,
603-604.

[555]
Excerpts appeared in HDH, Local News, Sept. 12, 1873; Frederick Douglass, editorial, “Miss Edmonia Lewis,” NNEra, Sept. 25, 1873; WoJ, Concerning Women, Oct. 4, 1873;
Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, devoted to Literature, Arts, and Religion
(Cincinnati
,
OH), Current History, Dec., 1873, 461.

[556]
Stylus (pseud.), “Philadelphia Letter,” SFPaA, Aug. 5, 1876;
Placerville (CA) Mountain Democrat,
Jan. 4, 1879, Apr. 12, 1879, Oct. 18, 1879;
Ukiah City (CA) Press,
Personal, Apr. 18, 1879; SFC, “Cultured Colored Women,” Nov. 13, 1887;
San Jose (CA) News,
Woman and Home, July 17, 1886;
Oakland (CA) Tribune,
Aug. 18, 1895.

[557]
Leeson,
History of Montana,
1141; Miller,
An Illustrated History,
374-376;
Bozeman (MT) Courier,
Apr. 6, 1896.

[558]
E. Lina Houston,
Early History of Gallatin County
(Bozeman: Bozeman Chronicle Print, 1933), 14.

[559]
HDH, Jan. 18, 1871; HDH, Aug. 18, 1873, attributed to the
Rural New Yorker
(The following day, HDH noted a visit to Helena from her brother.); HDH, Sept. 12, 1873, also in
Ladies’ Repository
(Cincinnati, Oh.).

NOTES FOR 31. NEW YORK RECEPTION – 1874

[560]
New York (NY) Progressive American,
reprinted in NNEra, Feb. 12, 1874. The reception was held Jan. 13.

[561]
Johnson,
Autobiography,
155.

[562]
NYT, Passengers Sailed, Jan. 25, 1874: “Miss Edmonia Lewis” sailed on the French Line
SS Péreire
from New York for Le Havre the preceding day.

[563]
Brown,
Rising Son,
465-468; Bullard, “Edmonia Lewis.”

[564]
Cf. Hrdlička, “Anthropology of the Chippewa,”
which
expressed distress that Chippewa brains might be larger than European brains. He rationalized, “The size of the head as a whole is exceptionally good, exceeding that of many other tribes and comparing favorably with that of whites …it is probably … that the skull is somewhat thicker, so that the interior of the skull and brain are slightly smaller than in whites, as is general among Indians.”

NOTES FOR 32. PRODUCING THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA – 1872 to 1875

[565]
Gay, “Edmonia Lewis.”

[566]
A-J, Art in Rome, Apr. 1872, 131-132. Cf. Gay, “Edmonia Lewis,” indicates Edmonia started her masterwork in 1872. See also NYDG, July 10, 1873; Forney,
A Centennial Commissioner,
112-118;
A
rt Journal
(New York, N.Y.) 2
, Apr. 1876. 127-128.

[567]
SFDEB, Art Notes, Sept. 28, 1872; repeated in
Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer
and ChRec. See also
New York (NY) Progressive American,
reprinted in NNEra, Feb. 12, 1874.

[568]
St. Louis (MO) Post and Dispatch,
Jan. 23, 1879, and other news articles mention Lefano Maisit as a Roman sculptor who attested in a deposition to the quality and fidelity of a work done in 1874 and sent to St. Louis. Perhaps he was her studio manager.

[569]
NYDG, July 10, 1873.

[570]
A-J, Mar. 1870.

[571]
Story to C. E. Norton, May 3, 1862, in James,
William Wetmore Story,
II, 72-73: “In [Sappho] I have gone into Greekland, as in the Sibyl I went into Africa, and in the Cleopatra into Egypt.”
Cf. NYT, Artists and Their Work, June 13, 1882, insisted
Cleopatra
had “full lips and slightly different modeling of the face that denote a mixture of negro blood” upon seeing it at the Metropolitan Museum.

[572]
Hawthorne,
The Marble Faun,
Chap. 14, quoted above. See also Amelia Edwards,
A Thousand Miles Up the Nile
(London: George Routledge and Sons, 1899), 122, who discounted the accuracy of a famed bas-relief portrayal of Cleopatra, which showed a less conspicuous profile, on the Dendera Temple; Buick, “Sentimental Education,” 215-217, summarizes criticisms of ancient coins as accurate representations of Cleopatra’s profile.

[573]
Pascal, “The Misery of Man without God.”

[574]
The griffin has the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.

[575]
Richardson, “Edmonia Lewis:” “The palla, draped over the left arm of the throne, with its floral border and fringed hem conforms, in stylized fashion, to Apuleius’ description of Isis’ outer garment, indicating Lewis’ acknowledgement of the cult of Isis to which Cleopatra VII allied herself.”

[576]
Sherwood,
Hosmer,
239-241. Hosmer’s modestly draped work attracted critical attention at the Dublin Exhibition of 1865.

[577]
Ibid.

