edHelper.com
Women's History
American Revolution

Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy

Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.42

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    life-sized, artistry, lifelike, legacy, wage, busts, politics, wealthy, loyalty, landowner, legend, political, remain, bust, lawyer, attend
     content words:    Patience Lovell Wright, Patience Lovell, New York, New Jersey, Joseph Wright, Jane Mecom, Ben Franklin, Buckingham Palace, King George, Boston Tea Party

Print Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy
edHelper.com subscriber options:
     Print Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)
     Quickly print reading comprehension
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy
     Leave your feedback on Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Patience Wright: American Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy
By Joyce Furstenau 		  
1     Have you ever visited a wax museum? A wax museum usually has a collection of wax figures representing famous people in history. Did you ever wonder about the artists who make the sculptures of these lifelike figures made of wax? Patience Lovell Wright was considered the first recognized American-born sculptor. Her sculptures were made of wax.
 
2     Patience Lovell was born into a Quaker family in New York in 1725. At that time, most girls did not attend school. She and her eight sisters were raised in the Quaker faith. As a Quaker, Patience was used to being different. Quakers believed that women should have rights and education equal to men's. As a result, all the children in her family learned to read and write.
 
3     Patience and her family moved to Bordentown, New Jersey, when she was four years old. It was at this time she discovered her talent for sculpting. She and her sisters shaped wet flour or clay. When the sculptures were dry, they used plant extracts to paint them. It was clear that Patience had a great deal of talent for sculpting at an early age.
 
4     Unlike most young girls of that time, Patience waited until she was twenty-three to marry. She married a much older man named Joseph Wright. He was a landowner and spent much of his time away from home taking care of his properties. When he died, Patience had five children to support. Her husband left her no money, so she moved to Philadelphia to live with her sister. She began working with her sister, Rachel, in her small wax-modeling business there. She and Rachel soon opened their own studio when they got financial support from a lawyer and artist friend. Their customers were wealthy people who wanted life-sized wax versions of themselves.

Paragraphs 5 to 11:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2008 edHelper