Selma Burke, (1900-1995), Mary McLeod Bethune, 1946, white metal with gold paint, 7 3/4 x 5 x 4 1/4 in., Collection of Arthur Primas, Courtesy of Connor Rosenkranz, NY. © Photo Mark Ostrander.
Written by Guest Curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D.
Burke with her portrait bust of
Booker T. Washington, c. 1935, Photo from Wikipedia
Selma Burke, influenced by Augusta Savage, combined sculpture-making, education, and community engagement into her artistic practice. Burke, like both Savage and the sitter for this portrait educator Mary McLeod Bethune (1875 – 1955), established educational centers: one in New York and one in Pittsburgh.
In 1904, Bethune founded the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Girls, now Bethune-Cookman University. Bethune said “Whatever glory belongs to the race for a development unprecedented in history for the given length of time, a full share belongs to the womanhood of the race.”
If you carry loose change or have a change jar at home, you have a Selma Burke portrait: Burke’s portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is on the United States dime.
