Edmonia Lewis

CTL-E-6219 · Person · artist · 1844–1907; active Boston and Rome from 1863

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07414 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6219.

Mary Edmonia Lewis was a nineteenth-century sculptor of African American and Native American descent, born in Greenbush, New York, in 1844, to a Black father and a Chippewa (Ojibwa) mother. Orphaned young, she was raised among her mother's people, where she was known as Wildfire, and in 1859 she entered Oberlin College, among the first American schools to admit women and Black students. An accusation of poisoning, described by the Smithsonian as probably racially motivated, forced her to leave before graduating. In Boston she trained with a local sculptor and built a practice making portraits of antislavery heroes; sales of her bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, over one hundred plaster copies in one museum account, helped finance her move to Rome in 1865. There she joined a circle of American women sculptors and worked in marble, doing her own stonework so her authorship could not be doubted. Her subjects ranged across biblical scenes, her Native heritage and the oppression of Black people, including Forever Free, Hagar and The Death of Cleopatra. She died in London in 1907.

The record

• Also known as: Mary Edmonia Lewis, Wildfire

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 6 — 747 Program, Wave 13; sixth Scan Tail packet at the founder’s 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (script + hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Edmonia Lewis entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities). ID CTL-E-6219 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — scan string #2392 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json), banked in the Scan Tail Wave 5 reserve (Appendix E), re-screened CLEAR against the live graph at 3,910 entities by this wave. The supply supplied the name only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Foundational Black and Native sculptor in CTL's art register; Forever Free is at the Howard University Gallery per the Grove text. No direct Chicago base is asserted in this record. Vital status: DECEASED — born Greenbush, New York, 1844; died London, England, 1907 (Smithsonian American Art Museum). CONFLICT SHOWN on birth year: the Crystal Bridges/Grove biography text gives born 1845 while its own header gives 1844-1907 and the Smithsonian gives 1844; the packet uses 1844 and flags 1845 as the variant. Oberlin dates also differ in compression — Smithsonian: attended from 1859; Grove text: Albany 1857-59, Oberlin 1860-63 — both printed, not blended. STATISTICS — Shaw bust sold over 100 plaster copies (Grove text via Crystal Bridges); The Death of Cleopatra dated 1876 (Grove text); Hagar dated 1875 (Grove text). Birth-year conflict as above. MEDIA: photo HELD (Henry Rocher's albumen silver print portrait of Edmonia Lewis, ca. 1870, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (NPG.94.95), shown on the Smithsonian American Art Museum page; HELD — no license is claimed and a file-level PHOTO-001 record is required before any use.); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6219-edmonia-lewis.svg); video HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short found in the Shorts Link Map (2026-10-15, 233 Shorts searched); near-miss: Short #17, The Ramsey Lewis Trio — The In Crowd (1965), shares only the Lewis surname and is a different subject (a group; Ramsey Lewis the person is CTL-E-0030), so it is NOT a match for Edmonia Lewis.); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record’s sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short found in the Shorts Link Map (2026-10-15, 233 Shorts searched); near-miss: Short ) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Sources

• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Edmonia Lewis (accessed 2026-10-16) — born Greenbush (now Rensselaer), New York, 1844; died London, England, 1907; also known as Wildfire and Mary Edmonia Lewis; first sculptor of African American and Native American (Mississauga) descent to achieve international recognition; Black father and Chippewa (Ojibwa) mother; orphaned early and raised in her mother's tribe; Oberlin College from 1859; poisoning accusation, probably racially motivated, forced her to leave before graduating; Boston professional practice with portraits of antislavery heroes; moved to Rome in 1865; worked in marble and did all her own stonework; sculpted biblical scenes and works on her Native heritage and the oppression of Black people — https://americanart.si.edu/artist/edmonia-lewis-2914 (primary source · build store)
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Grove Art Online text), Edmonia Lewis (accessed 2026-10-16) — header dates 1844-1907 but biography text gives born New York 1845 (see conflict in notes); first Black American sculptor to achieve national prominence; known as Wildfire in the Chippewa tribe; school at Albany 1857-59 and Oberlin 1860-63 in this account; Boston study with Edward Brackett from 1863; bust of Col. Robert Shaw sold over 100 plaster copies, enabling travel to Rome in 1865; Forever Free (1867), Hagar (1875) and The Death of Cleopatra (1876) named, with works held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum — https://crystalbridges.emuseum.com/people/489/edmonia-lewis (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6219 · Combined Graph record U-07414 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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