Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History

The Driehaus Museum announces dates for _Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History_, a touring exhibition that examines the full scope of Stebbins's history-making career as one of the most significant American sculptors of the nineteenth century. From 1857 to 1870, Stebbins created innovative marble and bronze sculptures while living in Rome and studying within the circles of historic sculptors. Her work models inventive and incisive interpretations of literary and biblical subjects, as well as unprecedented allegories of American industry. With the Bethesda Fountain in 1863, Stebbins became the first woman to earn a commission for a public sculpture from the City of New York. Organized by the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, earlier this year, _Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History_ is curated by Karli Wurzelbacher, Chief Curator of the Heckscher Museum, and is the first museum exhibition devoted to the late artist's work. _Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History_ takes place at the Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie Street, from October 9, 2026 to April 18, 2027. The exhibition reunites Stebbins's oeuvre of neoclassical works, including 13 marble sculptures from across the US and Europe, in addition to paintings and a wealth of archival materials contextualizing her practice, her network, and her popularity on both sides of the pond. Stebbins was married to renowned Shakespearean actress Charlotte Cushman and one section of the exhibition prominently displays Stebbins's bust of Cushman along with photographs, rare works on paper, and first editions of Stebbins's posthumous biography of her partner. As a professional sculptor in a female marriage in the nineteenth century, Stebbins reimagined what a woman's life could be in the mid-nineteenth century, embedding layers of meaning into her work that upend traditional understandings of gender, sexuality, and agency.