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Article from The World To-Day magazine. There are four, double sided pages. Written by William Francis O'Donnell. Article includes several images - Head of Meta Warrick, Silent Sorrow, The Wretched, Carrying the Dead Body, A Dancing Girl, The Cloud, Oedipus, and Theif on the Cross. Overall the article is a summary of her early education in Philadelphia and time in Paris. Towards end does mention the Jamestown Exhibition. Article ends on a page heavily stained brown. Last page is where the title of the magazine has been cut out and attached. Article is very long and a full trascription can be found on the server.
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Short article on yellow-cream paper with the title pasted above 'Charities and The Commons September 21' The article states: "...popular songs to Negro composers. The historic tableaux, a series of fourteen groups portraying different phases in the development of Negro life in American from 1619 to 1907, attract much attention. These were desgined, made and set in place by Miss Meta Vaux Warrick, a young sculptor who has studied in Philadelphia and more recently in Paris. Beginning with the landing of twenty slaves at Jamestown they present such contrasting scenes as these: An escaping slave, a Negro defending his master's home during the war, Negro soldiers, a Negro bank, the slaves learning to work the cotton fields, an independent Negro farmer, the organization of the first Negro church in 1816, a modern Sunday scene, the first school house (a rough log cabin), and a Negro college commencement."
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Short article on cream paper with a cut out title 'The Independent'. The article is in two sections pasted together, but off set. The article is as follows: "But we must not neglect to refer to some of the individual exhibits. We have mentioned the bank already. The most striking and artistic is a series of historical tableaux by Miss Meta V. Warrick, a young colored Philadelphia sculptress, representing the development of the negro in this country. The figures are small and in plaster, appropriately dressed. The first represents the landing of the negro slaves at Jamestown. They are bound and wear only their native savage dress. Then follows their work in the cotton fields ; then we have the runaway slave in hiding; then their organizing a church in a blacksmith's shop, the beginning of the African Methodist Church; then the negro's loyalty to his master in the Civil War, defending his owner's home. The scenes which follow show the pathetic beginnings of negro education in the new era of freedom, the erecting of their first homes, their service as soldiers, their work as farmers, builders, contractors and bankers. All these are artistically and effectively presented."
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Long newspaper article with large print in three different columns. To the right upper side is handwritten in black ink "Western Outlook Sat. Jan 4 '08 __pances" Article is as follows: "Meta Vaux Warrick. From Philadelphia come vivid accounts of a Negro girl who is already ranked by art critics among the leading women sculptors of the United States. Her name is Meta Warrick and her work has won the commendations of the great French master, Auguste Rodin. One of her best sculptural groups was made for the Jamestown Tercentennial, and represents the advancement of the Negro since his landing at Jamestown in 1619. Others of her works have been exhibited in the Paris salon. Meta Warrick is a living proof of the high capabilities of her race. Like the Negro poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, whose bust she has made, she excels in work that requires artistic finesse and emotional power. Like the Negro painter, H. O. Tanner, whose pictures have during the last half dozen years taken the highest honors in Philadelphia, Chicago, and other American cities where the very best American artists were pitted against him, she gets her effects in primitive and elemental fashion. Tanner pays little or no attention to the laws of perspective and chiaroscuro, as ordinarily recognized, and he uses strange, weird colors applied, one might almost think, with a stick rather than a brush. Yet in this very garish appearance of his canvases critics have discovered wild fervor, great imagination and a wild, romantic spirit that reflects the life of the African jungle. The same spirit is discerned in Miss Warrick's work in clay. She has simply modelled what was within her - what has been carried down through the blood of generations from the African wilds - without the least apparent concern as to whether it conforms with the approved style or not. The result is work not pretty or superficial, but strongly individual, intensely vital. Miss Warrick has viewed life from the nether side. She has chosen to depict the horrible, the gruesome. She has felt the tragedy of life rather than its joy. There is something haunting and appalling in her portrayal of 'Silent Sorrow' and 'The Wretched.' The iron of life has pierced deep into her soul. As a small girl Meta Warrick saw her sister modelling clay leaves and vegetables, as all kindergarten children do, and she would steal pieces of clay, and fashion animals and people with it. When she was older she won a free scholarship in the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art. It was here that her talent developed and compelled serious recognition. The first original piece in clay that she made was a head of Medusa. It marked her debut as a sculptor of horrors. All who viewed her conception - with its hanging jaw ; beads of gore clinging to the face ; eyes staring out from the sockets ; lines of agony ; the whole enmeshed in the folds of fearful serpents - instinctively cried out, 'Horrible!' Then came 'Silenus,' a depiction of Bacchic saturnalia, 'The Dancing Girl' and 'Wrestlers,' more normal conceptions, and then the horrible 'Oedipus' and 'Carrying the Dead Body' Since her return to America, Miss Warrick has turned again to more normal themes. It would be difficult, at the present stage, to estimate her career properly, or to prophesy her ultimate rank among the artists of our time. William O'Donnell, in the World To-Day, goes so far as to compare her with Rodin, not, indeed, in creative inspiration, but in the modes of her expression. 'In a radical departure from the prosaic, the conventional,' he says, 'rests her strongest earnest of success approaching Rodin's.'"
