Enid Yandell: Sculpting a Legacy
By Robin L. Wallace
Reference Specialist
Filson Historical Society
Enid Bland Yandell was an artist ahead of her time. She pursued a career in sculpture, a medium dominated by men during the early twentieth century, rather than choosing a life of domesticity. Although Yandell was from a prominent Louisville family, she relied on her talent rather than her social standing to advance her career.

Yandell also sought to improve people’s lives, not only through her artistic creations but also through progressive thinking and dedicated service. The Filson Historical Society’s Enid Yandell Collection contains a wealth of information on this fascinating early-twentieth-century artist. Our current exhibit “Enid Yandell: Sculpting a Legacy” was culled from two hundred eighty-four photographs, 4.66 cubic feet of personal papers, and works of art from The Filson collection, as well as pieces on loan from local collectors. The exhibit encompasses her personal life, her education, her public works, and her private commissions. Our wish is to illuminate not only her talent and creativity but also her determination, social conscience, and zest for life.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 6, 1870, Yandell was the eldest daughter of surgeon Lunsford Pitts Yandell, Jr., and Louise Elliston Yandell. Her parents nurtured her artistic talent and encouraged her to pursue a professional career as a sculptor. Louise persuaded her daughter to concentrate on local personages and to brush up on her Kentucky history, hoping it would lead to lucrative commissions. The advice was well-given and no doubt led to the creation of such works as Yandell’s Daniel Boone in Cherokee Park and her busts of Col. Reuben T. Durrett and Alfred Victor DuPont in The Filson’s collection.

Yandell’s professional career began when she was hired to design the caryatids for the roof garden of the World’s Columbian Exposition two years after graduating from the Cincinnati Art Academy. While basking in her award-winning success in Chicago, Yandell received her first public commission for a freestanding statue. The Filson Club commissioned her to sculpt a likeness of pioneer Daniel Boone. Yandell used Boone’s own hunting shirt, flintlock rifle, tomahawk, scalping knife, and powder horn while modeling the statue. She also used The Filson’s portrait of Boone as a guide. The plaster cast of the Boone statue was shown at several exhibitions. It was not until 1906 that C. C. Bickel commissioned the work in bronze for the city of Louisville.

Yandell devoted much of her life to not only creating beautiful works of art but also to improving people’s lives. She contributed to the education of future artists by founding the Branstock School in Edgartown, Massachusetts, in 1908. The art school functioned for several summers until her death in 1934. Yandell also actively supported the women’s suffrage movement and campaigned for President Calvin Coolidge.
