Vinnie

 

"Behind every great woman are six men holding her back." --Anon

    Lavinia "Vinnie" Ream was born September 25, 1847 in Madison. Her father was a surveyor for the Wisconsin Territory.  When she was 14, the family moved to Washington, D.C. When her father's health declined she got a job in the Dead Letter Office to help support the family. 

  During the Civil War she helped entertain wounded soldiers. At age 16 she became an apprentice to a sculptor, and a year later Lincoln was sitting for her to sculpt his bust. During this time she began promoting herself using photographs and newspaper articles, the social media of the day.

  On this day in 1868 she was awarded a commission for a full-size marble statue of Lincoln for the Capitol rotunda. She was the first female and the youngest artist ever to receive a commission for a statue from the U.S. government. There had been much debate that she was too inexperienced, or a lobbyist, or a public woman of questionable virtue, because of her beauty and conversational skills.

  She went to work on the sculpture in a studio in the Capitol basement. Meanwhile the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson was going on upstairs. The senator who cast the final vote for acquittal, Edmund Ross, was boarding with Vinnie's family. Angry radical Republicans (the lefties of the day) used Vinnie as a scapegoat saying she had used her charms to sway Ross's vote.

  To punish Vinnie, the House, led by Ben Butler, passed a resolution turning her studio in a Capitol police guardroom. This Butler had been named "Beast Butler" for his behavior when he was commander of occupying forces in New Orleans during the war. Butler had ordered that any woman who insulted, spat on, or emptied a chamber pot on a Union soldier would be treated as a prostitute.

  Vinnie believed the statute would be damaged if it had to be moved out of the Capitol and thanks to powerful friends, she was allowed to remain in her studio another year to finish the statue. She was 23 when the statue was unveiled in the rotunda.

  She opened a studio in New York and created many more statues. When she was 30 she married an army officer who thought it was not proper for a Victorian wife to earn money and she respected his wishes.  They moved around a lot which might have made sculpting difficult. The family eventually settled in Washington DC near Farragut Square where Vinnie would have often seen her statue of Admiral Farragut, conqueror of New Orleans and most prominent victim of chamber pot emptying in the Crescent City.

Walk softly and carry a sharp chisel.