[CherylNYC]

When I looked at all the wonderful images when this was first posted I don't know how I missed the image of Edmonia Lewis, (second photo from the top), a fascinating sculptor who was well ahead of her time. She attended Oberlin College, becoming one of the first women of colour, (African American/Ojibwe), to do so. Falsely accused of poisoning her roommates, she was set upon by a crowd and badly beaten as a result.

She had become a successful sculptor by the time she relocated to join a colony of women sculptors in Rome known as the, (ahem), Rome Amazons. The band of reputed lesbians was led by Emma Stebbins, the first woman to get a major sculptural commission in the U.S.- the Bethesda Fountain in NYC's Central Park.