Edmonia Lewis was the first professional African American sculptor, born in New York in 1843/45. Her father was a free African American and her mother a Chippewa Indian. From the beginning, she was determined to become a sculptor. With a minimum of training, exposure, and experience, Lewis began producing medallion portraits of known abolitionists. With sales of her portrait busts of abolitionist John Brown and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the Boston hero and white leader of the celebrated African American 54 Regiment of the Civil War, Lewis was able to finance her first trip to Europe in 1865.