Montgomery in Montgomery County, Alabama — The American South (East South Central)
Bill Traylor
(1853-1949)
Photographed by Tim Fillmon, July 19, 2022
1. Bill Traylor Marker
Inscription.
Bill Traylor was born into an enslaved family on a Dallas County plantation. Around age ten, Traylor and his family were relocated to another plantation in neighboring Lowndes County, where they remained as laborers after Emancipation. Between 1939 and 1942, after many decades of farm labor throughout the region, Traylor took up the practice of art, creating pictures that testified to the difficulties of navigating the black and white worlds of the segregated South. Using found and donated materials, including paperboard, pencils, and paint, Traylor spent his days creating his art here, at the intersection of Monroe and North Lawrence streets, in the heart of Montgomery's African American business district. In a short time, Traylor created more than one thousand pieces of drawn and painted artwork, now critically acclaimed and the largest such body of work made by an artist born into slavery. Regarded as one of America's most important artists, Traylor's works are now held in museums around the world. Bill Traylor died on October 23, 1949, and is buried in the cemetery at Mount Mariah AME Zion Church. The epitaph on his new headstone, installed in 2018, reads "Through His Art He Lives On."
Bill Traylor was born into an enslaved family on a Dallas County plantation. Around age ten, Traylor and his family were relocated to another plantation in neighboring Lowndes County, where they remained as laborers after Emancipation. Between 1939 and 1942, after many decades of farm labor throughout the region, Traylor took up the practice of art, creating pictures that testified to the difficulties of navigating the black and white worlds of the segregated South. Using found and donated materials, including paperboard, pencils, and paint, Traylor spent his days creating his art here, at the intersection of Monroe and North Lawrence streets, in the heart of Montgomery's African American business district. In a short time, Traylor created more than one thousand pieces of drawn and painted artwork, now critically acclaimed and the largest such body of work made by an artist born into slavery. Regarded as one of America's most important artists, Traylor's works are now held in museums around the world. Bill Traylor died on October 23, 1949, and is buried in the cemetery at Mount Mariah AME Zion Church. The epitaph on his new headstone, installed in 2018, reads "Through His Art He Lives On."
Erected 2019 by Alabama Historical Association.
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed
Location. 32° 22.707′ N, 86° 18.382′ W. Marker is in Montgomery, Alabama, in Montgomery County. It is at the intersection of North Lawrence Street and Monroe Street, on the left when traveling north on North Lawrence Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 85 N Lawrence St, Montgomery AL 36104, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Alabama’s Tri-Counties River Region. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Deep South, and in the Black Belt. Globally, it is in North America, a Gulf of Mexico state, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Credits. This page was last revised on September 2, 2022. It was originally submitted on September 2, 2022, by Tim Fillmon of Webster, Florida. This page has been viewed 640 times since then and 45 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on September 2, 2022, by Tim Fillmon of Webster, Florida.