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Clipping from a newspaper or magazine of a photo of an interior room with many tables, draperies and tableclothes, plands, and chairs around. In the foreground is a cast iron cooker with a tea pot on top. In the center is Meta standing in a black dress and white apron at a tall tiered easel working at a small sculpture.
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Two clippings from a newspaper with a photo of Meta in profile and a small text beneath 'Miss Meta Vaux Warrick'. Clipped from the same article is 'Miss Meta Warrick, 'Philadelphia's busiest little woman' is having many nice things said about her by the press throughout the country. Miss Warrick is a young sculptor who has made an international reputation.'
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Newspaper article in four pieces. The title of the newspaper is 'Virginian Pilot, Sunday, November 10, 1907' with a headline 'Negro Building at Expo. Interesting Ethologic Study'. The article has handwriting in pencil up the side ' Mrs. Edith Mr. Swith. a southern woman/This article was prepared by ...(rest is missing)' and in blue colored crayon on top 'Norfolk VA'. The article is as follows "...edge teh wisdom of his teachings. As you enter from the east a series of historic tableaux, representing the negro in the different phases of our national life, at once attract attention. They were designed and executed by Meta Vaux Warrick of Philadelphia, who studied at the Art School in her native city and later on in Paris, and are most life-like. This young sculptor has other evidences of her talent in the building, and for these tableaux she has been awarded a gold medal by the Exposition Company. It may be said, en passant, that the exhibitors in the Negro building have thus far received 163 medals, twenty-six gold, fourty-four silver, and ninety-three bronze. Beginning with the landing of slaves at Jamestown in 1619, the scenes following represent successively: Work in the cotton fields; an escaping slave; organizing the first negro church, with a colored minister and officers, in 1816; an old slave defending his master's home during the Civil War; first school house; beginning of home-making among the negroes (they own at present five million dollars' worth of property); negro soldiers, of whom ther are four regiments in the regular army; negroes tilling their own farms (there are twenty thousand in this state who are farmers). The next two tableaux rerpesent the mechanic and the bank operated and owned by negroes (there are twenty-four of this kind in the United States); an improved home; a Sunday scene, and last a college comencement with Fred Douglas in the foreground."
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Newspaper article, possibly more than one, in many bits and pieces. Can make out an image of Meta working on her sculptures for the Jamestown Tercentennial.
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Small magazine article on white paper with brown squiggles around three of the edges. Written in cursive in pen above 'The World's Events July 1907' The article has a photograph of Meta standing in a studio space with a tall easel working on a bust of a man. The article is as follows: "Women at Work If all the men of the world, married and single, should labor every hour of the day they could not perfor the world's work. It is necessary and natural, therefore that women should enter the realm of men's labor. The report recently issued by the Census Bureau shows that there are 456,000 women farmers, and farm laborers in the country more by 118,000 than there are women dressmakers. There are 185 women engaged in blacksmithing, and 508 are classified as machinists. Eight are employed as boilermakers, forty-five as locomotive engineers and firement, thirty-one as brakemen and ten as baggagemen. Women have invaded all but nine of the 303 occupations once monopolized by men. There are women architects, contractors, carpenters, plasters, painters, plumbers, paperhangers and curiously enough the only occupations in whihc women are losing ground as compared with men, are sewing, tailoring, and dressmaking. One of the talented young bread-winners of this country is Meta Vaux Warrick, a young colored sculptor, who has been commissioned by the Government to design for the Jamestown Exposition fifteen groups of statuary representing the progress of her race from the landing of Virginia Colony at Jamestwon in 1619 to the present day."
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Small newspaper article in two parts. Article is as follows: "The Freeman/A National Illustrated Colored Newspaper/ Meta Warrick, Sculptress. Miss Warrick is the sculptress of the group at the Jamestown Exposition depicting the progress and development of the Negro race since the first Negroes were landed at Jamestown in 1619. This group has been highly praised, though it was executed with such haste that it can hardly be fairly compared with her other works. She has had the distinguished honor of two examples of her work in the Paris Salon in one year. She delights in the horrible, the tragic and the grotesque. As a student her best piece was a head of Medusa and among her most famous pieces is 'The Thief on the Cross.' She has not yet attempted a bust of Senator Tillman or of the Rev. Thos. Dixon."
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Small newspaper article in two sections. The article is as follows "The historic tableaux that have been executed by Miss Meta Vaux Warrick, of Philadelphia, have been entirely completed. The series, as heretofore annouced, represent the scenic reproduction of the history of the Negro from the landing at Jamestown until the present. These groups have been workd out with great artistic accuracy and the effect produced under the artifical lighting is simply grand. Dr. Thirkield, of Howard University, the other day said that this exhibit of Miss Warrick's was the finest thing in the Negro Building. In view of the very favorable comments on other features, this statement of Dr. Thirkield is exceedingly complimentary to the artist."
