Google Celebrates Sculptor Edmonia Lewis with New Doodle
The Google Doodle demonstrates Lewis creating arguably her most famous work, The Death of Cleopatra. It is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.
4 Fast Facts You Need to Know about Edmonia Lewis:
1. She Was Accused of Poisoning 2 of Her College Friends
While planning to go sledding with a group of men, Lewis and two friends drank spiced wine. It emerged that the women had been poisoned with cantharides.
Lewis was put on trial and accused of poisoning her friends. During this time, Lewis was beaten by a group of men in Oberlin over the incident. She was represented during the trial by the only practicing black lawyer in the town, John Mercer Langston.
Despite not taking the stand and the non-liberal views of the Oberlin townspeople, Lewis was acquitted of any wrongdoings. Her friends made full recoveries.
2. Her Sexuality Has Been Much Speculated Upon by Historians
According to the Gay History Project, Lewis’ sexuality has been much speculated upon. She never married and never had any children.
The speculation is fuelled by, according to the project, Lewis’s “androgynous style of dress.”
3. The Circumstances of Her Death Remained a Mystery for Many Years
One of Lewis’s most famous achievements in her later years was a bust of President Ulysses S. Grant in which Grant sat and modeled. Lewis would frequently return to the United States to exhibit her work. After living in Rome, her fame slipped away, Lewis decamped to London in 1901. Her official website says that Lewis also spent time in Paris.
Lewis died in September 1907. Cowan’s Auctions reports that Lewis was thought for years to have died in 1911 in Rome. While some speculated that Lewis lived out her final years in San Francisco. The Toast says that Lewis suffered from Bright’s disease and is buried in a Catholic graveyard in London.
4. Her Brother Settled Far Away From Lewis’ Artistic Life in a Small Montana Town
Lewis’ brother was Samuel Lewis who worked as a miner while his sister pursued her artistry. He moved from New York to Idaho and eventually to Montana. In between, he spent time as a barber in San Francisco. He used that skill to open a barber shop in Bozeman, Montana. Soon, Samuel Lewis became a real estate investor and married Mrs. Melissa Raile Bruce, a widow with six children. They had one son.
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