09/01/2026
🎉 Happy birthday, Emma Stebbins!
Born September 1, 1815, Stebbins broke barriers as one of the most important American sculptors of the 19th century—and the first woman to receive a public art commission from New York City. 🗽
In 1856, Stebbins embarked from NYC for Rome to further her artistic ambitions. Over the next fourteen years, she created innovative marble sculptures, including unprecedented allegories of labor and industry as well as incisive interpretations of literary and biblical subjects. Stebbins also sculpted portraits of her chosen family, including her wife, actress Charlotte Cushman, who championed her work. Cushman once called Stebbins “my other, & much my better half,” and in a newspaper article she explained, “we love each other, respect each others lives and habits and opinions, and dwell together in perfect harmony.” ❤️
Last year, The Heckscher spotlighted Stebbins with Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History, the first solo exhibition dedicated to her work. 📖Accompanying this groundbreaking exhibition, a richly illustrated catalog was edited by Heckscher Museum Chief Curator Karli Wurzelbacher, PhD. This catalog is available for purchase using this link - https://www.heckscher.org/stebbinscatalog/
🎥 Now, discover two of her sculptures with a special Heckscher connection in a NEW video from Smarthistory! Watch the video here- https://smarthistory.org/emma-stebbins-industry-commerce/
✈️ And there’s more ahead: Thanks to the Art Bridges Foundation, Carving Out History hits the road this fall for a national tour, starting at Driehaus Museum in Chicago on October 8.
[📸: Emma Stebbins, Bethesda Fountain, 1870, Bronze and stone, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; Photographer unknown, Emma Stebbins in Rome or Naples, ca. 1857–70, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian; Attributed to Silsbee, Case & Co. Photograph Artists (Boston, MA), Charlotte Cushman and Emma Stebbins, ca. 1861, Cabinet card photograph, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Exhibition photography by Len Marks of sculptures: Emma Stebbins, Sandalphon (also known as Angel of Prayer), 1866, Marble, The Heckscher Museum of Art, Museum Purchase: Town of Huntington Art Acquisition Fund.]
