Researcher Marilyn Richardson used newly digitized records to confirm Lewis died September 17, 1907, at Hammersmith Infirmary, London.
In 2010, independent scholar and researcher Marilyn Richardson, a leading authority on Edmonia Lewis's life and work, made a significant archival breakthrough. Using newly digitized and searchable online genealogical, burial, and infirmary records that had not previously been accessible to researchers, Richardson was able to definitively establish that Lewis had died on September 17, 1907, at the Hammersmith Infirmary in London, England, of Bright's disease.
Prior to this discovery, the exact date, location, and circumstances of Lewis's death had remained a mystery for over a century, with various secondary sources offering conflicting or vague estimates—some suggesting she died as late as 1909 in Rome. This gap in the historical record was emblematic of the broader neglect and erasure that many pioneering women of color faced in mainstream art historical documentation.
Richardson's research, published and cited widely in subsequent scholarly and journalistic accounts, also helped confirm Lewis's burial site at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green, London. This 2010 correction has since become the standard reference point cited by institutions including the National Park Service and the National Women's History Museum, and it exemplifies how digital archives and dedicated independent scholarship can recover and correct the historical record for marginalized historical figures whose lives were inadequately documented in their own time.