Leila Usher
A woman emerging from shadow stands next to a large round bas-relief sculpture of Susan B. Anthony's head.
Leila Usher with her bas-relief of Susan B. Anthony in 1922
Born
Leila Woodman Usher

(1859-08-26)August 26, 1859
Onalaska, Wisconsin
DiedAugust 13, 1955(1955-08-13) (aged 95)
New York City, New York
OccupationSculptor

Leila Usher (August 26, 1859 – August 13, 1955) was an American sculptor.

Biography

Bas-relief portrait of paleontologist Nathaniel Shaler, c. 1909

Leila Woodman Usher was born in Onalaska, Wisconsin on August 26, 1859, to parents Isaac Lane Usher and Susannah Coffin Woodman.[1][2][3] She was a pupil of English sculptor H. H. Kitson in Boston, American George Brewster in Cambridge, and Irish-American Augustus Saint-Gaudens in New York, and also studied abroad in Paris and Rome.[1][4][5]

Black and white photograph of a bust of Booker T. Washington by Leila Usher as appeared in his writing "Heroes in black skin" in The Century Magazine V.66 No. 4 September 1903.
Bust of Booker T. Washington by Leila Usher as appeared in his writing "Heroes in black skin" in The Century Magazine V.66 No. 4, September 1903

Her best-known work is a 1902 bust of educator Booker T. Washington commissioned by the Tuskegee Institute.[6][7] She produced bas-relief portraits of many other prominent figures such as scholar Francis James Child, minister Elijah Kellogg, and geologist John Wesley Powell.[1][4][8]

Usher also created a bronze medallion of social reformer Susan B. Anthony,[9] presented on April 21, 1902, to Bryn Mawr College. Anthony herself attended the ceremony and addressed the audience after the presentation.[10] On September 27, 1915, Usher exhibited a replica of medallion at the Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Women Artists for the Benefit of Woman Suffrage Campaign held in New York, notable because it was the only portrait of a suffragist out of the 153 works displayed.[10]

Usher received the Bronze Medal at the 1895 Atlanta Exposition,[5][11] and her work was also awarded at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition.[12] Usher's sculptures are held in the collections of institutions such as Bowdoin College, Bryn Mawr College, Hampton University, Johns Hopkins University, and Radcliffe College.[1][4][8][13]

She died at St. Luke's Hospital in New York on August 13, 1955, aged 95.[1][6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leila Usher.
  1. ^ a b c d e "Leila Usher, Sculptress, 95". New York Herald Tribune. OCLC 785729899. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via OCLC.
  2. ^ "Francis James Child". Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  3. ^ Usher, Edward Preston (1895). "Genealogy". A memorial sketch of Roland Greene Usher, 1823–1895. p. 126. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via archive.org.
  4. ^ a b c Putnam, Frank (1903). "Note and Comment". National Magazine. Vol. 19. p. 100. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b "Directory of Sculptors". American Art Annual. MacMillan. 4: 92. 1903. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ a b "The Week's Census". Jet. Vol. 8, no. 15. Johnson Publishing Company. August 18, 1955. p. 17. ISSN 0021-5996. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Washington, Booker T. (September 1903). "Heroes in Black Skin". The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine. 66 (5): 729 – via Hathi Trust.
  8. ^ a b "Bronze Work". Granite, Marble and Bronze. A. M. Hunt. 24 (12): 35. December 1914. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "Miss Leila Usher, Sculptress, with bas-relief of Susan B. Anthony". Library of Congress. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  10. ^ a b Heung, Elsie Y. (2018). "Women's Suffrage in American Art: Recovering Forgotten Contexts, 1900-1920" (Document). Ann Arbor: City University of New York.
  11. ^ Albert, Helen Horton (October 2, 1941). "We Women". Asbury Park Press. Asbury Park, New Jersey. p. 15. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via newespapers.com.
  12. ^ Harlan, Louis R.; Smock, Raymond W., eds. (1977). Booker T. Washington Papers Volume 6: 1901–2. University of Illinois Press. p. 463. ISBN 9780252006500. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ Harper, Ida Husted (1908). "International Suffrage". The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony. Vol. 3. Hollenbeck Press. p. 1253. Retrieved July 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
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