Vinnie Ream: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 20162024}}

Lavinia Ellen Ream was born September 25, 1847, in [[Madison, Wisconsin]].<ref name="Architect of the Capitol">{{cite web |title=Vinnie Ream |url=https://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/artists/vinnie-ream |website=Architect of the Capitol |access-date=4 January 4, 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Her father, Robert, was a [[Surveyor (surveying)|surveyor]] for the [[Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory]] and a [[Wisconsin Territory]] civil servant. Her mother was a McDonald of Scottish ancestry.<ref name="VinnieReam">{{cite web |title=Vinnie Ream (Hoxie) homepage |url=http://vinnieream.com/index.htm |website=vinnieream.com |access-date=4 January 4, 2019}}</ref> Her brother Robert enlisted in the Confederate army, in Arkansas, serving in [[Pulaski Light Artillery|Woodruff's Battery]].{{sfn|Cooper|2009|p=3}} Vinnie attended [[Columbia College of Missouri|Christian College]] in [[Columbia, Missouri]], now known as Columbia College. A portrait of [[Martha Washington]] by Ream hangs in St. Clair Hall.<ref name="ColumbiaCollege">{{cite web |url=http://spotlight.ccis.edu/2011/01/vinnie-ream-christian-colleges-first.html |website=Columbia College spotlight stories |title=Vinnie Ream, Christian College's first artist |publisher=[[Columbia College (Missouri)|Columbia College]] |date=January 24, 2011 |access-date=2011-07-July 19, 2011 |df=mdy-all |archive-date=March 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326022937/http://spotlight.ccis.edu/2011/01/vinnie-ream-christian-colleges-first.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/r/ream/index.html |title=Vinnie Ream (1847–1914) |website=Historic Missourians |publisher=State Historical Society of Missouri |access-date=January 10, 2013 |archive-date=March 28, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328161421/http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/r/ream/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1863, [[James S. Rollins]] introduced Ream to sculptor [[Clark Mills (sculptor)|Clark Mills]].<ref name="MHS">{{cite magazine |url=http://digital.shsmo.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/mhr/id/47807/rec/3 |title=Contributors to Missouri History: Vinnie Ream Hoxie |magazine=Missouri Historical Review |date=October 1995 |volume=90 |issue=1 |publisher=State Historical Society of Missouri |page=inside back cover |access-date=2018-08-August 27, 2018 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> She became an apprentice in Mills's sculpting studio the next year, at the age of seventeen.{{sfn|Dabakis|2008}} In 1864, President [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]] agreed to model for her in the morning for five months, and she created a bust of his figure.<ref name="ColumbiaCollege"/> During this time, Ream also began intense public relations efforts, selling photographs of herself and soliciting newspaper attention as a marketing strategy.{{sfn|Dabakis|2008}}

[[File:Vinnie Ream by Mathew B. Brady.jpg|left|thumb|282x282px|Vinnie Ream, c.1870, albumen print (carte-de-visite) by Mathew B. Brady, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Department of Image Collections.<ref>{{Cite web|title=National Gallery of Art Library|url=https://library.nga.gov/discovery/fulldisplay?&context=L&vid=01NGA_INST:IMAGE&search_scope=ImageCollections&tab=ImageCollections&docid=alma994137176704896|access-date=2020-08-August 20, 2020|website=library.nga.gov|language=en}}</ref>|alt=]]

Senator [[Edmund G. Ross]] boarded with Ream's family during [[Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson|the impeachment trial]] of United States President [[Andrew Johnson]].{{sfn|Cooper|2009|pp=73–81}}<ref name="Roderick1">{{cite journal |last1=Roderick |first1=Lee |title=Mallet, Chisel, And Curls |journal=American Heritage |date=February 1976 |volume=27 |issue=2 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/mallet-chisel-and-curls |access-date=16 October 16, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Ross cast what was seen as the decisive vote against the removal of President Johnson from office, and Ream was accused of influencing his vote. She was almost thrown out of the Capitol with her unfinished Lincoln statue.{{sfn|Dabakis|2008}}<ref name="CCIS1"/> The House had passed a resolution turning the room she was using as a studio into a [[Capitol Police]] guardroom to house Charles Woolley while he was being held in [[contempt of Congress]] for his failure to answer questions presented in [[1868 impeachment managers investigation|a House investigation being conducted into possible corrupt influences behind the Senate vote regarding Johnson's removal]]. This forced Ream to move her work into the hallway.<ref name="Roderick1"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Pareene |first1=Alex |title=Making Impeachment Matter |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/155686/making-impeachment-matter-andrew-johnson-donald-trump |magazine=The New Republic |access-date=1 August 1, 2022 |date=21 November 21, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Stewart1">{{cite book|last=Stewart|first=David O.|title=Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sav95Z-KDZcC|year=2009|publisher=Simon and Schuster|pages=299–301 |isbn=978-1416547495}}</ref> Conservatives accused [[Benjamin Butler]] of having targeted Ream with his successful resolution to turn her studio into a Capitol Police guardroom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wineapple |first1=Brenda |title=The impeachers : The Trial of Andrew Johnson and The Dream of a Just Nation |page=400 |date=2019 |location=New York |isbn=978-0812998368 |edition=First}}</ref> Much of the news press expressed outrage at this retributory action towards Ream. ''[[The New York Times]]'' called it a "paltry piece of petty persecution," and the ''[[Daily National Intelligencer]]'' called the move a "wretched piece of petty malevolence and partisan proscription". ''[[The New York World]]'' wrote a immenselyvery critical article under the headline, "How Beaten Impeachers Make War on Women". A minority of press outlets, however, did support the move, with ''[[The New York Tribune]]'' characterizing newsmen supportive of Ream's cause as "kitten-hearted Washington correspondents" jumping to defend a woman that they claimed had proven herself apt at using "hen power" to manipulate others.<ref name="Roderick1"/> Ream feared that removing her statue of Lincoln from the studio space would destroy it.<ref name="Roderick1"/> Ultimately, the intervention of powerful New York sculptors and her friend Congressman [[Thaddeus Stevens]] prevented it her from being ejected from the Capitol. Stevens had been a house manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial.{{sfn|Dabakis|2008}}<ref name="Roderick1"/><ref name="CCIS1">{{cite web |last1=Gravley |first1=Jennifer |title=Stafford Library: Vinnie Ream: Home |url=https://library.ccis.edu/vinnieream |website=library.ccis.edu |access-date=1 August 1, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> and on July 20, 1868, the House passed a resolution granting her permission to utilize the space as a studio for another year.<ref name="Roderick1"/><ref name="CCIS1"/>

