Story Created:
Jul 26, 2012
Story Updated:
Jul 26, 2012
Montgomery officials are making progress in discovering who created a huge drawing of 1800's Dexter Avenue.
The mural was hidden in the old city auditorium stage area for decades, till a photo of it was discovered, and the city went peering into the rafters and re-discovered it last week. Mayor Todd Strange says they believe the mural of Montgomery's Dexter Avenue shows was a product of the Works Progress Administration, The WPA, a federal agency that funded project ranging from new roads to artwork. It helped move the country out of the depression:
"Everything leads us is that direction says that sometime in the early to mid 1930's, it was a W-P-A project that tapestry was in fact painted and somehow it made its way as a curtain to the stage in the 1937 36 time frame"
The original lithograph was created by an artist in the years leading up to the civil war...it was used on the cover of a magazine in 1857. and an as yet unknown artist used it to create the giant backdrop. the next step for the researchers is to figure out who that 1930's W-P-A artist was, and they're bringing in a prominent art curator next week to help them do just that.
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Bertsy Cargill Solley said on Thursday, Jul 26 at 6:52 PM
Mr. Lennox, I may have a lead to the artist who painted The Montgomery History Mystery mural. My mother told me many years ago that my grandmother's brother, John Allen D. Herrington painted a mural for the Capitol of Alabama, but I never found any evidence of it. My family came to Prattville from Tupelo, Miss. in 1922. My great uncle's profession was painting stag sceneries. He later moved back to Tupelo, Miss. with his business and died in 1942. He, also, painted a mural for my grandmother in a house in Prattvile, but I am sure the mural has been painted over many time. Please tell me how to keep up with the research. Bertsy C. Solley - 8535 Sparrowhawk Court - Orlando, FL 32829. 407-399-4418 or my sister Juanita Pugh @ 334-730-5418.
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