[578]
Forney,
A Centennial Commissioner,
112-118. See also United States Senate, John W. Forney, Secretary of the Senate, 1861-1868, accessed June 25, 2010, http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/SOS_John_Forney.htm; “Philadelphia Press,” in Centennial Newspaper Exhibition 1876 (New York: George P. Rowell & Co., 1876), 277-278.

[579]
Editorial,
Philadelphia (PA) Press,
reprinted in
Alexandria (VA) People's Advocate,
July 1, 1876, and quoted in Philip S. Foner, “Black Participation in the Centennial of 1876,”
Negro History Bulletin
39 (1976): 533-538. See also John W. Forney,
Anecdotes of Public Men
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1873), 336-339. Forney’s newspaper was also the first major daily to hire a colored correspondent.

[580]
Ex. 34:29. The English version of the Latin Vulgate renders it: “And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord.” Other translations speak of his face “shining.”

[581]
Edmonia to Samuel Chapman Armstrong, Sept. 11, 1876, Hampton University Archives. Lewis offered the three busts to Hampton in return for a donation of $10 to cover shipping costs. She sold them to Centennial buyers at $8 each;
Memphis Daily Appeal,
Local Paragraphs, Oct. 19, 1876, 4, told of Edmonia presenting three busts to Fisk University.
See also Flotte, “Edmonia Lewis,” reported that two busts, John Brown and Longfellow, both signed Edmonia Lewis and dated 1876, were made of plaster painted to resemble terra cotta. Flotte noted the presence of a powder that could have been used to cast additional copies.

[582]
Daniel D. Pratt, “Address,”
Memorial Addresses For The Life And Character Of Charles Sumner April 27, 1874
(Washington: Gov’t Print. Off., 1874), 29-36.

[583]
Democrat Preston Smith Brooks from South Carolina became infamous for nearly killing Sumner with a heavy cane in the Senate chamber.

[584]
Edmonia to W. H. Johnson, July 29, 1875, reprinted in Johnson,
Autobiography,
166.

[585]
Albany (NY) Argus,
“The African M.E. Church,” Aug. 25, 1875, quoted in Johnson,
Autobiography,
46-49, reported Edmonia’s presentation. Johnson
eventually
offered the plaster bust to the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia. The hospital moved in 1908 and merged with Mercy Hospital in 1948, moving into a large building in 1954. Max Silverstein, Philadelphia, to Harry Henderson Dec. 23, 1994: The bust could not be located. See also
Philadelphia (PA) Times,
“Negro Charity Ball,” Dec. 14, 1897, DSCUP;
Philadelphia (PA) Tribune,
“Dancing for Charity,” Dec. 18, 1897, DSCUP.

[586]
St. Paul (MN) Northwestern Chronicle,
“Miss Edmonia Lewis,” Oct. 2, 1875.

[587]
St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press,
Oct. 9; Oct. 12, 1875. Her color was not mentioned in the news item or the ad. Other newspapers –
New York (NY) Evening Post
and ChT – picked up this story more than one month too late but ran it as news.

NOTES FOR 33. PHILADELPHIA, 1876

[588]
BDET, Art and Artists, May 12, 1876, p. 6, col. 5-6.

[589]
“Centennial Tribute to the Negro,” Convention of Colored Newspapermen, Cincinnati, Aug. 4, 1875, 4. See also Peter H Clark, Letter to the editor, SFPaA, Aug. 21, 1875, estimated the Pacific coast could raise $1000; J. S. H., “Indiana Correspondence,” ChRec, Sept. 23, 1875.

[590]
Douglass’ Monthly,
Feb., 1862.

[591]
Philip S. Foner, “Black Participation in the Centennial of 1876,”
Negro History Bulletin
39 (1976): 533-538
.

[592]
Stylus (pseud.), “Philadelphia Letter,” SFPaA, Aug. 5, 1876;
ChRec, Oct. 12, 1876, Dec. 14, 1876, 4; USCC,
d
ept. VI, 27, under Agriculture, Veterinary Appliances, exhibit 701, Ashbourne & Co., Philadelphia: Cocoanut cream oil and soap, Ink from cocoanut shell, and Cocoanut tooth-powder, cosmetic.

[593]
Rydell,
All the World’s a Fair,
28-29.

[594]
Henry T. Finck,
Wagner and His Works: The Story of His Life, with Critical Comments.
5th ed. (New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898): II, 506-510
.

[595]
Elizabeth D. Gillespie,
A Book of Remembrance
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1901): 321. Cf. USCC, Women’s Pavilion, 101 (715
…
a. The African Sibyl, b. Lord Brownlow’s Gates]; Culkin,
Hosmer,
125-128, 133-134. Having promised the women’s committee to represent women, Hosmer’s entry appeared in the Italian section of the Women’s Pavilion, a square wooden building given mostly to crafts. Also in the Italian section: bas reliefs by Margaret Foley and two works by Florence Freeman.