Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions
Emma Stebbins: Carving out History at Driehaus Museum October 24, 2026
Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History 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, she created innovative marble and bronze sculptures while living in Rome with her wife, the renowned Shakespearean actress Charlotte Cushman. 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, Emma Stebbins became the first woman to earn a commission for a public sculpture from the City of New York. As a professional sculptor in a female marriage, she reimagined what a woman’s life could be in the mid‑nineteenth century. Her life and art speak to some of the most compelling issues of her time.
