Boston Sunday Globe_June 7 1907

Large newspaper article from the 'Boston Sunday Globe - June 30, 1907' With the headline 'Life Groups Show Progress of Negro/ U S Government Will Exhibit at Jamestown the Life Story of the Race from the Landing of Slaves to the Present - the Work is Done by Miss Meta Warrick, a Young Negro Artist' Beneath are three images in floral and scroll decorated frames. The upper left is of two women, one in an apron and the other seated with a doll in her hands with a scroll beneath stating "Miss Warrick Superintending the Dressing of the Figure". The upper right image has a man with a artist palet in his hands and a scroll stating "Negro Artist Painting the Backgrounds This Man Studied at the Penn Academy of the Fine Arts". The bottom right image depicts several figures around a table and has a scroll stating "The Happy Home A Negro Family after the Emancipation". The article is as follows: In a little studio over a disused stable in a narrow back alley of Philadelphia the life story of the colored race from the time when the first shipload of broken-spirited slaves landed at Jamestown, Va, in 1619, to the present day of educated prosperity, is being constructed figure by figure. The story is to be told in a series of groupings, each of which will show the advance of the negro, step by step; the struggles of the chained slave for freedom, the emancipation, the almost despairing effort for a place in the white man's world of honest labor, and finally the winning of an equal chance in the realm of knowledge. The groupings are being prepared for the U S government, and will be exhibited at Jamestown to enable every one who visits the exposition to see at a glace how successful Uncle Sam has been as an emancipator of a downtrodden race. While pessimists were crying out for a wholesale and enforced exodus of the negroes to the dark continent from whence they came, it occured to some person in Washington that they present status of the negro in America should be a matter of pride to every white man, for nowhere in the world has the negro advanced as he has in the United States. "Let us drop this talk of emigration for the negro," said the wise man of Washington. "Rather should we congradtulate ourselves on having, in the remarkable history of the colored people in this country, a reason for taking a front place among philanthropic nations. Instead of scheming to rind ourselves of the negro we should be pointing to them as one of our prodest accomplishments." The idea took root in the minds of the government leaders and it was determined to show, if possible at a glance, what a Moses Uncle Sam has been to the colored bondslaves of 1619. It was decided that none but negroes should be entrusted with the work. First it was necessary to find a colored sculptor qualified to design and model a series of groups which should show in concrete form the various chapters in the history of the negro in America. The choice fell upon Meta Vaux Warrick, a young negro artist, whose work is known and admired in two hemispheres. Miss Warrick has been engaged on the groups for several months and they are gradually approaching completion. In the little studio referred to the sculptress has gathered around her a company of negro artists and here from early morning until late at night the work goes on. It is an enormous task, for no less than 150 figures have had to be fashioned for the various groups, and for each group an appropriate background had to be designed and painted. Besides the figures and the scenery Miss Warrick has had to prepare the necessary 'properties' to make the groups look lifelike and natural, and every figure has had to be dressed in appropriate costume. The groups will be ready for the transferrence to Jamestown in a few weeks. They will be set up in the negro building and will doubless prove one of the most interesting of the unique exhibits at the exposition."

Eph1.41.97

"Life Groups Show Progress of Negro," Boston Globe, June 30, 1907, 43

1907