Vinnie Ream

Melissa Dakakis tells how Vinnie Ream was nearly kicked out of the Capitol for polical interference in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

“In 1868, while at work on the plaster model for the Lincoln statue, Ream also became embroiled in the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. When Senator Edmund Ross of Kansas, a family friend who lodged at the Ream residence on Capitol Hill, cast the decisive vote against removing Johnson from office, Ream was accused of influencing his vote. Radical Republicans, such as Thaddeus Stevens who had earlier supported her bid for the Lincoln commission, targeted her with an order to evacuate her Capitol studio and to take the unfinished Lincoln statue with her. Only when Henry Kirke Brown and John Quincy Adams Ward, powerful New York sculptors, intervened on her behalf was she allowed to remain in her workplace.” – Melissa Dakakis.

Dabakis, Melissa. “Sculpting Lincoln: Vinnie Ream, Sarah Fisher Ames, and the Equal Rights Movement.” American Art, vol. 22, no. 1, 2008, pp. 78–101. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/587917.