Sunrise 7/4/1843, 44, or 45, Greenbush , New York (now Rensselaer) or New Jersey or Ohio, sunset 9/17/1907, London, England, some reports say date and location unknown.

Both parent’s were dead by the time she was 9.

M. Edmonia Lewis is a Black girl sent by subscription to Italy having displayed great talents as a sculptor was in her passport.

Is included in 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia.

First female sculptor of African and Native American heritage to gain recognition in modern art.

Her art focused on the Civil War and Abolition.

Attended Oberlin University and studied drawing. Because of several incidents, an accusation of theft, attempted murder (she was acquitted), she did not graduate from college.

She established an artist’s studio in Rome, Italy and did the majority of her art there.

Her most notable work was in the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C. and at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, The Death of Cleopatra. (Cleopatra was alive in the installation).

She changed her name to Mary Edmonia Lewis.