Evelyn Beatrice Longman NA: A Life in Stone

Join us for a conversation between Pat Hoerth Batchelder, author of Evelyn Beatrice Longman: The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments and Diana Thompson, Director of Collections at the National Academy of Design. Together, the two will discuss the often-overlooked contributions of artist and National Academician Evelyn Beatrice Longman’s role in the creation of American monuments.

How is it that an impoverished girl identifies for herself that she can create monumental sculptures and becomes the first woman sculptor to be a full member of the National Academy of Design? How is it that rather than shrinking from poverty, Longman excelled out of it? Tenacious, determined, talented, she lived her truth and left behind beauty as she saw it.

RESERVATIONS: Admission is free but reservations are required.

ACCESSIBILITY: This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. To request free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service, email your request at least three weeks in advance of the event to [email protected].

About the Speakers

Pat Hoerth Batchelder wrote for The Washington Star and The Tulsa Tribune and taught journalism at two Oklahoma universities. She authored Oklahoma Cooks; a children’s curriculum on climate change, and co-authored her father’s memoir, The Life and Times of Henry Bellmon. She is married to Nathaniel Horton Batchelder III, the grandson of sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman, whom she portrays in Evelyn Beatrice Longman: The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments, available at the publisher’s website, Bloomsbury.com. Daughter of the mixed grass prairie in north central Oklahoma, Pat’s next project will reflect her love of Oklahoma and its land; her life-long dilemma—country or city; and the quandary of the nation’s food system as seen through the lives of wheat and cattle farmers and the urban farm—CommonWealth—in Oklahoma City where she now lives.

Diana Thompson is Director of Collections at the National Academy of Design where she oversees a collection of nearly 8,000 works of American art and architecture, managing all aspects of acquisitions, storage, conservation, loans, photography, documentation, and research. She is currently leading a multi-year strategic plan for the National Academy’s collection, which included launching the collection online in 2020, as well as surveying and digitizing the collection, developing a long-range conservation plan, and updating and improving collection management, cataloging, collecting, and ethics policies. In addition to stewarding the collection, she has curated numerous exhibitions from the National Academy's collection including, most recently, As Told By Its Makers: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art in 2024. Thompson holds B.A.s in Psychology and French from Fairfield University, CT and an M.A. in Art History from Hunter College, CUNY.

Image: Cover of Evelyn Beatrice Longman: The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

National Academy of Design, 519 West 26th Street, New York, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

Get App