[4] During this time, Ream also began intense public relations efforts, selling photographs of herself and soliciting newspaper attention as a marketing strategy.

There was significant debate over her selection as the sculptor, however, because of concern over her inexperience and the slanderous accusations that she was a "lobbyist", or a public woman of questionable reputation.

[12] Senator Edmund G. Ross boarded with Ream's family during the impeachment trial of United States President Andrew Johnson.

[15][17][18] Conservatives accused Benjamin Butler of having targeted Ream with his successful resolution to turn her studio into a Capitol Police guardroom.

The New York World wrote a very critical article under the headline, "How Beaten Impeachers Make War on Women".

[15] Ultimately, the intervention of powerful New York sculptors and her friend Congressman Thaddeus Stevens prevented it and her from being ejected from the Capitol.

[6][15][16] Due to his intervention, on July 20, 1868, the House passed a resolution granting her permission to utilize the space as a studio for another year.

[15][16] Once the U.S. government had approved the plaster model, Ream traveled to Paris, Munich, Florence, then Rome, to produce a finished marble figure.

[4][6] She studied with Léon Bonnat in Paris, also producing busts of Gustave Doré, Père Hyacynthe, Franz Liszt, and Giacomo Antonelli.

[22][23] While in Rome, she faced controversial rumors that claimed that it was the Italian workmen and not Ream who were responsible for her successful sculpture of Lincoln.

Her work would basically cease during her marriage because Richard felt it wasn't proper for a Victorian wife to earn money, and she followed his wishes.

[39][40] Her marbles, America, The West, and Miriam, were exhibited in the Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

[43] Vinnie Ream's close friendship with Albert Pike, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, USA), Scottish Rite, resulted in Pike conferring the Eighth Degree upon her naming her "Syrene Directress of the work.

[44] A first-day cover stamp was issued in honor of Ream and her work on the statue of Sequoyah, the Native American inventor of the Cherokee syllabary.