Book Description

VINNIE REAM was a government postal worker and a teenage art prodigy who studied at the U.S. Capitol during the Civil War. She was able to model Abraham Lincoln prior to his assassination in 1865. In 1866, Congress wanted a statue of Lincoln and voted to give the young woman a chance to make the work. Vinnie became the first woman and the youngest artist to receive a U.S. Government commission for a statue. Her tragic true-to-life marble figure of Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda was unveiled in 1871. The work and its artist generated a storm of controversy. Vinnie Ream overcame a campaign of slander and courageously completed the statue despite many obstacles. This book is the true story of that dramatic struggle. It is an attempt to document the life and work of a famous, but forgotten, American woman sculptor. The information it contains came from hundreds of sources and is the end result of many years of study. The book shows the known art of Vinnie Ream in pictures and presents an inventory of her work for the first time. One purpose of this is to challenge the assumption that she was only an artist of "secondary importance". It is our hope that her true role in art history can be better determined by this detailed survey. Another purpose of this volume is to tell an accurate version of Vinnie Ream's life story. It attempts to transcend both the "Cinderella" and notorious elements written in the past by giving more original and more balanced information. Uncut speeches, debates, news stories and letters have been included where possible to let the characters speak for themselves. It is our hope that this book will stimulate more in-depth study of neglected artists and helpto hoist them out of the abyss of historical obscurity.