Some research into a unique tombstone at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester uncovered the stories of dozens of Black women who lived over 160 years ago.
Call him an activist artist : Giving New Brunswick-born painter E.M Bannister his due
His paintings adorn the walls of of some of the most important buildings in the United States, but it s past time to give New Brunswick-born Black artist E.M. Bannister his due for a lifetime of achievements.
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Snapshot: Christiana Carteaux Bannister
February 24, 2021
The wind on her vestment says it all: Christiana Carteaux Bannister was a woman with agency. Momentum. “A spark,” says Massachusetts-based sculptor Pablo Eduardo, who was commissioned by the Rhode Island Foundation to create this bust for the State House in 2002. Christiana, born in 1819 to a Black and Indigenous family in North Kingstown, was an entrepreneur who grew her wealth as a hair doctress in Boston. There, she met a young out-of-work painter named Edward Mitchell Bannister. She took him on at her salon, housed him, married him and supported him. Eventually, the pair moved to Providence, where Edward’s art career flourished in the face of Reconstruction-era racism. Christiana opened another salon and devoted her spare time to activism and philanthropy. In 1890, she helped found the Home for Aged Colored Women, a place where retired domestic servants could live out their final days in peace. In 1902, a widowed a