Hygeia, (sculpture).

Hygeia, (sculpture).

Lewis, Edmonia, 1844-1907, sculptor.

Hygeia, (sculpture).

Hunt Monument, (sculpture).

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: marble; Base: marble and granite.

Sculpture: approx. 4 ft. 4 in. x 1 ft. 4 in. x 1 ft. 3 in.; Upper base: approx. 2 ft. 4 in. x 2 ft. 4 in. x 2 ft. 4 in.; Lower base: approx. 2 ft. 7 in. x 2 ft. x 2 ft.

(Sculpture, lower back:) EDMONIA LEWIS ROMA (...illegible inscription) 1-(...illegible inscription) (Upper base, back:) THE LORD IS OUR/LAWGIVER/--PEACE--/WHICH LOVE THEY LAW(...illegible inscription)/The Sisters/Physician/1865(...illegible inscription) (Lower base, back:) HYGEIA signed

Standing female figure of Hygeia, the goddess of health, dressed in long classical drapery. With her proper left hand she clutches the edge of her drapery to her chest. In her proper right hand she once held a staff, but it is now missing. She leans back against a small vertical stone, crossing her legs in front of her and a snake is curled beside her bare feet. The sculpture rests on a square marble base which rests on a granite block. Recesses on the front and sides of the marble upper base once held bas reliefs, but two are now missing. The remaining bas relief on the right side of the marble upper base depicts a female figure seated in a chair beside a table. Her proper right hand rests on the table next beside a container of medicine.

Mythology -- Classical -- Hygeia

Animal -- Reptile -- Snake

Outdoor Sculpture -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge

Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Poplar Avenue at Lily Path, lot 2630, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The sculpture of Hygeia was commissioned by Dr. Harriot K. Hunt (1805-1875) for a family plot in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Dr. Hunt was one of the first women doctors in the U.S. and was an active feminist. She practiced in Boston for forty years and was particularly concerned with promoting women's health. In 1843, she founded the Ladies Physiological Society and later gave free public lectures on physiology and hygiene.

IAS files contain a copy of Harriot Hunt's will which notes that the sculpture of Hygeia by Edmonia Lewis was to be placed at Mt. Auburn Cemetery; correspondence dated 1876-1901 from the superintendent of Mt. Auburn Cemetery regarding the loose bas reliefs on the base of the sculpture which needed to be reset; selections from the Harriot Kezia Hunt Papers, on file at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, an excerpt from a 1991 Mt. Auburn study entitled "Monument Study: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge Cemetery," an excerpt from a brief condition assessment by Building Conservation Associates, Inc., and an article from The Revolution (April 20, 1871), a newspaper begun by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which reports on Edmonia Lewis' work on the sculpture of Hygeia. For additional information see also: James A. Porter's "Modern Negro Art," New York: The Dryden Press, 1943, pg. 57-63, 176-177.

The inscription on the nearby gravestone reads: HARRIOT KEZIA HUNT./daughter of/JOAB AND KEZIA HUNT./Nov. 9, 1805./Jan. 2, 1875./aged 69 years./For forty years./a Physician in Boston./She hath done what she could.

Carlock, Marty, "A Guide to Public Art in Greater Boston," Boston: Harvard Common Press, 1988.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Massachusetts survey, 1994.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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