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

Memorial Artwork

Visual Work of Art

Lost Cause

Fairbanks, George Rainsford

Quintard, Charles Todd

Painting of the Second Founding of the University of the South

An Episcopal priest, the Rev. Thomas J. Crosby, painted “The Second Founding” and gave it to the University of the South in 1938. An 1894 graduate of the University, he had remained closely associated with Sewanee over the years. The painting expressed his dedication to Sewanee and also the worldview of the Lost Cause. Upon its donation in 1938, it was hung in the library, and the student newspaper, the Sewanee Purple, reported that it was Crosby’s “labor of love” for his Alma Mater. In 2014, it was hung in the Sewanee Inn.

The painting depicts the simple religious ceremony reinaugurating the institution in 1866, led by the Rt. Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, the first Vice-Chancellor of the University, and two clergymen. In the right background is the former Confederate Major George Rainsford Fairbanks, dressed in his uniform; on the left, a white couple, their child, and an elderly Black man. According to the Purple, all have historical references except the child, “put in to give harmony to the composition,” and the Black man. “Explaining the presence of the old darky, Mr. Crosby says, ’there was never an important ceremony in the South without one.’”

Crosby’s depiction of the Second Founding is prominently displayed today above the massive fireplace in a reception area of the Sewanee Inn. Despite its claims to historical accuracy, it is a Lost Cause fantasy about the post-emancipation social order, with an unreconstructed Confederate officer and formerly enslaved man there to signify his loyalty to the men who fought to keep him enslaved. Though unintended, the display of the painting glorifies the aesthetics and influences of the Lost Cause.

46" x 56" oil painting in a gold frame

The Second Founding of the University of the South, March 22, 1866

Crosby, Thomas J.

1938

2014

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

2000-Present: Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement

Crosby, Thomas J.

University of the South; Sewanee, Tennessee

Charles Todd Quintard

George Rainsford Fairbanks

“New Painting Donated For University Library.” The Sewanee Purple, May 26, 1938.

Williamson, Samuel R. Jr. “Peace, Desolation, Unconquerable Ambitions: The Second Founding of the University of the South.” Sewanee, 2016.

Obituary for the Rev. T.J. Crosby, New York Times, July 14, 1941

The Second Founding of the University of the South