SALEM, Mass. — Renowned Black and Indigenous sculptor Edmonia Lewis once remarked, “Sometimes the times were dark and the outlook was lonesome, but where there is a will, there is a way.” This inspiring quote is prominently displayed on a dark blue wall at the Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone exhibition. It continues, “That is what I tell my people whenever I meet them, that they must not be discouraged, but work ahead until the world is bound to respect them for what they have accomplished.” Born in Greenbush, New York, in 1844 and passing away in London in 1907, Lewis is receiving due recognition in her first major retrospective at the Peabody Essex Museum, more than a century after her death.
The exhibition, a joint effort by the Peabody Essex Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art, offers a comprehensive look into Lewis’s sculpture practice and legacy. It features 30 of her Neoclassical white marble sculptures, along with numerous archival materials and works by other artists. A standout aspect of the exhibition is its approach to presenting Lewis as both a Black and Indigenous artist, without merging these identities. The exhibition is divided into four thematic rooms: “Antislavery and Emancipation,” “Indigenous Artistic Worlds,” “the Studios of Rome,” and “Religion, Mythology, Transcendence.” Each room, painted a different color, engages in dialogue with the others. This groundbreaking exhibition, developed with input from Black and Native scholars, is the first of its kind to showcase Lewis’s art in the context of her dual heritage.
Text plays a central role in narrating this exhibition, especially given that many pieces are not by Lewis herself. Visitors are greeted by a signed statement from the curators, suggesting that Lewis’s father was Richard Lewis, a free Black man, and her mother was Margaret Groat Mike, a Mississauga-Tuscarora woman. Although definitive archival proof of her parentage is lacking, extensive research has been conducted into Lewis’s upbringing with her mother’s family, part of the Mississaugas of the Credit, an Anishinaabe nation near the US-Canadian border.
In 1865, Lewis relocated from Boston to Rome, a key center for American Neoclassical sculptors from the late 1820s to the mid-1870s, and remained there as a sculptor until the early 1890s before moving to London. The exhibition reveals that within a few years of her arrival in Italy, Lewis became the first woman artist of Black and Indigenous descent to gain international recognition. She stated, “I was practically driven to Rome,” as “the land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor.”
Lewis’s voice resonates throughout the exhibition, with her quotes prominently featured on the walls in vinyl lettering. This curatorial choice positions Lewis as the narrator of her own story, rather than presenting her life through a distant museum lens.
During her time abroad, Lewis’s work did not shy away from activism, addressing contemporary American political issues. The first sculpture visitors encounter is “Forever Free” (1867), depicting a man standing with his fist raised and broken shackles hanging from his arm, while a woman kneels beside him, looking upward. This piece was the first sculpture by a Black American artist to celebrate Emancipation. Created in Rome, it incorporates elements from ancient Greco-Roman marble statues. Lewis’s work used Neoclassical sculpture to communicate her message, while also drawing on imagery from her era. The exhibition connects the kneeling woman in “Forever Free” to a similar image on the copper token “Am I Not a Woman & A Sister,” produced by the American Anti-Slavery Society, and a 1863 newspaper printing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
In another room, “Hiawatha’s Marriage” (modeled 1866, carved 1870) is displayed alongside 18th-century, 19th-century, and contemporary Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe art. Inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem “The Song of Hiawatha,” Lewis carved the union of Dakota woman Minnehaha and Ojibwe warrior Hiawatha. The synchronized contrapposto of the figures suggests equal agency, emphasized by their handshake as equals. The work’s label highlights that unlike other artists who portrayed Hiawatha leading Minnehaha away or dominating her figure, Lewis carved them with an Indigenous feminist perspective, indicating intertribal diplomacy.
“The Death of Cleopatra” (1876), Lewis’s most renowned work, portrays Cleopatra in her feminist Neoclassical style, honoring her as a leader in death. Cleopatra grips the snake that delivered her fatal bite to avoid Roman captivity, her body sinking into a chair. First shown at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, the sculpture was believed lost before its rediscovery. Due to its fragility, it is absent from the exhibition and replaced with a cardboard replica, which lacks depth and presence. This reflects the long period without proper conservation for Lewis’s work. A subsection titled “Black Cultural Memory” highlights how, for 150 years, Black women’s organizations and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have advocated for and preserved Lewis’s legacy. Some of her works remain lost, underscoring the ongoing importance of this research.
The exhibition concludes with a powerful piece by Gisela Torres, a London-based interdisciplinary artist of Afro-Cuban descent, who feels a profound “psychic connection” with Lewis. Her video work, “Reverie and Slumber” (2020), imagines dreams about Lewis. It features video footage of Rome projected onto plaster casts of Torres’s head, layered with audio of the artist singing Peggy Lee’s 1969 song “Is That All There Is?” and whispering names of other Black women sculptors. This includes Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890–1960), a Black and Indigenous sculptor whose first museum survey toured in 2025. “Reverie and Slumber” is part of Torres’s ongoing series Looking for Edmonia (Self-Portrait) (2018–present), initiated after reading about the discovery of Lewis’s unmarked grave in a London cemetery she frequently visited.
Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone not only provides a curated presentation of her artworks but also offers critical research on her life, illustrating how her legacy has been preserved by the Black community. The exhibition is deeply moving, and as it travels to other museums, it is expected to inspire contemporary artists, much like Torres, who follow in Lewis’s footsteps.
Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone continues at the Peabody Essex Museum (161 Essex Street, Salem, MA) through June 7, when it will travel to the Georgia Museum of Art (90 Carlton St, Athens, GA), followed by the North Carolina Museum of Art (2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh, NC). The exhibition is co-organized by the Peabody Essex Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia.
