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American sculptor
Leila Usher
Born Leila Woodman Usher
(1859-08-26 ) August 26, 1859Died August 13, 1955(1955-08-13) (aged 95) Occupation Sculptor
Leila Usher (August 26, 1859 – August 13, 1955) was an American sculptor.
Biography
Bas-relief portrait of paleontologist
Nathaniel Shaler , c. 1909
Leila Woodman Usher was born in
Onalaska, Wisconsin on August 26, 1859, to parents Isaac Lane Usher and Susannah Coffin Woodman.
[1]
[2]
[3] She was a pupil of English sculptor
H. H. Kitson in Boston, American
George Brewster in Cambridge, and Irish-American
Augustus Saint-Gaudens in New York, and also studied abroad in Paris and Rome.
[1]
[4]
[5]
Bust of Booker T. Washington by Leila Usher as appeared in his writing "Heroes in black skin" in The Century Magazine V.66 No. 4, September 1903
Her best-known work is a 1902
bust of educator
Booker T. Washington commissioned by the
Tuskegee Institute .
[6]
[7] She produced
bas-relief portraits of many other prominent figures such as scholar
Francis James Child , minister
Elijah Kellogg , and geologist
John Wesley Powell .
[1]
[4]
[8]
Usher also created a bronze medallion of social reformer
Susan B. Anthony ,
[9] presented on April 21, 1902, to
Bryn Mawr College . Anthony herself attended the ceremony and addressed the audience after the presentation.
[10] On September 27, 1915, Usher exhibited a replica of medallion at the Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Women Artists for the Benefit of Woman Suffrage Campaign held in New York, notable because it was the only portrait of a suffragist out of the 153 works displayed.
[10]
Usher received the Bronze Medal at the 1895
Atlanta Exposition ,
[5]
[11] and her work was also awarded at the 1915
Panama–Pacific International Exposition .
[12] Usher's sculptures are held in the collections of institutions such as
Bowdoin College ,
Bryn Mawr College ,
Hampton University ,
Johns Hopkins University , and
Radcliffe College .
[1]
[4]
[8]
[13]
She died at
St. Luke's Hospital in New York on August 13, 1955, aged 95.
[1]
[6]
References
^
a
b
c
d
e
"Leila Usher, Sculptress, 95" .
New York Herald Tribune .
OCLC
785729899 . Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via OCLC.
^
"Francis James Child" .
Renwick Gallery , Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved July 31, 2017 .
^ Usher, Edward Preston (1895). "Genealogy".
A memorial sketch of Roland Greene Usher, 1823–1895 . p.
126 . Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via archive.org.
^
a
b
c Putnam, Frank (1903).
"Note and Comment" . National Magazine . Vol. 19. p. 100. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
^
a
b
"Directory of Sculptors" .
American Art Annual . 4 .
MacMillan : 92. 1903. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
^
a
b
"The Week's Census" .
Jet . Vol. 8, no. 15.
Johnson Publishing Company . August 18, 1955. p. 17.
ISSN
0021-5996 . Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
^ Washington, Booker T. (September 1903).
"Heroes in Black Skin" . The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine . 66 (5): 729 – via Hathi Trust.
^
a
b
"Bronze Work" . Granite, Marble and Bronze . 24 (12). A. M. Hunt: 35. December 1914. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
^
"Miss Leila Usher, Sculptress, with bas-relief of Susan B. Anthony" .
Library of Congress . Retrieved July 31, 2017 .
^
a
b Heung, Elsie Y. (2018). "Women's Suffrage in American Art: Recovering Forgotten Contexts, 1900-1920" (Document). Ann Arbor: City University of New York.
^ Albert, Helen Horton (October 2, 1941).
"We Women" .
Asbury Park Press . Asbury Park, New Jersey. p. 15. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via newespapers.com.
^ Harlan, Louis R.; Smock, Raymond W., eds. (1977).
Booker T. Washington Papers Volume 6: 1901–2 .
University of Illinois Press . p. 463.
ISBN
9780252006500 . Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
^
Harper, Ida Husted (1908).
"International Suffrage" . The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony . Vol. 3. Hollenbeck Press. p. 1253. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.