Evelyn Beatrice Longman
Evelyn Beatrice Longman has risen constantly in her work since she took her first step in art at the Chicago Art Institute. She was born in Ohio of English parents, being one of six children. At fourteen she began to earn her own living in Chicago, studying at night at the Chicago Institute of Art. She saved her money, using it on her education at Olivet College. She returned to Chicago and studied drawing and anatomy. So clever was she that at the end of the first year she began to teach those subjects at the Institute. Later, she went to New York where she studied with Herman MacNeil and Daniel Chester French. She really made her debut in sculpture at the St. Louis Exposition, where she showed “Victory,” a male figure which was so excellent in invention and technique that it was given a place of honor on the top of Festival Hall. In 1907 John Quincy Adams Ward offered a prize for the best portrait bust. This competition was open to all American sculptors. Charles Grafly won in the competition, but Miss Longman won the second place with her “Aenigma.” Besides some excellent portraits, she has done two remarkable bronze gates at the entrance to the chapel of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and much fine figure work. Daniel Chester French says “She is the last word in ornament.”