Bill Traylor

Who was Bill Traylor?

William "Bill" Traylor was a self-taught artist born into slavery on a plantation belonging to George Hartwell Traylor near Benton, in Lowndes County, Alabama. After emancipation, his family continued to farm on the plantation until the 1930s. In 1939, at age eighty-five, he moved to Montgomery, where he slept in the back room of a funeral home and in a shoemaker's shop. During the day, he sat on the sidewalk and drew images of the people he saw on the street and remembered scenes from life on the farm, hanging his works on the fence behind him, employing found materials such as pencil stubs and shirt cardboard. That year, he met Charles Shannon, a painter, who, with friends from the 'New South' cultural group, brought Traylor art supplies, such as poster paints, and drawing paper, and bought his drawings for nominal sums.

During the next four years, Traylor produced between 1200 and 1500 drawings. In February, 1940, the New South hosted an exhibition of Traylor drawings, and in 1942, the Fieldston School in Riverdale, New York, hosted an exhibition organized by Victor E. D'Amico. The shows produced no sales. During World War II, while Shannon served in the South Pacific, Traylor moved north to live with relatives. Returning to Montgomery in 1945, he lived on the street again until relief workers insisted that he move in with a daughter who lived in Montgomery. A requiem mass was held for Traylor at St. Jude Church after his death October 23, 1949.