Biografie von May Howard JACKSON (1877-1931)

Birth place: Phila., PA

Death place: Wash., DC/ or Long Beach, Long Island

Addresses: Wash., DC, from 1902

Profession: Sculptor, teacher

Studied: Liberty Tadd's Art School, Phila.; PAFA (first African-American woman; scholarship, 1900-1902 )

Exhibited: NY Emancipation Expo., 1913; CGA, 1915; Veerhoff Gal.; NAD, 1916; Soc. Indp. A. 1919; Harmon Foundation, 1927, 1928 (Harmon Award for sculpture)

Member: S. Indp. A; AFA

Work: St. Thomas' Church, Phila.; Dunbar H.S. (bronze bust of Paul Lawrence Dunbar), Wash., DC; Howard Univ.

Comments: Jackson worked in a naturalistic style, specializing in portrait busts which went beyond pure likeness in showing the subjects' humanity. Among her subjects were Paul Laurence Dunbar, W.E.B. Dubois, and Dean Kelly Miller. Instructor: sculpture, Howard Univ., 1922-24.

Sources: WW31; McMahan, Artists of Washington, D.C; Rubinstein, American Women Sculptors, 204-05; Cederholm, Afro-American Artists;(McMahan cites Wash., DC as place of death, while Cederholm lists Long Beach, L.I.); African American Women Sculptors," American Art Review (Feb., 1998): 165. "