Mayfield, Ky.–Saturday, February 18 will be Ellis Wilson Day in Mayfield, his hometown. Several community
organizations have come together to celebrate the life and work of this important African
American artist. Wilson is perhaps best known for his painting, “Funeral Procession” which was prominently hung on the wall of the Huxtable residence on the Bill Cosby Show.
A number of events are planned to begin on February 15 and continuing until
the end of the month. The first part of the celebration will be an exhibition of three of Wilson’s
paintings as well as works by other African American artists from the Jackson Purchase region
that has been organized by the icehouse gallery.
The exhibit will be in the Graves County Public
Library from February 15 until the 28 th. It is free and open to the public.
The Jackson Purchase Historical Society will meet at the Graves County Public Library
beginning at 10:30 am on Saturday the 18 th for a program on A Journey in Color: The Art of Ellis
Wilson,2000 a new children’s book on Wilson written by Jayne Moore Waldrop and illustrated
by Michael McBride. In addition to Waldrop and McBride speaking about the book and Ellis
Wilson. A group of children who have read it will discuss the book. Copies of the book will be
available for purchase and signing by the author and illustrator at the meeting. The book is
published by ShadelandHouse Modern Press and is available through normal online booksellers
as well as directly from the press: smpbooks.com
The Jackson Purchase Historical Society meeting is open to the general public at no cost and will
be available by Zoom for those who are unable to attend in person. Registration is not required
for the in-person meeting, but it is for Zoom.
Follow the link that here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkde6qpzIiH9IO-v-oJq6Al622_xkWiNkn
On Monday, February 20 Jayne Moore Waldrop will return to the Graves County Public Library
for story hour on President’s Day to read the book to children who will also have a chance to
color Wilson’s artwork beginning at 1:00 pm.
Ellis Wilson was born in Mayfield in 1899 and began drawing as a young boy. After briefly
attending Kentucky State University in Frankfurt, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago
where he studied painting. After completing his studies, he moved to Harlem in New York City
where he became part of the Harlem Renaissance, a significant flowering of African American
cultural expression in the arts and literature. Wilson was a member of the Harlem Artists Guild.
He twice was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to support his work in painting African
American life. In 1948 the Graves County Public Library hosted an exhibit of his work. More
recently, a significant exhibition of his work was organized at the Clara Eagle Gallery at Murray
State University in 2000 and shown later that year at the University of Kentucky Art Museum.
The catalogue for the exhibit is available from the University Press of Kentucky.
In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State
University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical
Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory
encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society holds a
number of meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history and publishes an
award-winning journal on local history. Members include a wide range of people who simply
share a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area.
Articles are welcome for the 2022 Journal and can be sent to the editor, Jim Humphreys, at
jhumphreys@murraystate.edu. The editor would also welcome inquiries about topics, books for
review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the Journal are available from the Jackson Purchase
Historical Society, PO Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90 including postage and
sales tax. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS.
Information about membership and future programs is available on the society’s website:
http://jacksonpurchasehistory.org/. Free electronic access to back issues of the Journal through
2016 is available through the Murray State University libraries is at