Blanche Nevin (1841–1925) was an American artist and poet. She is considered America's first noteworthy woman sculptor, and is best known for her sculpture of Revolutionary War General

Peter Muhlenberg John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (October 1, 1746October 1, 1807) was an American clergyman, Continental Army soldier during the American Revolutionary War, and political figure in the newly independent United States. A Lutheranism, Lutheran minis ...

in the U.S. Capitol's

National Statuary Hall Collection The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol is composed of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. Limited to two statues per state, the collection was originally set up in the old ...

.Lancaster County Historical Society (Pa.): Finding aid to the Blanche Nevin Collection, 1905–1940
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Early life and education

She was born at Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Dr.

John Williamson Nevin John Williamson Nevin (February 20, 1803June 6, 1886), was an American theologian and educationalist. He was born in the Cumberland Valley, near Shippensburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the father of noted sculptor and poet Blanche Nev ...

(1803–1886), a theologian, teacher, and minister, and Martha Jenkins. She moved with her family to

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

in 1855, when her father became the president of

Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It employs 175 full-time faculty members and has a student body of approximately 2,400 full-time students. It was founded upon the merger of Fran ...

. She studied art at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Joseph Alxis Bailly, at the Royal Art Academy in Venice, Italy, and at Carrara, Italy. She also traveled to China and Japan. She usually spent half her year at her home Windsor Forge Mansion and the other half abroad. ''Note:'' This includes

Career and mid-life

BlancheNevin Maude Muller marble PA catalogue opp

She exhibited a marble statue of '' Maud Muller'' at the

1876 Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

in Philadelphia. She exhibited it again at the

1893 World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

, where it was placed in the

Woman's Building The Woman's Building was a non-profit arts and education center located in Los Angeles, California. The Woman's Building focused on feminist art and served as a venue for the women's movement and was spearheaded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic de ...

's Rotunda. The statue is now owned by the Iris Club in Lancaster. In 1889, she sculpted the

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

on commission from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the

United States Capitol crypt The United States Capitol crypt is the large circular room filled with forty neoclassical Doric columns directly beneath the United States Capitol rotunda. It was built originally to support the rotunda as well as offer an entrance to Washington ...

. She also sculpted the bust of President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

. She also sculpted "Lion in the Park" (1905) at Reservoir Park and the horse drinking fountain (1898) at the intersection of Columbia Avenue and West Orange Street in Lancaster. Her poems include: "Great-Grandma’s Looking-Glass" (1895), "One Usual Day" (1916), and "To My Door" (1921), and some of her poems are located at the Lancaster Historical Society, Pennsylvania. In 1899, she bought Windsor Forge Mansion in Caernarvon Township, Pennsylvania. The house once belonged to her grandfather Robert Jenkins (1769–1848), who was a congressman and ironmaster. She restored the mansion house and added a studio. In 1913, she deeded the property to her nephew John Nevin Sayre. The grounds have three sculptures executed by Nevin, and they are contributing objects to the national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Legacy

Her life and works are captured in ''The Lion In The Park'' by Phyllis J.S. Brubaker.Brubaker, Phyllis J. S. ''The Lion in the Park: The Life and Works of Blanche Nevin : Biography and Poetry of Blanche Nevin the Sculptress and World Traveler, 1841-1925, Churchtown, Pennsylvania''. Bethel, CT: Rutledge Books, 1997. Print. File:In old Pennsylvania towns (1920) (14763955882).jpg, Blanche Nevin at Windsor Forge, ca. 1920

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nevin, Blanche 1841 births 1925 deaths Artists from Lancaster, Pennsylvania People from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania American women poets Writers from Lancaster, Pennsylvania Poets from Pennsylvania 20th-century American sculptors 19th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists Sculptors from Pennsylvania 19th-century American women sculptors