Hiawatha and Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis Hiawatha and Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis Hiawatha and Minnehaha are 1868 sculptures by Edmonia Lewis. They are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on view in gallery 759. African-American, Haitian and Chippewa (Ojibwa) artist, Lewis, developed her neoclassical style of marble sculpture while working in Rome. Lewis was an admirer of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetry, and in 1869 Longfellow visited her studio where he posed for one of her portraits which was shortly afterward acquired by Harvard University. Often working in themes that intersected her identity, Lewis focused a series of marble sculptures based on Longfellow’s much-referenced
Alexander S. Wadsworth Squadron from 1829 to 1832. Wadsworth was Commodore commanding the Pacific Squadron from 1834 to 1836, a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners from 1837 to 1840, and Inspector of Ordnance from 1841 to 1850. Commodore Wadsworth died at Washington, D.C., on 5 April 1851. He was the son of Peleg Wadsworth, the uncle of author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and namesake of Alexander Scammel. Three Navy ships have been named USS "Wadsworth" in his honor. Alexander S. Wadsworth Commodore Alexander Scammel Wadsworth (1790–April 5, 1851) was an officer of the United States Navy. His more than 40 years of