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Magazine article on several pages titled 'Meta Warrick a Promising Sculptor/ by Florence Lewis Bentley'. The article has several photos throughout - on of Meta, one of sculpture John the Baptist, and one of The Wretched. The article is as follows: As far back as 1865, when Edmonia Lewis exhibited her first piece of sculpting in Boston, Negro artists have counted in their ranks at least one woman sculptor. The works of this artist were well known to the last generation, but she has lived so long abroad, and, being very old now, has so long since given up all work, that she is almost forgotten in America, except by a faithful few. In her place has risen, of late years, a young woman sculptor who bids fair to leave, in her turn, the kind of work which will make it possible for the ruthless years to consign her name to oblivion, - work, in which the highest authorities have detected that imperishable element which, for a better name, we call genius. Miss Meta Warrick, of Philadelphia, is the young woman whose works reveal an originality of conception and master of technique which bid fair to make her an enduring name. Through the insatiable human desire to find a cause for every effect, we are continually prodding around seeking to find the springs of genius. The repeated evidence of history have failed to teach us that genius is the unaccountable, the unclassified, appearing in places of its own selection, in such a manner as to throw out all our nice rulings as to heredity, environment and such things. Meta Warrick was born in Philadelphia of well-to-do thrifty parents. Her father was a very prosperous barber in the days when that work was largely in the hands of colored men. Her mother, too, was a hairdresser, a money maker and a shrewd business woman. Yet in this comfortable household, where the inclination seemed entirely towards that industrialism which meant tangible material profits, the three children blossomed out and away from the accustomed line into the world of ideas and of dreams - ideas that have since taken form and dreams that have 'come true.' The only brother, following his bent, is now a very successful physician and surgeon, and the two sisters early showed an artistic impulse, which the younger has developed to such an exceptional extent. The older, Blanche, now Mrs. Frank Cardoza, of Washington, D.C., worked cleverly in water-color, and her carved wood and beaten brass was far above the amateur class. It was from this older sister that the little girl received the first help in fostering her innate love of the beautiful in art, and even before her school days she modeled in bits of clay begged from the older sister in her work room. When she entered the public schools, her work in drawing was of such excellence that, at the close of her school life, her teachers induced her to send her name to the Board of Public Education for an examination at the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art. (In Philadelphia the School Board annually sends a limited number of pupils to that fine Art School.) Miss Warrick took the examination and was granted a scholarship for three years. As is the rule in this school, she studied all (break to second page with image of The Wretched) branches of industrial art and at the end of the schooling was able to choose the branch for which she was best fitted, in selecting a specialty. At the end of the term her work entitled her to a post-graduate course, free of tuition, and she took up the normal course, devoting the rest of the time to sculpture. The free scholarship carried with it one condition, namely, that something be done in the interest of the school. Miss Warrick's selection was a bas-relief frieze representing the arts and crafts, made up of a total of thirty-sseven figures in procession, in mediaeval costume. It won the prize, and this may be said to have settled definitely her determination to make sculpture her life work. When art-school days were over, the talented girl's teachers and friends urged her to go to Paris and continue her studies. This she ardently desired, but it was a long time before she could get the consent of her family to go abroad. Unwavering determination, aided by the intercession of teachers and friends, finally prevailed and in the autumn of 1899 she went to Paris for a stay which lengthened itself to three busy, hard working years. "For the first six months," she says, "I studied drawing under Raphael Collin, on the advice of a conscientious sculptor, who thought it necessary. But I found at the end of that time that, while I had improved in drawing, it had no effect whatever on my modeling. After that I modeled after antique casts under M. Carles in the studio of a friend, and finally took a studio from life again and paid frequent visits to the museums, not to look at sculpture alone, but at the paintings as well. My instructors were Mons. Ingelbert Gauqui and Rollard. I worked alone in the afternoon at sketches in clay or wax, finally continuing alone with no other criticism than that of an artist friend." After months of hard work our young sculptor produced several figures, which not only sold well, but gave her an assured place in the French captial where competition is so keen. M. Bing, the well-known French connoisseur, thought so much of her work that he invited her to exhibit and, in order that she should do so fittingly, he threw open his great salon for her use. Here she showed twenty-two of her pieces, and M. Bing pur- (flip to page 3) chased several which he thought the best. Encouraged by her success, Miss Warrick at last ventured to go to Rodin with a piece of her work. 'But, Madamoiselle,' said this greatest of French sculptors, 'you are a sculptor; your work is powerful." And that is just the word which best expresses her work. People who like sweet little sculptured angels, and academical work generally, will hardly be attracted by her figures, but the true lover of art instatnly feels her strength and responds to the deep emotional language of her creations. For instance, her life-sized "Thief on the Cross" is almost frightful in its realism. Every line of the body shows careful anatomical study and the face, in the throes of death, is the emodiment of human terror. Another of Miss Warrick's best pieces is a small plaster relief "The Wretched," inspired by the lines, "Be still sad heart and cease repining, Behind the cloud is the sun still shining" The relief is a cloud peopled with the suffering, the sorrowful, the despairing. Around the edge there are those who see the light and have taken courage and hope. On her return from abroad, Miss Warrick opened a studio in Philadelphia, where she is now busily at work. She has exhibited each year in the Philadelphia Art Show, and last year recieved an honorable mention. She has recently received, from the Jamestown Exposition people, a commission for a piece of work illustrating the progress of the Negro since the settlement of Jamestown. That, however, is 'another story' and requires a later and separate chapter."
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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."
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Article on cream paper forMcGirt's Magazine The article is as follow: "Negro Artist Busy With Historic Task/Woman's Work Will Show Progress of Race Since the Landing at Jamestown./Government Contract/150 Figures, in 15 Groups, to Occupy Prominent Position at Exposition. After the introduction is a photograph of a drawing of Meta from the side facing left with pinned up hair under a large hat. Pinned to the last page is a newspaper article that goes into her works for the Tercentennial, similar to the article it is pinned to. Article is as follows: "Working from early morning until a late hour each night, a young negro artist, Meta Vaux Warrick, is endeavoring to complete 150 figures, representing the progress of her race from the time of the landing at Jamestown, Va., in 1619 to the present day. The figures are classified in 15 groups and are being made for the United States Government. They will occupy a prominent position in the Negro Building at Jamestown Exposition. The Artist's contract with the Government calls for the completion of the work by May 10. Property backgrounds, ten feet by ten feet, are now being painted in the artist's studio at 210 South Camac street, simultaneously with her work upon the figures, which are to be one-fourth life size. Classified groups and figures are: First. Landing at jamestown: Twenty slaves, five white men. Properties, scenery showing sea, ship, sky and landing; towers, houses and landscape. Figures, 25. Second. Negroes working in a cotton field. Properties, wagon, cotton, baskets. Figures, 10. Third. Slaves escaping, followed by two white men and a bloodhound - the negro hiding behind a clump of bushes and trees, water indicating he has crossed a stream and evaded pursuers on the opposite side. Properties, bushes and trees. Figures, 4. Fourth. Allen beginning the African Methodist Episcopal Church - Negroes worshiping in a blacksmith shop. Properties, anvil, books and furnace. Figures, 8. Fifth. Negro soldiers taking "The Order of the Day." Properties, guns and trees. Figures, 9. Sixth. Negroes protecting white women and children during the Civil War - A tramp soldier attempting to steal a white child; mother about to faint; a negress attendant at her side; a negro attacking the tramp to protect the child. Properties, chair, grass, flowers, trees and scenery. Figures, 5. Seventh. Negroes staring out after their emancipation - Man, homeless, surrounded by his family. Properties, bushes and trees. Figures, 6. Eighth. Negro schoolhouse - Children on their way to school. Properties, schoolhouse, books and trees. Figures, 15. Ninth. Negro farmer gathering his crops. Properties, house, crops and (start of second article) basket, Figures, 5. Tenth. Negro mechanic at work upon an unfinished building. Properties, lumber, house and tools. Figures, 4. Eleventh. Negro banker - interior of the bank, showing tellers or clerks and a depositor. Properties, books, money, desk and papers. Figures, 4. Twelfth. Negro church - Negroes about to enter the building. Properties, scenery, etc. Figures, 15. Thirteenth. Negro at home surrounded by his family; reading to his wife, who is doing embroidery and listening to the story; children playing and listening. Properties, rugs, tables, chairs and pictures on walls. Figures, 6. Fourteenth. Section A - Paul Laurence Dunbar writing verses. Properties, table, tablecloth, chair, pictures, couch and cushions. Figure, 1. Section B - Tanner painting from the model. Properties, easel, canvas, seats and drapery. Figures 2. Section C - Physician operating; nurses in attendance. Properties, stretcher, table, instruments and sheets. Figures, 4. Section D - Douglass delivering an oration. Properties, platform, table, pitcher, benches or chairs; scenery representing part of audence. Figures, 10. Fifteenth - Wilberforce community; students in caps and gowns, representing commencement day. Properties, trees, grass and scenery, including buildings, Figures, 18. Educated in Philadelphia This artist has been at work for several weeks on this task, and is liable to the infliction of penalties by the Government in the form of fines if the work is not completed by the contract date. She received her education in the public schools of Philadelphia and was awarded a scholarship to the School of Industrial Art of the Pennsylvania Museum, where she remained for five years, taking three prizes, among which were the first prize for metalwork design in 1898, and the first prize for modeling in 1899. She has exhibited in the Salon and has held two private exhibitions, one here and the other in Paris, where she studied under several noted men for three years. Her work is most instances has tended toward the gruesome, some of her notable figures being "The Man Eating His Heart Out," which personified loneliness; a second, "Oedipus Tearing His Eyes Out," and a third, "The Thief on the Cross," the latter showing the victim's horrible suffering. Interested in the Gruesome. Discussing this trend of her sculptural work, she said yesterday: 'Since the time I was a child here in Philadelphia, where I was born and have grown up, the gruesome phases of life have interested me. It was not that I searched for it, but simply that it came to mind. I had the habit of imagining the most horrible things and reciting them to my family as if they had actually happened to me. Many times I scared them badly. I suppose there are some who might say that I have a diseased mind.' She laughed heartily at this, and then told of a thought that occurred to her a few days ago with much relish as recalling her youthful fancies. 'It grew out of the murder case in New York and the use of the alienist term 'brain storm,'' she said. 'Remembering what awful pictures my mind conjured up at that time, I wondered and sought to answer my own inquiry whether the prisoner of the present trial ever was the victim of such imaginings as filled my childish head.' No member of her family, according to Miss Warrick, ever showed artistic talent, except a sister, who did not pursue her work beyond the initial stages. The young artist lives at 206 South Twelfth street.
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Newspaper article broken into two parts with the headline separated from the main article. Newspaper is The Buffalo Courier for May 5, 1907. There is a handwritten note diagonall along the article in black-brown ink "Many Congratulations - regards to another, sister _ brother _alie_ C. Hodge Niagara Falls Ontario Canada. Article has a photograph of Meta at work at a tall flat easel and a sculpture bust in her hands with the lines below "Meta Vaux Warrick the Philadelphia Sculptress/One of the most talented women of the negro race in America, has just been commissioned by the United States Governemnt to construct 15 groups illustrating the progress of her race during the past 300 years."
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Newspaper article folded into a rough square. The folded article is from the North American Philadelphia February 10, 1907. It has a list of several notable African Americans. List includes Meta, who has a profile picture in a rectangle diagonally above a sculpture pictured in a round frame "Secret Suffering One of Miss Warrick's Masterpieces". The article lists accomplishes and scholarships. Meta is listed alongside H. O. Tanner as sculptors from Philadelphia. Meta's article is as follows: "The art of Meta Warrick, like that of Tanner, has been a bold departure from conventional lines, but it is similar in no other respect. The famous French sculptor, Rodin has described her work as being, 'powerful'. She played with clay in her childhood; and her talent in drawing in the public schools so impressed her teachers that they introduced her to take an examination which won her a three years' scholarship at the School of Industrial Art. In 1899 she went to Paris. There the great connoisseur, M. Bing, introduced her to exhibit her work in his salon, that great critic best indicates Miss Warrick's position in the art world. He said :"To the true lover of art, every piece of her sculpture will tell a tale of woe, of sorrow, of fear, or of intense love or joy." 'The Thief on the Cross' and 'The Wretched' are considered her best works. She is at present modeling a bust of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the negro poet, and the national governement has invited her to submit ideas for a group depicting the advancement of the negro since he first landed in America. To Exhibit at Jamestown This will be one of the notable exhibits at the Jamestown (Virginia) Exposition next summer. Miss Warrick's studio is over a brick stable in a narrow Philadelphia street
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Newspaper article in three sections and on two pages of the scrapbook with a partial heading 'Philadelphia, Friday, April 5, 1907' The article includes a photograph of Meta, seated and looking diagonally to the right as well as her sculpture 'Thief on the Cross', both in elaborately drawn boarders. The article is as follows "Our Sculptress and her Work Should one ask who is the busiest woman in the city? The question can be readily answered without words by simply going to 210 S. Camac street where you will find a little woman who will meet you at the door of a studio situated on the second floor, perhaps she will be garbed in a long apron with her sleeves rolled up and her hands covered with clay. You may think she has been preparing the inside of her stove with fire clay but on entering the door you will be confronted with a scene that will remind you of the Atlata massacre, lying on a large table are a number of models of Negroes, some have perfect forms while others are minus some of their limbs, some with their heads cut off and many covered with wounds indescribable. This busy little woman is Miss Meta Warrick, the sculptress, who is preparing her exhibit for the Jamestown Exposition, which opens April 26th. On February 27 she signed a contract to make models of 15 groups consisting of 150 figures representing the progress of the Negro from the landing of the Dutch ship in 1619 to the present day. She has contracted to complete the job by May 10 and has got to accomplish in a little over two months what would or should ordinarily take at least two years. Six months to study the subject, one year to prepare them and six months for retouching and finishing. Her exhibit will occupy a space of 100 square feet. The back ground will be painted scenes representing the landing of the first ship discharging a cargo of 20 slaves at Jamestown, southern mansions, and other ancient scenes. The models will be dressed in clothing such as was worn from 1619 to the present day. It will no doubt be one of the most interesting exhibit at the Exposition and we are glad to know that we have such a one in the person of Miss Warrick, who is able to present such a credible exhibit, representing the city of "Brotherly Love." To complete her work on time, Miss Warrick is now working day and night. The accompanying picture represents one of her former models, 'The Thief on the Cross.'"
