Making History.

Meta Warrick Fuller created "Ethiopia for the America's Making Exposition," a 1921 fair that focused on the contributions of immigrants to American society. Fuller's original small-scale model, now lost and known only through surviving photographs, was the first of several versions she created during her lifetime of the sculpture, variously called "Ethiopia," "Awakening Ethiopia," "Ethiopia Awakening," or "The Awakening of Ethiopia." It filled a need for African Americans to formulate an authentic racial identity by looking to the grand achievements of Egyptian history while also supporting the romantic ideal of Christian Ethiopia as a symbol of black liberation.