Wells, Rachel

Wax model artist.

Created a full-length wax figure of Rev. George Whitefield, which she presented to Bethesda College in Georgia. Drew large crowds to a Philadelphia exhibition of wax models of moral stories and public figures, including Franklin (1777). John Adams opined that Wells’s models reflected “Genius, as well as Taste and Art,” but “The Imitation of Life was too faint … This Art I think will make but little Progress in the World.”

Daughter of John and Patience Lovell of Bordentown, New Jersey.; sister of the famous wax model artist Patience (Lovell) Wright.