Painted portrait of William Mercer Green
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- Legacies Classification
- Memorial Type
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- Location: Institution, City, State
- Wikidata
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Memorial Artwork
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Visual Work of Art
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Painted portrait of William Mercer Green
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This portrait of William Mercer Green, which has hung in the lobby of the Sewanee Inn since the building's completion in 2014, was painted by Helen M. Colburn between 1871 and 1884. She worked out of Washington, D.C. Bishop Green was a zealous defender of slavery and a slaveholder himself. He worked as a chaplain and professor at the University of North Carolina before his campaign for the conversion of enslaved people in Mississippi. He was an ardent supporter of secession, and after the Civil War continued to host former Confederates like Jefferson Davis at his home in Sewanee. Green's lifelong mentorship of Bishops Polk, Elliott, and Otey influenced the creation of the University of the South. He collected pledges from wealthy donors to secure an endowment for the new university, and later became Chancellor of the university in 1866 until his death in 1887.
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Oil painting in a gold frame
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Colburn, Helen M.
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1884
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2014
Position: 560 (113 views)