Seventeen-year-old Lavinia “Vinnie” Ream arrived at the White House in 1864 to make a portrait bust of President Abraham Lincoln. (1/9)

Image Credit: Library of Congress

President Lincoln agreed to let the young artist sculpt a clay model of his likeness while he worked in his office. (2/9)

Ream sensed the president’s gloom and sadness during the five months she spent working on the model. “I have never known of anyone in such deep grief as Mr. Lincoln showed during all the months I worked with him,” she later recalled. (3/9)

The Civil War raged on as Lincoln sat for the young artist, and although the Union armies were winning important victories, the horrific bloodshed weighed heavily on the president. (4/9)

Ream was devastated when John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre in April 1865, but the young sculptor remained thankful for the opportunity the president gave her. (5/9)

“He had been painted and modeled before, but when he learned that I was poor, he granted me the sittings,” she wrote. “Had I been the greatest sculptor in the world, I am sure that he would have refused at that time.” (6/9)

As the country began to mourn and memorialize Lincoln in 1866, Congress commissioned Ream to create a full-length statue of the president she had previously sculpted with great care. (7/9)

Although her age and gender caused some controversy, Ream prevailed in creating a magnificent statue of Lincoln that still stands in the U.S. Capitol today. (8/9)

Image Credit: Library of Congress

Ream went on to sculpt two additional statues for the Capitol, one depicting Iowa governor Samuel Kirkwood, and another of the Cherokee leader Sequoyah. (9/9)

Image Credit: Library of Congress