Vinnie Ream
Lavinia Ellen "Vinnie" Ream Hoxie (September 25, 1847 – November 20, 1914) was an American sculptor. Her most famous work is the statue of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in the United States Capitol rotunda. Ream's Statue of Sequoyah and Statue of Samuel J. Kirkwood, both part of the National Statuary Hall collection. Other notable works by Ream include the Statue of David Farragut and the Bust of Edwin B. Hay, which are also both located in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Ream created works which were displayed at The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. After the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson failed to result in Johnson's conviction, Ream was used as a scapegoat by Radical Republicans for their failure to secure a conviction, being accused by them of manipulating Senator Edmund Ross, who had been boarding at her home, to cast his vote to acquit Johnson. Early life Lavinia Ellen Ream was born September 25, 1847, in Madison, Wisconsin. Her father, Robert, was a surveyor for the Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory and a Wisconsin Territory civil servant. Her mother was a McDonald of Scottish ancestry. Her brother Robert enlisted in the Confederate army, in Arkansas, serving in Woodruff's Battery. Vinnie attended Christian College in Columbia, Missouri, now known as Columbia College. A portrait of Martha Washington by Ream hangs in St. Clair Hall. Career In 1861, her family moved to Washington, D.C. After her father's health began to fail, she began working outside the home to support her family. Ream was one of the first women to be employed by the federal government, as a clerk in the dead letter office of the United States Post Office from 1862 to 1866 during the American Civil War. She sang at the E Street Baptist Church, and for the wounded at Washington, D.C. hospitals. She collected materials for the Grand Sanitary Commission. In 1863, James S. Rollins introduced Ream to sculptor Clark Mills. She became an apprentice in Mills's sculpting studio the next year, at the age of seventeen. In 1864, President Lincoln agreed to model for her in the morning for five months, and she created a bust of his figure. During this time, Ream also began intense public relations efforts, selling photographs of herself and soliciting newspaper attention as a marketing strategy. Ream was the youngest artist and first woman to receive a commission as an artist from the U.S. government for a statue. She was awarded the commission for the full-size Carrara marble statue of Lincoln by a vote of Congress on July 28, 1866, when she was 18 years old. She had used her previous bust of Lincoln as her entry into the selection contest for the full-size sculpture. There was significant debate over her selection as the sculptor, however, because of concern over her inexperience and the slanderous accusations that she was a "lobbyist", or a public woman of questionable reputation. She was known for her beauty and her conversational skills, which