The Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library is ecstatic to introduce PEM Curator, Jeffery Richmond-Moll, for a conversation covering the artistic career of Edmonia Lewis. Gain insights into the behind-the-scenes making of the show, Edmonia Lewis: Said In Stone, including new discoveries, exciting restoration projects, and the collaborative process of recovering and retelling Lewis's story. Registration is required. Due to the registration volume, we will be hosting this event offsite at the FPC Community Hall (next door to the library at 17 Union Street behind Santander Back).

Want to check out the show at the PEM? The library has a museum pass for discounted access to the Peabody Essex Museum that you can check out with your library card. The promo code will admit up to two (2) adult visitors at a reduced admission rate of $12 per person. Children age 16 and under are always admitted free. Click here to find out more about museum passes.

About the show - Edmonia Lewis: Said In Stone

Born in Greenbush, New York, in 1844, Lewis became the first sculptor of Black and Indigenous (Mississauga) descent to achieve international recognition. Beginning her career in Boston in 1863, she traveled to Rome in 1866 to join the leading American sculptors of her generation, breaking international, racial and gender barriers. "Sometimes the times were dark, and the outlook was lonesome, but where there is a will, there is a way,” Lewis recalled in 1878. “That is what I tell my people whenever I meet them, that they must not be discouraged, but work ahead until the world is bound to respect them for what they have accomplished.”

Following her death in 1907, Lewis’ legacy endured in Black communities, yet her contribution to American sculpture has largely been underrecognized. Some of her great masterpieces were rediscovered decades later, while others remain lost today. Her vivid, naturalistic stone sculptures feature abolitionists and social reformers, engage with Indigenous identity, and give new life to religious and mythological figures.

About Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Ph.D., The George Putnam Curator of American Art

Jeffrey Richmond-Moll joined PEM in 2023 and now oversees an expansive collection that encompasses over four centuries of American art, culture and creative expression. Most recently, he served as co-curator for the traveling exhibition Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and is co-curator of the nationally-touring exhibition Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone, co-organized by PEM.

Previously the curator of American art at the Georgia Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Georgia, Richmond-Moll has a wide range of expertise in American art from the colonial era to the late 20th century. He pursues interdisciplinary, experimental curatorial strategies to tell compelling, inclusive stories about our nation’s past, present, and future. His highly collaborative practice seeks to forge connections across media and time periods and unlock new ideas about American art and identity.

Richmond-Moll received his Ph.D. and M.A. in art history from the University of Delaware and a B.A. in art and archaeology from Princeton University. He is the former co-chair of the Association of Historians of American Art. He is the editor and lead author of Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery, and Imagination in American Realism (2021) and Reckonings and Reconstructions: Southern Photography from the Do Good Fund (2022), and his essays have appeared in numerous journals and exhibition catalogues, including Winterthur Portfolio, Archives of American Art Journal and Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art.

This presentation is sponsored by the Manchester-by-the-Sea Friends of the Library. The FPC Community Hall is made available through the generous memorial gift of Ron Borel.  Look for special programming on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.