 Edmondson was given a one-man show, the first by an African American artist, at the Museum of Modern Art from October 20 to December 1, 1937.In 1938, through MoMA's influence, William Edmondson's sculpture was included in the "Three Centuries of Art in the United States" in Paris.Interest in his work on the national and international stage was short-lived, and he was viewed primarily as a novelty, or exemplar of the "primitive" race-memory of an untutored, naive old Negro stone carver.