Sea Treasures

In Sea Treasures, an adolescent girl inspects marine life along the shore at Coney Island, a popular leisure destination across classes at the turn of the 20th century. Her hiked-up skirt, rolled sleeves, and awkward pose—sensitively rendered by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle—suggest a figure grounded in the real world, caught in a moment of thought and action all her own. Born in Iowa and later based in New York, Eberle was a settlement-house worker and a sculptor who principally depicted women from urban immigrant communities in small-scale bronzes.