Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 013/Isaac Hathaway

Overview

Isaac Hathaway is best known as a talented African American sculptor, ceramicist, and teacher.

Biography

Early Life

Isaac Hathaway was born in 1872 in Lexington Kentucky. He grew up with two sisters and was raised by his father, Reverend Hathaway, after his mother died. His passion for the arts was born when he was a young boy visiting an art exhibit with his family. Throughout the exhibit he had searched for a bust of his personal hero, Frederick Douglass. When Hathaway could not find one, his father explained that he would not find any sculptures displaying African Americans. It was then that he decided he would take it upon himself to “make busts and statues of our great Negroes and put them where people can see them.”

Later Life

While living in Washington DC later in his life, Hathaway modeled Douglass. Working in poverty, Hathaway had found himself struggling to create an accurate bust of Douglass. After three days, he found himself drawn to the Washington Zoo where he came upon a lion he decided would be his model. Hathaway noted that “from that day, I formed a theory that all humans beings resemble some animal, bird or reptile.”

In 1903, Hathaway proved the extent of his abilities when asked to create a plaster model of a tree trunk for a suicide case. Many other sculptors had been asked before but explained that it was not possible. However, Hathaway was able to create a model so realistic that the court accused him of using the tree itself. Hathaway explained that when he was young and living in poverty, he couldn’t afford clay and had to use mud instead, allowing him to experiment and make plaster relieves.

Career

Despite opposition from a racist society, poverty, and even other African Americans, Hathaway became quite successful in his field. Hathaway has studied at the Chandler Normal College, the art department of the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston, the Cincinnati Art Academy, and the Pittsburgh Normal School. After his work started to gain notice, Hathaway developed the Hathaway Art Company, “combining the need for more uplifting, positive black images with a quintessentially American, entrepreneurial approach”. He was commissioned to produce countless models including Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Richard Allen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, George Washington Carver, and C.C. Spaulding. Additionally, Hathaway was “the first African American to design a U.S. coin” and created the Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver coins.

Social Context

America in the late 19th century

In 1865 the American Civil War was ended, and the Reconstruction era began. During this short period, reparations and civil liberties were given to African Americans, most notably being the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment which abolished slavery, ensured all citizens equal rights, and gave African American men the right to vote, respectively. Additionally, in 1875 the Civil Rights Act was passed prohibiting racial discrimination. However, little regulations were placed on state governments which retaliated by creating black codes and other laws limiting African Americans economic options. Additionally, around this time, violent opposition from white Southerners became common and the Ku Klux Klan was formed. Eventually, in 1876 as much of the government turned more conservative, Restoration was ended, and Jim Crow laws soon came into place. With this, a new era of racial discrimination began with the “disenfranchisement of black voters, a rigid system of racial segregation, the relegation of African Americans to low-wage agricultural and domestic employment, and legal and extralegal violence to punish those who challenged the new order.”

Art and Representation

Throughout history and even now, many have found that artists of color have not been celebrated and included in museums. Art is known to allow for the expression of ideas, values, and history. Because of this, art has been a common vehicle for representation and visibility for many different groups. With this platform, representation can allow for the understanding of one’s life and culture. The exclusion of black art and black artists is harmful in many ways. Many artists find their work is held to a higher standard and is limited in what is found to be acceptable due to racist standards. With this limitation, there is often an erasure of culture or history which unfortunately leads to a lack of understanding. Additionally, each piece is given the burden of representing all black art further limiting the scope of ideas an artist is allowed to draw from. This has been a persistent problem, especially during the late 19th century and a time of systematic racism.

Bibliography

• Catlin, Roger. “A Rare and Important Sculpture of Martin Luther King.” The Smithsonian Magazine, January 15, 2016.
• Desai D. “Imaging Difference: The Politics of Representation in Multicultural Art Education.” Studies in Art Education 41, no 2 (2000) :114–129. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1320658?seq=1.
• Foner E. “Reconstruction”. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2020 Apr 3. https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history.
• Interview, Rhussus L. Perry on Isaac Hathaway. February 2, 1939, Folder 60, Federal Writing Project Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill.
• “Isaac Hathaway: a pioneer in sculpture.” African American Registry. January 6, 2020. https://aaregistry.org/story/isaac-hathaway-a-pioneer-in-sculptor/.
• Mercer K. “Black art and the burden of representation.” Third Text 4, no 10 (1990): 61-78 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09528829008576253?journalCode=ctte20.
• Powell, Richard J. Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century. New York, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997.