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Newspaper article in two parts. Handwritten notation in black ink under second half column states "New York Eve Post Mar 16 - 07". Article goes into the Negro exhibit at the Jamestown Tercentennial. "Negro Exhibit for Jamestown/ Series of Tableaux Illustrating the History of the Race Prepared by Colored Woman sculptor - Studies of Life from Landing of Boatload of African Slaves in 1619 to Present Day - The Negro as Soldier, Farmer, Mechanic, and Banker. Washington, March 16 - An agreement was entered into yesterday between the executive committee, designated by the general Government, to prepare a negro exhibit for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition and Miss Meta Vaux Warrick of Philadelphia, by which she is to furnish a series of tableaux illustrative of the history of the negro race from the landing of the first boatload of African slaves on the James River in 1619 to the present day. It is Miss Warrick's plan to trace in chronological order the progress of the negro people in all the arts of civilization. There will be fifteen model groups, the figures to be one-fourth life-size, making in all an exhibit covering more than 1,500 feet of floor space. The studies of negro life will include the landing of the slaves at Jamestown, negroes working in a cotton field, suggestive of the race's industrial beginning; an escaping slave, typifying the instinct for freedom; the first African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded at Philadelphia in 1816 by Richard Allen in a blacksmith shop, illustrating the awakening of religious spirit; the negro as a solider, testifying to the valor of the black man in all the wars of the republic; as the faithful protector of the family of the absent master, a tribute to the loyality of the slave to what he regarded as a sacred trust. Further will be shown the start for citizenship, following emancipation, and the thirst for education and enlightenment, reflected in the primative schoolhouse and a typical body of negro students. The constructive period of the race's history will show the negro, as a farmer, as a mechanic, and as a banker. Then will come the era of the higher mental and moral development, including a representation of the modern race church, the negro at home, the negro poet, orator, painter, and physician, and improved community life, bringing into requisition a number of familiar characters who have made a distinctive impressi__[sic] upon the history of the negro people. Miss Warrick is a young colored woman, a representative of the best element and advanced possibilities of her race. Her education was acquired in the Drexel School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and further courses were taken by her at several of the leading art institutes in Paris, where her reproductions won marked favor at the hands of some of the best critics. A small series of a like nature was displayed at the Paris Exposition, and attracted great attention from the social economists of the Old World. Congress has appropriated $100,000 to aid the negro exhibit. The Negro Building is classic structure, situated not far from the main entrance to the grounds. It was planned by W. Sidney Pittman, a negro architect, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, and is being erected by Rolling & Everett, negro contractors, of Lynchburg, Va. It will cost $40,000. Among the novel exhibits which the States will send are a model town in Mississippi owned by, composed of, and officered entirely by negroes, and an exhibit from Ohio, costing $20,000 in which negroes will be making watches during the Exposition."
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Long newspaper article with cut out newspaper title in two bars in the lower right stating "The Philadelphia Record, Monday April 13, 1907." The article is long, going into details about the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, with many objects and articles being shipped from Philadelphia to the exposition. It includes automobiles and trucks, baby shoe making, rugs, to name a few. Meta is mentioned at the end of the second column. "Negress Making Novel Exhibit. A most movel exhibit from this city will be a series of lay figures representing the progress of the negro race in America. There are 150 of these now in course of preparation, the sculptor being the young negress, Meta Vaux Warrick, of No. 206 South Twelfth street. The group has been contracted for by the United States Government for display in the Historical Building, and the work is to be completed and turned over to the Government by May 10. Failure to complete the last on time will involve heavy penalties on the young artist, and she is laboring many hours each day in her studio, at No. 210 South Camac street, to accomplish her task. The figures are divided into 15 groups, as follows: Twenty-five figures representing the landing at Jamestown in 1619; 10 figures, negroes, working in a cotton field; 4 figures, slaves escaping, pursued by owners; 8 figures, origin of African Methodist Episcopal Church; 9 figures, negro soldiers in camp; 5 figures protecting white women and children during the war; 5 figures, negroes, starting out in the world after emancipation; 15 figures, negro schoolhouse and children; 5 figures, negro farmer gathering his crops; 4 figures, negro bank and bankers; 15 figures, negro church; 6 figures, negro family at home; 1 figure, Paul Laurence Dunbar, negro poet, at work; 2 figures, Tanner, negro artist, painting from model; 4 figures, negro surgeon operating; 10 figures, Frederick Douglass negro orator, speaking; 18 figures, Wilberforce community, with students. Miss Warrick is a graduate of the Philadelphia schools, and spent five years in the School of Industrial Art on a scholarship which she won. There she took three prizes, and has since studied for three years in Paris under noted masters, exhibiting in the Salon and holding one private exhibition in that city and one in Philadelphia. Her work has attracted widespread attention and resulted in the award of the Government contract for the sculpture work for the exhibition. The figures are to be one-fourth life-size and the presentation will be aided by painted scenery now being prepared in the same studio.
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Long newspaper article with a handwritten notation above in ink stating "Newport News Va. Press. Mar 31-07" Article details the Jamestown Tercentennial - exhibitions had been all set up for April opening. Art and objects were scattered around the fairgrounds and housed within eight buildings. Meta is mentioned half way through the right column of the article. "Another feature of the exposition that will attract attention is a series of illuminated tableaux showing the progress of the negro race. An agreement has been entered into between the executive committee designated by the general government to prepare the negro exhibit for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition and Meta Vauz(sic.) Warrick, of Philadelphia, a young negro woman who is a sculptor of some repute by which the latter is to furnish those tableaux, illustrating the history of the negro race from the landing of the first boat load of African slaves on the James river, in 1619 to the present day. __ planned, by the construction of appropriate models, dramatic groupings, and the use of suitable scenic accessories, to trace in chronologic order the progress of the negro people in all the arts of civilization. There will be '15 model groups, each of the basic dimensions of ten feet long and ten feet wide, the figures to be one fourth life sixe(sic.), making in all an exhibit covering more than 1,500 square feet of floor space."
