George Caleb Bingham

George Caleb Bingham was born March 20, 1811, in Augusta County, Virginia, to Henry and Mary Amend Bingham. Henry moved the family to Franklin in 1819. There they farmed, processed tobacco, and ran a hotel. Bingham's interest in painting started when he helped hotel guest and famed artist Chester Harding paint Daniel Boone's portrait. Henry died of malaria in 1823. Mary sold the hotel and opened a girls' school on the family farm. The school's art teacher, Mattie Wood, gave Bingham art lessons. At 16 he apprenticed as a cabinetmaker, studied religion and law, and painted portraits. He was earning a living as an artist by 1836 when he married Sarah Elizabeth Hutchison. They had four children. Bingham painted portraits of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams, and famous Missourians James S. Rollins, Frederick Moss Prewitt, and Joseph Kinney. He painted hundreds of portraits over a span of 50 years. In 1845 Bingham began painting scenes of everyday American life such as “The Jolly Flatboatmen,” landscapes such as “The Old Horse,” and political themes such as “The County Election.” Bingham's wife and a son died tragically in 1848. He married Eliza Thomas, and they had a son. Bingham's public service included state legislator in 1848, state treasurer and captain in the U.S. Volunteer Reserve Corps during the Civil War, and Adjutant General in 1875. After second wife Eliza died in 1876, Bingham married longtime family friend Martha Livingston Lykins. Bingham's artistic genius led to him becoming the first art professor at the University of Missouri in 1877 and, later, earned him recognition as the most famous illustrator of American frontier life. He is buried in Kansas City's Union Cemetery.