Johnson, Adelaide (1859–1955)

views updated

Johnson, Adelaide (1859–1955)

American sculptor and feminist. Born Sarah Adeline Johnson on September 26, 1859, in Plymouth, Illinois; died on November 10, 1955, in Washington, D.C., age 96, of a stroke; daughter of Christopher William Johnson (a farmer) and Margaret Huff (Hendrickson) Johnson; educated in country schools and studied art at St. Louis School of Design; also studied painting in Dresden (1883) and sculpting in the workshop of Giulio Monteverde in Rome (1884); married Alexander Frederick Jenkins (an English businessman) on January 29, 1896 (divorced 1908).

Awarded first and second prizes for her woodcarvings at state exposition (1877); traveled to Europe to study art, first in Dresden, then with Giulio Monteverde in Rome (1883–84); as part of her feminist perspective, exhibited busts of suffragists and a pioneer woman physician at the Woman's Pavilion of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893);differences with Susan B. Anthony prompted her to turn to Alva Belmont, New York suffragist; secured commission for a national monument honoring the women's movement (1904); The Woman Movement, also known as The Portrait Monument (her sculpture containing portrait busts of Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton), was presented to the public at the Capitol building (February 15, 1921); with career in decline and frustrated over her dream of a studio-museum showcasing the women's movement, mutilated many of her works (1939); moved in with friends in Washington, D.C., because of money woes and frail health (1947).

Adelaide Johnson, who is considered the major sculptor of the women's suffrage movement, was born Sarah Adeline Johnson in Plymouth, Illinois, on September 26, 1859, one of three children of Christopher W. Johnson and Margaret Hendrickson Johnson . Adelaide's parents also had several children from previous marriages. Educated in country schools, as a teen she studied art at the St. Louis School of Design. In 1877, her artistic skills were recognized when she won both a first and second prize for woodcarving at a state exposition. The following year, she changed her name to Adelaide. Johnson fell down an elevator shaft while studying art in Chicago and injured her hip. With the $15,000 she collected as a result of that injury, she financed her artistic studies in Europe. In 1883, Johnson studied painting in Germany, and the next year moved to Rome to study sculpture with Giulio Monteverde. There she maintained a studio for the next 25 years, as well as at various times studios in Carrara, Italy, London, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Johnson became a stalwart supporter of the women's movement, perceiving it to be "the mightiest thing in the evolution of humanity," and it became her mission to immortalize its history. She began by exhibiting busts of suffragists Lucretia Mott , Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony , as well as pioneer physician Caroline B. Winslow , at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

In January 1896, Johnson married English businessman Alexander F. Jenkins, falsifying her age on the marriage certificate so that it appeared she was 24, one year younger than her husband, when she was in reality 36. Both the bride and the groom were vegetarians and embraced spiritualism, which was popular at that time. As a tribute to his wife's genius, Jenkins even adopted her name after their marriage by a woman minister. In 1908, after many long separations, the couple divorced, with Johnson remaining quite bitter.

Out of Johnson's passionate support for the women's movement was born a dream of creating a gallery and museum to house the movement's history. Lacking funding, she came to think of her own home-studio in Washington, D.C., as this facility. She also wanted the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to fund a woman's monument for the Capitol building, but in 1904, Susan B. Anthony differed with her over the placement of this monument (Anthony preferred the Library of Congress). This caused a split in their friendship as well as in Johnson's relationship with the NAWSA. Johnson then turned to the National Woman's Party and New York suffragist Alva Belmont , and she eventually was successful in securing a commission for a national monument from Alice Paul , the militant women's rights activist.

The large sculpture of white Carrara marble, The Woman Movement, now referred to as the Portrait Monument, was presented to Congress in the rotunda of the Capitol on the anniversary of Anthony's birth, February 15, 1921. Almost immediately the monument—which depicts 19th-century feminist leaders Stanton, Mott, and Anthony—was removed to the basement of the building, called the Crypt. For 75 years, it languished there in obscurity, relegated to a room reserved for storage of broken furniture, despite five attempts since the 1930s to have it brought back to stand in the rotunda among the statues of males.

Finally, in 1995, it looked like the monument would be moved back to a place of honor when a bill designed to do so sailed through the Senate, 100–0. But the bill also required the consent of the House, and a move to thwart the project by five female Republican representatives was successful. First, they said it was too heavy. Then, Susan Myrick (North Carolina), Barbara Vucanovich (Nevada), Linda Smith (Washington), and Helen Chenowith (Idaho) denounced the spending of public monies for such a project. Karen Staser , a private citizen living in Alexandria, Virginia, countered that she would raise the $75,000 needed to cut the base of the statue and move it upstairs. Then, Republican Nancy Johnson (Connecticut) and Myrick suggested the statue of another woman, Esther Hobart Morris , the first female judge in Wyoming, which was already residing in Statuary Hall, be placed in the rotunda instead. Myrick felt that Morris showed a more "modern" image of women. (The statue of Morris has her standing on a rugged base, holding flowers.) "She gives the appearance of being very strong," said Myrick. "She's doing something, but is feminine at the same time."

It was not until June 1997 that the monument was rededicated in the rotunda, the only sculpture that is a national monument to the women's movement. At the ceremony, Republican senator Olympia Snowe (Maine) spoke:

The bottom line is, the debate should not have been about the weight of the statue, but the weight of an argument, and the worth of a just cause. When Susan B. Anthony said, "What is this little thing we are asking for? It seems so little, yet it is everything," she was talking about a woman's right to vote—but she could have been speaking about the moving of her own statue.
For too long, women in this country had to endure the myth of what—or where—a "woman's place" should be. A woman's place used to be only in the parlor, the kitchen and, I suppose, the crypt. Since then, a lot has changed. Today, a woman's place is in the House, the Senate and, yes, the Rotunda.

Adelaide Johnson supported other women's organizations. She was the founder and a lifelong member of the National and International Councils of Women, and a charter member of the Lyceum Club as well as NAWSA. She also wrote and gave speeches on women's issues.

Johnson's artistic career declined after the 1930s, and she suffered financial problems, relying on support from family and friends. In 1939, frustrated over her plight and failure to realize her dream of a studio-museum, she mutilated many of her sculptures and called the media in to witness the destruction. Efforts to pass a congressional bill granting her $25,000 proved unsuccessful, and finally, in failing health and with little money, Johnson moved in with friends around 1947 in Washington, D.C. She made several attempts to raise money to repurchase her home, even appearing on quiz shows, but to no avail. Realizing that age could also convey special privileges, Johnson reversed her earlier falsification and made herself 12 years older than she really was. She died in Washington in 1955 of a stroke.