Vinnie Ream: An American Sculptor

An intriguing biography of the American woman sculptor and Civil War–era Washington, DC, fixture.

One of America's least known and most controversial women artists of the Civil War era was Vinnie Ream, who sculpted a bust of Abraham Lincoln from life when she was only sixteen years old and had almost no artistic training.

She was able, through clever maneuvering and dogged determination, to achieve a commission from the Congress for a life-sized statue of the assassinated president—this despi...