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Newspaper article in four sections. Newspaper title is in two skinny strips on either side of the main article, which states "Public Ledger - Philadelphia. Sunday Morning, April 14, 1907" The article is as follow: "Negro Artist Busy With Historic Task/Woman's Work Will Show Progress of Race Since the Landing at Jamestown./Government Contract/150 Figures, in 15 Groups, to Occupy Prominent Position at Exposition. Working from early morning until a late hour each night, a young negro artist, Meta Vaux Warrick, is endeavoring to complete 150 figures, representing the progress of her race from the time of the landing at Jamestown, Va., in 1619 to the present day. The figures are classified in 15 groups and are being made for the United States Government. They will occupy a prominent position in the Negro Building at Jamestown Exposition. The Artist's contract with the Government calls for the completion of the work by May 10. Property backgrounds, ten feet by ten feet, are now being painted in the artist's studio at 210 South Camac street, simultaneously with her work upon the figures, which are to be one-fourth life size. Classified groups and figures are: First. Landing at jamestown: Twenty slaves, five white men. Properties, scenery showing sea, ship, sky and landing; towers, houses and landscape. Figures, 25. Second. Negroes working in a cotton field. Properties, wagon, cotton, baskets. Figures, 10. Third. Slaves escaping, followed by two white men and a bloodhound - the negro hiding behind a clump of bushes and trees, water indicating he has crossed a stream and evaded pursuers on the opposite side. Properties, bushes and trees. Figures, 4. Fourth. Allen beginning the African Methodist Episcopal Church - Negroes worshiping in a blacksmith shop. Properties, anvil, books and furnace. Figures, 8. Fifth. Negro soldiers taking "The Order of the Day." Properties, guns and trees. Figures, 9. Sixth. Negroes protecting white women and children during the Civil War - A tramp soldier attempting to steal a white child; mother about to faint; a negress attendant at her side; a negro attacking the tramp to protect the child. Properties, chair, grass, flowers, trees and scenery. Figures, 5. Seventh. Negroes staring out after their emancipation - Man, homeless, surrounded by his family. Properties, bushes and trees. Figures, 6. Eighth. Negro schoolhouse - Children on their way to school. Properties, schoolhouse, books and trees. Figures, 15. Ninth. Negro farmer gathering his crops. Properties, house, crops and (start of second article) basket, Figures, 5. Tenth. Negro mechanic at work upon an unfinished building. Properties, lumber, house and tools. Figures, 4. Eleventh. Negro banker - interior of the bank, showing tellers or clerks and a depositor. Properties, books, money, desk and papers. Figures, 4. Twelfth. Negro church - Negroes about to enter the building. Properties, scenery, etc. Figures, 15. Thirteenth. Negro at home surrounded by his family; reading to his wife, who is doing embroidery and listening to the story; children playing and listening. Properties, rugs, tables, chairs and pictures on walls. Figures, 6. Fourteenth. Section A - Paul Laurence Dunbar writing verses. Properties, table, tablecloth, chair, pictures, couch and cushions. Figure, 1. Section B - Tanner painting from the model. Properties, easel, canvas, seats and drapery. Figures 2. Section C - Physician operating; nurses in attendance. Properties, stretcher, table, instruments and sheets. Figures, 4. Section D - Douglass delivering an oration. Properties, platform, table, pitcher, benches or chairs; scenery representing part of audence. Figures, 10. Fifteenth - Wilberforce community; students in caps and gowns, representing commencement day. Properties, trees, grass and scenery, including buildings, Figures, 18. Educated in Philadelphia This artist has been at work for several weeks on this task, and is liable to the infliction of penalties by the Government in the form of fines if the work is not completed by the contract date. She received her education in the public schools of Philadelphia and was awarded a scholarship to the School of Industrial Art of the Pennsylvania Museum, where she remained for five years, taking three prizes, among which were the first prize for metalwork design in 1898, and the first prize for modeling in 1899. She has exhibited in the Salon and has held two private exhibitions, one here and the other in Paris, where she studied under several noted men for three years. Her work is most instances has tended toward the gruesome, some of her notable figures being "The Man Eating His Heart Out," which personified loneliness; a second, "Oedipus Tearing His Eyes Out," and a third, "The Thief on the Cross," the latter showing the victim's horrible suffering. Interested in the Gruesome. Discussing this trend of her sculptural work, she said yesterday: 'Since the time I was a child here in Philadelphia, where I was born and have grown up, the gruesome phases of life have interested me. It was not that I searched for it, but simply that it came to mind. I had the habit of imagining the most horrible things and reciting them to my family as if they had actually happened to me. Many times I scared them badly. I suppose there are some who might say that I have a diseased mind.' She laughed heartily at this, and then told of a thought that occurred to her a few days ago with much relish as recalling her youthful fancies. 'It grew out of the murder case in New York and the use of the alienist term 'brain storm,'' she said. 'Remembering what awful pictures my mind conjured up at that time, I wondered and sought to answer my own inquiry whether the prisoner of the present trial ever was the victim of such imaginings as filled my childish head.' No member of her family, according to Miss Warrick, ever showed artistic talent, except a sister, who did not pursue her work beyond the initial stages. The young artist lives at 206 South Twelfth street.
