(Mary) Edmonia Lewis was a Neo-Classical sculptor of figural work in carved marble. The daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a black father she experienced much discrimination. Her work was expressive of the emotions she felt from these experiences.

She was born in 1845 near Albany, New York where she was orphaned at age four and raised by her mother's tribe with whom she had a nomadic existence until she was twelve. In 1856, with the support of some abolitionists, she enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio, the first interracial college in the United States. She studied liberal arts but became the subject of scandal when she was accused of trying to give poison wine to several coeds. She was subsequently beaten severely by a vigila...