Death of Edmonia Lewis in London

Edmonia Lewis died on September 17, 1907, at the Hammersmith Infirmary in London, England, succumbing to Bright's disease (a historical term for chronic kidney inflammation). By this point in her life, Lewis had largely faded from American public consciousness; she had spent much of her later career traveling between Rome, London, and other European cities, and detailed records of her final years were scarce for over a century after her death.

For decades, biographers and art historians could only speculate about when and where Lewis had died, with some sources vaguely suggesting she passed away sometime after 1909 in Rome. This uncertainty reflected the broader historical erasure faced by many women of color whose achievements were not systematically documented or preserved by the institutions of their time.

Lewis was buried in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green, London, reflecting her conversion to Catholicism during her years studying and working in Rome. Her grave remained unmarked and her death details unconfirmed until researcher Marilyn Richardson's archival work in 2010 established the precise date, cause, and location of her death, finally giving this pioneering sculptor's biography the accurate closure it had long lacked. Her rediscovery in the historical record has since spurred renewed scholarly and curatorial interest in her life and work.