Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Sewanee: The University of the South

Memorial Artwork

Visual Work of Art

Jim Crow

Stringfield, Oliver Larkin

Painted Portrait of Oliver Larkin Stringfield

Oliver Larkin Stringfield was a trustee and financial agent of Meredith College. The painting, by Jacques Busbee, was created following his time as trustee and presented to the college by the Class of 1912. The dedication was attended by the faculty and students as Meredith College considers Stringfield to be a notable founder of the school. The painting, once hung for public display in Johnson Hall, is now stored in the Remote Stacks of the Carlyle Campbell Library. Meredith College recognizes and annually honors Stringfield along with Thomas Meredith and Leonidas L. Polk as its founders. His autobiography and biographical sketches are punctuated with Lost Cause themes including tales of “faithful” enslaved persons, Union “atrocities,” and Reconstruction “nightmares.” During the Democratic Party’s 1898 White Supremacy Campaign, Stringfield raised his voice in support of the movement. During an 1898 sermon on foreign religious missions, Reverend Stringfield reportedly “had occasion to refer to negro domination in eastern North Carolina.” According to many witnesses, and widely reported in the press, Stringfield exclaimed, “not one twentieth of the horrors of negro domination has been printed in the papers—it is impossible to print the picture as black as it really is.” In closing his address, he encouraged voters to support the White Supremacy Campaign by urging “the White men in the west to come to the rescue of their brethren in the east at the ballot box in November.”

The painting of Oliver Larkin Stringfield is large, measuring 59 ½ inches by 33 ½ inches. Inside a golden frame with a plaque stating his name, birth and death years as well as the years he served as a trustee, this portrait of Stringfield depicts him as a serious and authoritative figure. He seems to be standing in front of a dark backdrop with no landscape or other natural features visible. He is poised gracefully with his hands clasped in front of him and wears a black overcoat with a white collared shirt underneath. Stringfield is staring away from the painter into the distance and is shown slightly turned to catch more of his side profile. The light catches his face while shadowing dominates the remainder of the painting.

Oliver Larkin Stringfield
1851-1930
Trustee 1892-1911

Busbee, Jacques

1912

1890-1945: Era of the Lost Cause, Jim Crow legal segregation and discrimination, and organized anti-Black racism

Meredith College Class of 1912

Meredith College; Raleigh, North Carolina

Smithsonian Article on Stringfield Painting

Meredith College Archives on Stringfield

Oak Leaves Yearbook Dedicated to Stringfield

NCPedia Entry for Busbee, Jacques (Born James Littlejohn Busbee)

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