Once the U.S. government had approved the plaster model, Ream traveled to Paris, Munich, Florence, then Rome, to produce a finished marble figure.<ref name="ColumbiaCollege" />{{sfn|Dabakis|2008}} She studied with [[Léon Bonnat]] in Paris, also producing busts of [[Gustave Doré]], [[Hyacinthe Loyson|Père Hyacynthe]], [[Franz Liszt]], and [[Giacomo Antonelli]].<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica">{{cite web |title=Vinnie Ream |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vinnie-Ream |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=4 January 4, 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Her studio in Rome was at 45 Via de San Basile.{{sfn|Cooper|2009|p=122}} She met [[Georg Brandes]] at that time.{{sfn|Cooper|2009|pp=126–129}}<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesmy00brangoog |title=Reminiscences of My Childhood and Youth |last=Brandes |first=Georg Morris Cohen |publisher=Duffield |year=1906 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesmy00brangoog/page/n330 318]}}</ref> While in Rome, she faced controversial rumors that claimed that it was the Italian workmen and not Ream who were responsible for her successful sculpture of Lincoln.{{sfn|Dabakis|2008}}

[[File:Abraham Lincoln statue by Vinnie Ream.jpg|upright|thumb|Ream's [[Statue of Abraham Lincoln (U.S. Capitol)|statue of Abraham Lincoln]] in [[U.S. Capitol rotunda|the rotunda]] of the U.S. Capitol<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aoc.gov/art/other-statues/abraham-lincoln-statue|title=Abraham Lincoln Statue|website=Architect of the Capitol|language=en|access-date=2019-07-July 26, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/artists/vinnie-ream|title=Vinnie Ream|website=Architect of the Capitol|language=en|access-date=2019-07-July 26, 2019}}</ref>]]

Her [[List of American sculptors exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|marbles]], ''America'', ''The West'', and ''Miriam'', were [[List of women artists exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|exhibited]] in [[The Woman's Building (Chicago)|the Woman's Building]] at the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago, Illinois.<ref name="Nichols">{{cite web |last1=Nichols |first1=K. L. |title=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893| url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt4bb.html#hoxie| access-date=4 January 4, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Eagle |editor-first=Mary Kavanaugh Oldham |chapter-url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/eagle/congress/hoxie.html |chapter=Lincoln and Farragut |first=Vinnie Ream |last=Hoxie |title=The Congress of Women: Held in the Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 |location=Chicago |publisher=Monarch Book Company |year=1894 | pages=603–608}}</ref> Ream designed the ''[[Statue of Sequoyah]]'', the first free-standing statue of a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] to be displayed in [[Statuary Hall]] of the United States Capitol.<ref name="Obit"/>

A first-day cover stamp was issued in honor of Ream and her work on the statue of Sequoyah, the Native American inventor of the [[Cherokee alphabetsyllabary]]. [[George Caleb Bingham]] painted her portrait twice.<ref name="MHS" /> The town of [[Vinita, Oklahoma]], was named in honor of Ream.<ref>[http://www.vinita.com/visitor/visitor.htm Vinita Oklahoma Area Chamber of Commerce promoting visitor information for the purpose of relocation & tourism] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810040038/http://www.vinita.com/visitor/visitor.htm |date=August 10, 2007 }}</ref>

*{{Cite journal |last=Tomso |first=Gregory |date=April 4, 2011-04-04 |title=Lincoln's "Unfathomable Sorrow": Vinnie Ream, Sculptural Realism, and the Cultural Work of Sympathy in Nineteenth-Century America |url=http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/9139 |journal=European Journal of American Studies |language=fr |volume=6 |issue=2 |doi=10.4000/ejas.9139 |issn=1991-9336 |doi-access=free }}