Nancy Elizabeth Prophet collection (MSS-0028)

Biographical/Historical Note

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was born in Arctic Center, Rhode Island, to parents of Narragansett and African American ancestry. Between 1918 and 1922, she changed the spelling of her surname, Proffit, to its now popular form, Prophet. In 1918, she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, and in 1922, she moved to Paris, where she attended L’Ecole de Beaux-Arts and worked in a small studio. In 1929, Prophet received a Harmon Foundation Prize for best sculpture. She returned to the United States in 1934 to teach at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Finally, Prophet returned to Providence in 1944, where she lived until her death in 1960.