"May Howard Jackson"(7-9-1877-1931)

She was born Philadelphia Pennsylvania.The daughter of Floardda Howard & Sallie Durham.She attended public schools and then entered "Todd's Art School.In 1895,May became the first African American student to receive a scholarship to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,where she studied for four years with William Merritt Chase,Charles Grafly,and John Joseph Boyle.May graduated in 1899 and married William Sherman Jackson,a mathematics,teacher.Unlike many of her peers,May did not travel to Europe for further training and remained somewhat isolated.Yet her growth and style freed from becoming another artist with such influence and gave her all her own.In her her portrait busts,May went fat beyond the realistic traditions of the day and at first were not well received.Her fascination and conveyance of the complex and varied physiognomy of African American as a result of race mixing after slavery are a strong point in her work.Some of the many portrait bust done by her in her lifetime are,Paul Laurence Dunbar 1919,W.B.D.DuBois,Rev.Francis J. Grimke,"Kelly Miller 1929,and W.H.Lewis.May also rendered abstract portraits,such as Head of Negro Child 1929,and Shell-Baby in Bronze 1929.In her active years,May exhibitions included the Corcoran Gallery,Washington D.C. 1915;The Veerhoff Gallery,New York City,1919;and the National Academy of Design 1916,1928.She met rebuffs in her attempts to exhibit in her chosen method of portraying the American mulatto,May accomplished enough to put her firmly in the annals of great sculptors.