Edmonia Lewis, Esteemed Black Sculptor, Gets Her Own US Postage Stamp

The United States Postal Service (USPS) will be honoring Edmonia Lewis, a pioneering sculptor of Haitian and Ojibwa descent, by designing a series of stamps featuring her image.

According to ARTnews, Lewis made her mark on the art world in the late 19th century, when she broke into the mainstream in the US and beyond.

Some of her most notable works include the Death of Cleopatra (1876), which she crafted from over 3,000 pounds of Carrara marble. It currently sits in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, although many of her other pieces have been lost to time.

The image featured on the postage stamp is taken from a portrait Augustus Marshall photographed of Lewis between 1964 and 1871. Her stamp will be the 45th of the USPS’ Black Heritage series, which has other stamps honoring playwright August Wilson, tennis player Althea Gibson, and others.

Hyperallergic reported that Lewis had been born in Greenbush, New York, in 1844 to a Black father and Obijwe mother. She was orphaned at age five, but worked hard to attend Oberlin College in 1859 as one of only 30 students of color at the time.

During her time in the college, Lewis had been accused of poisoning two White female classmates, leading to severe beatings and a public trial at which she was acquitted of the crime. The following year, she was once again accused, this time of stealing art supplies. Although she was acquitted once more, Lewis wasn’t allowed to finish her studies at the college. 

The sculptor started off as a professional artist in Boston, painting medallion portraits of famed abolitionists. She then moved to Europe, where she stayed in Rome and joined a community of American artists there. It was there where her work flourished, allowing her to gain enough recognition for an exhibition in the US in 1872 and 1876.

The end of Lewis’ life was clouded in more mystery, with differing reports on when and where she had passed away. Only in 2011 did British records by historian Marilyn Richardson show that she had died in London in 1907.

“She identified first as a Native American. Later she identified more as an African American. She was in two worlds. She deserves her stamp,” historian Bobbie Reno told the Times Union.

“As the public continues to discover the beautiful subtleties of Lewis’s work, scholars will further interpret her role in American art and the ways she explored, affirmed, or de-emphasized her complex cultural identity to meet or expand the artistic expectations of her day,” the USPS said.

The stamp can be pre-ordered at a sheet of 20 for US$11.60 here.

[via ARTnews and Hyperallergic, image via USPS]