William Traylor (1853 - 1949)

Born 1 Apr 1853 in Benton, Alabama, United States

Husband of Laurissa (Dunklin) Traylor — married 3 Aug 1891 in Lowndes, Alabama, United States

Died 23 Oct 1949 at age 96 in Montgomery, Alabama, United States

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Biography

William Traylor is Notable.

Bill Traylor was an African-American self-taught artist from Lowndes County, Alabama.^[1]

Untitled (Figure Construction with Waving Man), c.1947

William "Bill" Traylor was born in April 1853, in Benton, Alabama. He was a son of Sally and Bill Calloway who were slaves on the plantation of George Hartwell Traylor (1801-1881).

For young Traylor, the mid-1860s marks a period of radical personal and economic change. In 1865, Traylor witnesses the Confederacy’s loss to the Union. This social and political rupture is compounded by the death of his father sometime between 1860 and 1866. While the end of the war ensured his legal emancipation, Traylor remains entrapped in the economic structures of the South's Jim Crow laws. He continues to work on the plantation, but now as a sharecropper.^[2]

Traylor fathers a number of children over his lifetime.

Marriage

In 1884, Traylor married Larisa Dunklin on August 21, 1880 in Lowndes, Alabama, United States.^[3] By 1887, they have four children:

Children

1. George
2. Pauline
3. Sally
4. Mutie.

In 1887, Traylor fathers Nettie from another relationship.

2nd Marriage

On August 3, 1891 in Lowndes, Alabama, United States, Traylor married a second wife, Laurence Dunklin.^[4] Together they have the following children:^[5][6][7]

Children

1. Rueben
2. Easter
3. Clement
4. Alice
5. Lillian
6. unnamed "child"
7. William
8. Mack
9. John Henry
10. Walter.

In 1902, he has a son named Jimmie, with another woman.

Later in life, Traylor was quoted as mentioning that "he raised twenty-odd children."

Untitled (Woman), c.1939

In 1909 Traylor was farming in Montgomery County and in 1928 Traylor left for the capital city of Montgomery. Explaining his move, Traylor later remarked: "My white folks had died and my children had scattered." For 75-year-old Traylor, it would prove to be a challenging new beginning, but he rented a room and later a small shack and found work to support himself. Several years after the move, he found himself struggling to make ends meet. After rheumatism prevents him from continuing to work at a shoe factory, Traylor was forced out on to the streets. Receiving a small public assistance stipend, he became homeless. At night he slept in the back room of the Ross-Clayton Funeral Home. During the day, he camped out on Monroe Street. It was there, at the center of Montgomery's African American community, that Traylor began his artistic career.

In June 1939, Charles Shannon, a young artist, first noticed Traylor and his budding talent. Intrigued, Shannon began to repeatedly stop by Traylor's block to observe him working.

Soon after this encounter Shannon began to supply Traylor with poster paints, brushes, and drawing paper. A friendship soon transpired. In February 1940, New South, a cultural center that Shannon founded, launched the exhibit, "Bill Traylor: People’s Artist." It included a hundred of Traylor's drawings. Nevertheless, despite numerous reviews in local newspapers, none of Traylor's works were sold. The exhibit, however, remained notable. It was the only one that Traylor would lived to see.

Untitled (Man in Blue Pants), c.1939

In 1942, Traylor made his New York debut. From January 5 to January 19, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Riverdale, New York hosted "Bill Traylor: American Primitive (Work of an old Negro)". Nevertheless, while the exhibit introduces Traylor’s work to the larger New York art community, it does not result in the purchase of any Traylor pieces by any museum. Notably, Alfred Barr, the director of MoMA, offered to purchase several drawings for the museum’s collection, as well as his own personal one. However, after he only offered one or two dollars for each Traylor’s piece, the deal quickly fell through.

From 1942 to 1945, Traylor lived with his children and other relatives in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. After losing his leg to gangrene, Traylor moved back to Montgomery to live with his daughter, Sarah (Sally) Traylor Howard.

Death

On October 23, 1949, William "Bill" Traylor died at Oak Street Hospital in Montgomery. He was later buried at Mount Moriah AME Zion Cemetery in Montgomery County, Alabama, United States.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Traylor
2. ↑ United States Census, 1880, William Traylor, Beat 1 Benton, Lowndes, Alabama, United States; citing enumeration district ED 102, sheet 19C..
3. ↑ Alabama Marriages, 1816-1957, William Traylor, 1880.
4. ↑ Alabama Marriages, 1816-1957, Will Traylor, 3 Aug 1891; Lowndes, Alabama, United States .
5. ↑ United States Census, 1900, Bill Traylor, Precinct 1 Benton Benton Village, Lowndes, Alabama, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 70, sheet 9A, family 209.
6. ↑ United States Census, 1910, William Taylor, Kendall, Montgomery, Alabama, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 119, sheet 21B, family 521.
7. ↑ United States Census, 1920, William Traylor, Kendall, Montgomery, Alabama, United States; citing ED 132, sheet 10B, line 56, family 235.
8. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for William “Bill” Traylor (1 Apr 1853–23 Oct 1949), Find a Grave Memorial no. 198163398, citing Mount Moriah AME Zion Cemetery, Montgomery County, Alabama, USA.

• "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K7M-18KT : 10 February 2023), Bill Traylor in entry for Bill Traylor, .

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:3VJ3-QN2 : accessed 18 June 2020), Bill Traylor, Montgomery, Montgomery, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1, sheet , line , family .