{"id":2877,"date":"2022-02-02T21:15:31","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T21:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=2877"},"modified":"2022-02-02T21:15:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T21:15:31","slug":"u-s-postal-service-salutes-legendary-sculptor-edmonia-lewis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=2877","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Postal Service Salutes Legendary Sculptor Edmonia Lewis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON<\/span>,\u00a0Jan. 26, 2022<\/span>\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ —\u00a0The U.S. Postal Service today celebrated the life and legacy of\u00a0Edmonia Lewis<\/span>, the first African American and Native American sculptor to earn international recognition, as the 45th honoree in the Black Heritage Stamp series during a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the Smithsonian American\u00a0Art Museum<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Edmonia<\/a><\/div>
Edmonia Lewis Forever stamp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Edmonia Lewis<\/span>\u00a0was a woman of great courage, talent and perseverance who broke through gender, race and class barriers,” said Dr.\u00a0Joshua D. Colin<\/span>, the Postal Service’s chief retail and delivery officer, who served as the dedicating official. “The Postal Service is proud to honor this great American sculptor with a beautiful commemorative Forever stamp.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Joining Colin to dedicate the stamp were artist\u00a0Alex Bostic<\/span>;\u00a0Stephanie Stebich<\/span>, director of the Smithsonian American\u00a0Art Museum<\/span>;\u00a0Karen Lemmey<\/span>, curator of sculpture at the Smithsonian American\u00a0Art Museum<\/span>;\u00a0Lisa Farrington<\/span>, director of the\u00a0Howard University<\/span>\u00a0Gallery of Art and associate dean for fine arts at the university; and Antonio Alcal\u00e1, USPS art director.<\/p>\n

“As the holder of the largest collection of\u00a0Edmonia Lewis’s<\/span>\u00a0work, the Smithsonian American\u00a0Art Museum<\/span>\u00a0has a long history of championing this great American sculptor, and we are delighted to host this first-day stamp event in her honor,” Stebich said.<\/p>\n

Singer and conductor D.C.\u00a0Washington<\/span>\u00a0sang the national anthem.<\/p>\n

The Edmonia Lewis Forever pane of stamps is now available at Post Office locations nationwide. News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtags\u00a0#Edmonia Lewis<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0#BlackHeritageStamps<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The Stamp art features a casein-paint portrait of Lewis, based on a photograph by\u00a0Augustus Marshall<\/span>\u00a0made in\u00a0Boston<\/span>\u00a0between 1854 and 1871. Alcal\u00e1 designed the stamp with art by\u00a0Alex Bostic<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Background on\u00a0Edmonia Lewis<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The work Lewis produced during her prolific career evokes the complexity of her social identity. Known by an Ojibwe name that translated into English as Wildfire, she made and sold crafts for tourists for part of her childhood when she lived with her aunts near\u00a0Niagara Falls, NY<\/span>. Many details of Lewis’s early life are unclear, and Lewis herself cultivated a deliberate air of mystery about her upbringing. Her brother, a successful entrepreneur, appears to have funded her education \u2013 a rare opportunity for a young American woman in the 1850s.<\/p>\n

Lewis’s drawing of the muse Urania, her earliest known work, was made during her time at\u00a0Oberlin College<\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0Ohio<\/span>. In\u00a0Boston<\/span>\u00a0in the early 1860s, Lewis sculpted clay, plaster and marble busts and medallion portraits of famous men and women. She exhibited and sold plaster-cast replicas at public events.<\/p>\n

In 1865, Lewis sailed for\u00a0Europe<\/span>\u00a0and settled in\u00a0Rome<\/span>, where she created marble neoclassical sculptures that often incorporated African American and Native American subjects. A Roman Catholic, she also made numerous religious sculptures and took commissions for sculptures for churches in\u00a0Baltimore<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Scotland<\/span>. At the time, her studio became a must-see attraction for American tourists. She continued to sculpt busts of prominent Americans who visited\u00a0Rome<\/span>\u00a0in the 1870s and 1880s, and she frequently returned to\u00a0the United States<\/span>\u00a0to exhibit and sell her work.<\/p>\n

With heightened attention to Lewis’s life and career in recent decades, previously unlocated works have come to light, and she has become more widely represented in museums and private collections. 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.<\/p>\n

Additional information about\u00a0Edmonia Lewis<\/span>\u00a0is available on the Smithsonian American\u00a0Art Museum’s<\/span>\u00a0website<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and on\u00a0Google Arts & Culture<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Edmonia Lewis Heritage stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp, which are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.<\/p>\n

Postal Products
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Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through The Postal Store at\u00a0usps.com\/shopstamps<\/i><\/a>, by calling 844-737-7826 or at Post Office locations nationwide.<\/p>\n

Information on ordering first-day-of-issue postmarks and covers is at\u00a0usps.com\/shop<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.<\/p>\n

Please Note:<\/b>\u00a0For Postal Service media resources, including photo stills and broadcast-quality video and audio, visit the\u00a0USPS Newsroom<\/i><\/a>. Follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0Pinterest\u00a0<\/i><\/a>and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>. Subscribe to the\u00a0USPS YouTube channel<\/i><\/a>, like us on\u00a0Facebook<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and enjoy our\u00a0Postal Posts blog<\/i><\/a>. For more information about the Postal Service, visit\u00a0usps.com<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0facts.usps.com<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contact:\u00a0Felicia Lott<\/span>
felicia.m.lott@usps.gov<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0
usps.com\/news<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Local:\u00a0Mark Wahl<\/span>
mark.a.wahl@usps.gov<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0
<\/i>usps.com\/news<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Source: PRNewswire.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON,\u00a0Jan. 26, 2022\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ —\u00a0The U.S. Postal Service today celebrated the life and legacy of\u00a0Edmonia Lewis, the first African<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-history","category-special-focus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2879,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions\/2879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}