Miller Park in Lynchburg, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)

Georgia Weston Morgan

(1869–1951)

Photographed By J. J. Prats, June 8, 2017

1. Georgia Weston Morgan Marker

Inscription. Artist and educator Georgia Morgan studied painting at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and at the Académie Julian in Paris. She was a co-founder of the Lynchburg Civic Art League in 1932 and helped establish the city’s Federal Art Gallery, a Works Progress Administration project, in 1936. Both groups promoted arts education and exhibition for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. She chaired the art department at Lynchburg College for 30 years and was elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. Her work, primarily miniatures and landscapes, was exhibited at the Paris Salon and in galleries from Maine to Florida.

Erected 2015 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number Q-6-33.)

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, Music • Education • Women. In addition, it is included in the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1936.

Location. 37° 24.529′ N, 79° 9.696′ W. Marker is in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is in Miller Park. Marker is at the intersection of Memorial Avenue (Virginia Route 163) and Orchard Street, on the left when traveling west on Memorial Avenue. Touch for map

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. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1900 Memorial Avenue, Lynchburg VA 24501, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Dr. Robert Withers Morgan (here, next to this marker); Horse Drawn Road Grader (about 700 feet away, measured in a direct line); Model 1474 Gallion Roller (about 700 feet away); Lucille Chaffin Kent (approx. ¼ mile away); Edward Christian Glass (1852-1931) (approx. ¼ mile away); Civil War in Lynchburg (approx. 0.3 miles away); Kemper Street Station (approx. 0.3 miles away); Mustered and Disbanded 1861-1865 (approx. 0.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lynchburg.

Also see . . .
1. 2000 National Register of Historic Places Inventory for Centerview. Excerpt from Statement of Significance by J Daniel Pezzoni. “Of Robert and Mary Morgan’s six children, the best known is Georgia Weston Morgan, who was born in 1869 while the family lived in Floyd County. Georgia taught art in the public schools in the 1890s before coming to the attention of Bernhard Gutmann and Louise I. Smith, founding members of the Lynchburg Art League (1895). In 1899 Morgan enrolled at Randolph Macon Woman’s College to study art under Smith, and in 1906 she was hired as an art instructor at the school. Morgan focused on portraiture during the early years of her career, but after studies in Paris in 1909-10 she began to produce the expressive landscape

Georgia Weston Morgan and Dr. Robert Withers Morgan Markers image. Click for full size.

Photographed By J. J. Prats, June 8, 2017

2. Georgia Weston Morgan and Dr. Robert Withers Morgan Markers

Professor Morgan’s marker is on the left.

scenes for which she is principally remembered, painting and teaching from her studio at 700 Church Street. In 1915 she became the head of the art department of Virginia Christian College (later Lynchburg College), where she taught until her retirement in 1945. In the 1910s and early 1920s Georgia Morgan resided with her mother at Centerview between teaching assignments and her own studies with artists out of state, and there is a tradition that she used the depedency behind the main house as her studio.

“Georgia and the other heirs of Mary I. Morgan sold Centerview out of the family in 1923. Georgia, then aged fifty-four, continued to gain recognition as an artist both in Lynchburg and on the national scene. In 1926 she founded the Lynchburg Art Club and in 1932 she established the Lynchburg Civic Art League. In the mid-1930s she worked to secure Works Progress Admistration funding for a community arts program. Her civic involvement was not limited to the arts; from 1933 to 1936 she served as vice president of the Lynchburg Historical Society, and she was active in many local and national organizations. ‘Miss Georgia,’ as she was known to her students, was considered something of a Bohemian in Lynchburg. ‘She was always covered in paint,’ recalled one student, ‘and in order to remember where her brushes were she kept them in her hair.’ On her death

Photographed By J. J. Prats, June 8, 2017

3. Centerview.

Markers are out of frame on the left.

in 1951, the local press eulogized Georgia Weston Morgan as the ‘Dean of Lynchburg Artists.’

“The Morgans sold Centerview to Calvin Lafayette and Mildred E. (White) Burgess in November 1923.”
(Submitted on June 16, 2017.)

2. Marker Dedicated in Memory of College Artist. Includes photograph from marker dedication. “ ‘At a time when it was not common in Lynchburg, Georgia Morgan reached out and extended her considerable skills to educating all people of Lynchburg in art,’ said Randolph President Bradley W. Bateman at the dedication ceremony. ‘She wanted all people in Lynchburg to have access to art—not simply to know about art and see art, but also to make art. This, I believe, is what truly reflects her education at Randolph and makes her such an important person and figure in the history of Lynchburg.’ ” (Submitted on June 16, 2017.)

Credits. This page was last revised on February 1, 2023. It was originally submitted on June 16, 2017, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. This page has been viewed 398 times since then and 20 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on June 16, 2017, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. 2. submitted on June 15, 2017, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. 3. submitted on June 16, 2017, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio.