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Quick Facts
- NAME: Edmonia Lewis
- OCCUPATION: Sculptor
- BIRTH DATE: c. 1844
- DEATH DATE: c. 1911
- EDUCATION: Oberlin College
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Greenbush, New York
- PLACE OF DEATH: Rome, Italy
- Full Name: Mary Edmonia Lewis
- AKA: Edmonia Lewis
- Nickname: "Wild Fire"
Best Known For
The first professional African-American and Native-American sculptor, Edmonia Lewis earned critical praise for work that explored religious and classical themes.
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Play NowMary Edmonia Lewis. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:46, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053.
Mary Edmonia Lewis. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Mary Edmonia Lewis." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 01:46 http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053.
"Mary Edmonia Lewis," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Mary Edmonia Lewis," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Mary Edmonia Lewis [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053.
Mary Edmonia Lewis, http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Mary Edmonia Lewis. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/edmonia-lewis-9381053. Accessed May 19, 2013.
It was placed in storage and only really rediscovered several decades after her death.
Contents
Final Years
Much like her childhood, Lewis's final years are shrouded in mystery. Until the 1890s, she continued to exhibit her work and was even visited by Frederick Douglass in Rome, but little is known about the last decade or so of her life. Speculation indicates that she died in her adoptive city of Rome , Italy, sometime around 1911, but even that is unclear.
In recent decades, however, Lewis's life and art has received well-deserved respect. Her pieces are now part of the permanent collections of the Howard University Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
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