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Wendell Phillips: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Lecturer
Wendell Phillips: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Abolitionist
Wendell Phillips: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Temperance
Portrait
Place
Italia\Lazio\Roma\Roma
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.2012.89
Exhibition Label
Born Boston, Massachusetts
An eloquent and persuasive speaker, Wendell Phillips toured the country delivering powerful lectures against slavery. Phillips credited his wife, the fervent abolitionist and reformer Anne Terry Greene, with opening his eyes to injustice and inspiring his activism. Unlike President Abraham Lincoln and many others, Phillips considered emancipation a more urgent goal than preserving the Union. In March 1862, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to pressure Congress and the president to act more aggressively against slavery. He perturbed Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry (shown at right), by using the institution’s lecture hall as his forum.
The pathbreaking sculptor Edmonia Lewis, who descended from a part-Ojibwe (Chippewa) mother and a Haitian father, made this medallion bust early in her career as part of a series of portraits of abolitionists. While living in Rome, she made the sculpture Forever Free (1867), depicting an African American couple rejoicing at the news of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Nacido en Boston, Massachusetts
Wendell Phillips, orador elocuente y persuasivo, recorría el país dando conferencias contra la esclavitud. Decía que su esposa, la ferviente abolicionista y reformista Anne Terry Greene, le había abierto los ojos a la injusticia y había inspirado su activismo. En contraste con el presidente Abraham Lincoln y muchos otros, Phillips consideraba la emancipación una meta más urgente que preservar la Unión. En marzo de 1862 viajó a Washington D.C. para urgir al Congreso y al presidente a tomar medidas más fuertes contra la esclavitud. Usó como foro el salón de conferencias de la Smithsonian, lo cual perturbó al secretario de la institución, Joseph Henry (a la derecha).
La escultora pionera Edmonia Lewis, de madre en parte ojibwe (chippewa) y padre haitiano, hizo este busto en medallón entre una serie de retratos de abolicionistas. Cuando vivía en Roma creó la escultura Por siempre libres (1867), que muestra el regocijo de una pareja afroamericana ante la noticia de la Proclamación de Emancipación.
Provenance
Lee B. Anderson [1918-2010]; estate of Lee B. Anderson; (Doyle Auctions, September 12, 2012, lot 1127); purchased NPG 2012
