Early years

Born in 1820, Margaret was a self-taught sculptor, whittling

Whittling

Whittling is the art of carving shapes typically out of raw wood or bone with a knife.Whittling is typically performed with a light, small-bladed knife, usually a pocket knife. Specialised whittling knives are available as well...

 and carving

Carving

- Arts :*Bone carving*Chip carving*Gourd carving or Gourd art*Ice carving or Ice sculpture*Ivory carving*Stone carving**Petroglyph*Vegetable carving*Wood carving- Others :*Data carving and/or file carving, two closely related data recovery techniques...

 in the rural city of Vergennes, Vermont

Vergennes, Vermont

Vergennes is a city located in the northwest quadrant of Addison County, Vermont, in the United States. Bordered by the towns of Ferrisburgh, Panton and Waltham, as of the 2000 census the city population was 2,741. It is the smallest of Vermont's nine cities in terms of population...

.

As most young woman did back in the mid-19th century in New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, Miss Foley traveled to Lowell, MA to work in the textile mills as a mill girl

Lowell Mill Girls

"Lowell Mill Girls" was the name used for female textile workers in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. The Lowell textile mills employed a workforce which was about three quarters female; this characteristic caused two social effects: a close examination of the women's moral behavior, and...

. By her 28th birthday, she moved from the Mill City to Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 in 1848, to continue her sculpting, setting up shop as a cameo artist.

In 1860, she headed to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 where she began to sculpt large marble medallion portraits.

Noted Works

• poet William Cullen Bryant
  William Cullen Bryant
  William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
  
  
• "Abolitionist" (1860) bust
  Bust
  Bust may refer to:*Bust , a sculpture depicting a person's head and shoulders*Bust , a feminist pop culture magazine*Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in north-eastern France*Bust, a word for a woman's breasts...
  
  
• Mrs. William Greenleaf Eliot (1864) marble
  Marble
  Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
  
   relief
  Relief
  Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
  
  
• Mr. & Mrs. E.H.R. Lyman (1868) pair of cameos
• Group of the infant Bacchus
  Bacchus
  Bacchus is the Roman name for Dionysus, the god of wine and intoxication.Bacchus can also refer to:* Temple of Bacchus, a Roman temple at a large classical antiquity complex in Baalbek, Lebanon...
  
   with a kid (1871) sculpture
  Sculpture
  Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...