#TBT - Meet Mary Edmonia "Wildfire" Lewis

#TBT Feature

Edmonia "Wildfire" Lewis

"Edmonia Lewis is considered the first professional BIPOC sculptor in the United States and the first to achieve international acclaim. Even though much of her work has not survived into the 21st century, Lewis used her art to depict the stories of women and Indigenous people with reverence and beauty. Shattering gender and racial expectations in the 19th-century U.S., her life story is a testament to the ability to succeed despite adversity."

-National Women's History Museum

"Some praise me because I am a colored girl, and I don't want that kind of praise. I had rather you would point out my defects, for that will teach me something."

—Edmonia Lewis

The Death of Cleopatra, 1876

Learning Resources >>National Women's History Museum Bio >>Shattering Gender & Race Expectations >>Child of the Fire >>Google Arts & Culture Presentation

How did Mary Edmonia "Wildfire" Lewis use her sculptures to address stereotypes, racism, gender, and women's rights?