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Newspaper article with the title "At the Whitehouse". The article is as follows: "Negro Exhibits at the Jamestown Exposition./Creditable to the Race/Decided to Arrange Them All by States./Mr. Knox's Unruly Auto/Would not go Because the Water Had Frozen, and He Went to Capitol in a Street Car. President Roosevelt was told today that the negro exhibits in the negro building at Jamestown will be both creditable to the race and the nation. The progress that has been made by the Negro Development Company in preparing for the exhibition that will be made by the race was laid before the President by the officials of the company, consisting of Giles H. Jackson of Virginia, director general; Mrs. A. M. Curtis of this city, Thomas J. Galloway, Tennessee; Andrew F. Hillyer, Arthur L. Macbeth, Robert Kelser, C. N. Johnson, J. M. May, William Hope, C. H. Williamson, D. E. N. Campbell, Arnold Hill, Miss Meta Warrick, F. D. Lee.
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Newspaper article with a handwritten notation in ink down the left side "N.Y. Lun__ Mar 31, 1907." The article is as follows: " A Negro Sculptress/ Miss Warrick Appointed by Government to Send Exhibit to Jamestown./ An unusual interest attaches to the appointment by the United States government of Miss Meta Vaux Warrick as sculptress for the Negro exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition. The appointment is an honor to her sex and an honor to her race, and it is safe to say that many visitors to the exposition will make a point of seeing what this young Negro woman can do. Miss Warrick's plans for the decoration of the Negro Pavillion include a series of fifteen tableaus, illustrating the history of the Negro race from the landing of the first boatload of African slaves at Jamestown in 1619 to the present time. Each group will occupy a square measuring ten feet by ten, (follows on second clipping) the figure being a quarter life size, and the whole series will cover 1,500 feet of space. After the landing of the slaves at Jamestown, the Negroes will be shown at work in the cotton field. There will be shown the escaping slave, and side by side with the Negro soldier will stand the faithful protector of the family of the absent master. In other models will be shown the Negro as farmer, mechanic and banker, the Negro poet, the orator, the painter and the physician. The thirst of the Negro race for knowledge and enlightenment (broken up by a round photograph of Meta and the text "Miss Meta Vaux Warrick./ Sculptress of the Negro exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition.") will be reflected by the primitive schoolhouse, and the handsome modern church will be contrasted with the first African Methodist Episcopal Church founded at Philadelphia, in 1816, by Richard Allen. Miss Warrick was educated in the Drexed (word crossed out in ink) School of Fine arts in Philadelphia, of which city she is a native, and she has also studied in Paris."
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Newspaper article in two sections with the title "Colored Sculptor's Honor" with a photograph of Meta in her studio. The article is as follows: "Meta Warrick to Furnish Tableaux for Jamestown Exposition. Miss Meta Vaux Warrick, of this city, a colored sculptor of high repute, is to furnish a series of illuminated tableaux for the Jamestown Exposition. Illustrative of the history of the negro race from the landing of the first boatload of African slaves on the Jamestown River in 1619 to the present day. It is Miss Warrick's plan to show by the construction of appropriate models, dramatic groupings and the use of suitable scenic accessories, to trace in chronological order the progress of teh negro people in all the arts of civilization. There will be fifteen model groups, each of the basic dimensions for ten feet long and ten feet wide, making in all an exhibit covering more than 1500 feet of floor space."
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Newspaper article from "The Washington Herald, Monday, March 18, 1907" with the title "Negro Tableaux Planned." Article is as follows: "Progress of Race to Be Demonstrated at Jamestown Exhibition. An agreement has been entered into between the executive committee designated by the general government to be prepare the negro exhibit for the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition and Miss Meta Vaux Warrick, of Philadelphia, a sculptor of international repute, by which the latter is to furnish a series of illuminated tableaux illustrative of the history of the negro race from landing of the first boat load of African slaves on the James River, in 1619, to the present day. It is Miss Warrick's plan to show by the construction of appropriate models, dramatic groupings, and the use of suitable scenic accessories, to trace in chronological order the progress of the negro people in all the arts of civilization. There will be fifteen model groups, each of the basic dimentions of ten feet long by ten feet wide, the figures to be one-forth life size, making in all an exhibit covering more than 1,500 square feet of floor space. Miss Meta Vaux Warrick is a young colored woman of unusual intelligence. Her education was acquired in the Drexel School of Fine Arts, in Philadelphia, of which city she is a native. She has taken supplementary courses in several of the leading art institutes in Paris, France."
