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Photo: Betsy Phillips
In my hunt for headstones made by Nashville artist William Edmondson, I ended up at two African American cemeteries in Davidson County with, sadly, no Edmondsons, but complicated histories that are worthwhile to try to understand. We’ll get to the second one in the future.
Today, let’s focus on the Bryant Town Family Cemetery out in Donelson. Sherod Bryant came to Nashville before 1820. He was born in the early 1780s in either Virginia or North Carolina. A lot of things get said about Bryant, but tracking down actual primary sources is difficult. I’m certainly no exhaustive Bryant scholar, but it doesn’t appear that any trained historian is which is a shame, because there’s a lot of strange stuff going on with Bryant that would be interesting to know about.
Terra Foundation Awards $2 5 Million to US Arts & Culture Organizations for Permanent Collection - Artwire Press Release from ArtfixDaily com artfixdaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from artfixdaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A Famous Black Cowboy and Nashville s March of Progress Two Madison cemeteries hold connections to Nat Love â one of the most famous Black cowboys to roam the West Tweet
Famed Black cowboy Nat Love, aka Deadwood DickPhoto via Wikimedia Commons
In my quest to find heretofore undiscovered headstones carved by William Edmondson, I also spent a great deal of time in Briarville. Like Lake Providence, Briarville was a Black village in rural Davidson County that is now mostly forgotten. With the exception of Briarville Road and the two cemeteries, I havenât found anything in the area that distinguishes the area from larger Madison anymore.
Wandering Eye: Of Swindlers and Sealing Wax Editorial Staff
Courtesy of the Weiss Gallery, London.
CURIOUS OBJECTS
Strongly influenced by William Morris and the arts and crafts movement, and best known for his vibrantly colored ceramic tiles,
William De Morgan was a prolific artist whose work adorned many residences and public buildings throughout England. While tiles earned him steady commissions, his work in three dimensions is just as important. Here’s an introduction. (
Pardon our delay this week: we’ve been struggling to tear ourselves away from a fascinating article about
phenakistoscopes. The 1832 invention derives its name from the ancient Greek word for deceit, and produces an optical illusion that makes static images appear to move. A similar concept is at work in spiral spinners and flip-books, but the patterns and whimsy of phenakistoscopes is nothing short of spectacular . . . if sometimes creepy. (