Indianapolis has a rich history of visual arts. The city’s cultural heritage has been enriched from the early days of settlement when German immigrant Samuel Rooker painted the city’s first signs and artist Jacob Cox painted portraits of leading citizens and the surrounding landscape. Later, the Hoosier Group artists — William Forsyth, T. C. Steele, J. Otis Adams, Otto Stark, and Richard Gruelle — introduced impressionism to Indiana, and with the opening of John Herron Art Institute promising local artists could receive professional training.
Among early artists who learned the craft at the hands of teachers like Forsyth and Stark, were African-Americans John Wesley Hardrick and William Edouard Scott. While these Black painters went on to receive great praise for their work, little is known of their African-American contemporaries or those Black artists who proceeded them.
The first known African-American visual artist in Indianapolis was Henry Jackson “H.J.” Lewis, a wood engraver, illustrator, and cartoonist. Lewis was born into slavery in 1837 in Yalobusha County, Mississippi and while an infant he fell into a fireplace and was severely burned, losing his left eye. When he was freed during the Civil War, Lewis served in the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry, afterwards settling in Little Rock, Arkansas where he learned carpentry and worked as a self-taught freelance artist. His drawings appeared in Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Lewis was also hired by the Smithsonian Institution to sketch mound surveys in Mississippi. He was hired as a porter with the Arkansas Gazette and picked up engraving techniques while watching the white engravers preparing illustrations for the paper. Lewis moved to Pine Bluff before coming to Indianapolis in January 1888 where his work in the Freeman established his reputation as “the first black political cartoonist.” Lewis died of pneumonia at his near southside home on April 10, 1891 and was buried in Mt. Jackson Cemetery.
The Freeman, described as “America’s First Illustrated Colored Weekly,” provided a format for other Black artists. Moses L. Tucker joined the paper’s staff in June 1889 as an artist and caricaturist. He came to Indianapolis from Atlanta, Georgia where he drew for the Cracker. His sketches also appeared in the New York World and other papers. Tragically three years after arriving in the Hoosier capital, Tucker was “adjudged insane” and institutionalized. Moses “Mose” Tucker died on March 31, 1926 in a little brick cottage that he had built on the grounds of the Marion County Hospital for the Insane at Julietta.
A native Hoosier, Garfield Thomas Haywood had a brief career as an illustrator and editorial cartoonist before devoting his life to the ministry. He had no formal instruction in drawing but “developed considerable skill as an artist in freehand sketching and inspirational drawing.” Haywood was working as a moulder at Indianapolis Malleable Iron Works near his Haughville home when he was asked by the publisher of the Indianapolis Recorder to create editorial cartoons for the paper, the first one appearing on January 18, 1902. Later that year, Haywood drew the frontispiece for the holiday edition of the Freeman. He also organized annual art exhibits for the benefit of St. Paul Baptist Church featuring his cartoons and the works of Black artists Flavel Waggoner, William Scott, and Garland Johnston. Several years later, Haywood taught a night school class in cartooning and comic art at the Y. M. C. A. In 1907 he illustrated “Harvest of Thoughts,” by Indianapolis Black poet Aaron Bedford Thompson, and soon after he became the pastor of Christ Temple and presiding bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Bishop Haywood died on April 12, 1931 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.
Specializing in crayon, pen and ink, Flavel “Flavius” H. L. Waggoner was an African-American artist of great promise. He studied art at Shortridge High School, and while still a student his works were selected to be exhibited at Chicago and San Francisco in 1900. When Bobbs-Merrill Co. sought submissions of a poster to be used in advertising the novel, When Knighthood was in Flower, Waggoner won the prize. Sadly, a few months after showing in the St. Paul Baptist Church art exhibit, Flavel Waggoner died of blood poisoning at his home, 816 Blake St, on December 27, 1902 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.
African-American artist William “Will” E. Scott received his initial training in the art department of Manual High School under the direction of Otto Stark, and he continued to perfect his skills at Herron Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago. After further study in France, Scott returned to Indianapolis where his paintings were exhibited at the studio of Otto Stark. His works received critical acclaim across racial lines, and he was the only Black artist selected by William Forsyth in 1914 to be one of the artists to participate in “the most ambitious and monumental work yet undertaken by Indianapolis artists,” the murals of the children’s wards in the Burdsal units of the city hospital. Scott continued to achieve success with his portraits and murals until his death in Chicago on May 15, 1964.
Raised in the Norwood neighborhood, southeast Indianapolis, John W. Hardrick attended Center Township School No. 5 where his teacher, Ada B. Harris, encouraged him to pursue his artistic talents. Continuing his education at Manual High School, he honed his skill under the guidance of Otto Stark and entered several paintings in the Indiana State Fair where he won awards. Hardrick received additional training at Herron Art Institute where his teacher William Forsyth was “a great inspiration to the colored artists.” While his work received critical praise and he was a nationally recognized artist, Hardrick remained in Indianapolis, finding it necessary to work various jobs to support himself and his family. In later years he drove a taxi, selling his paintings out of the trunk. On October 18, 1968, Hardrick died and was buried in Crown Hill.
Unfortunately, many other Indianapolis Black artists received little recognition, particularly women. In 1913 the Indianapolis Recorder noted Frances Spencer was a “young lady of unusual talent,” winning awards for her china paintings. She was also skilled in pen and ink drawing and oil painting. The “colored” Senate Avenue Y.M.C.A. displayed the work of American Black artists in the spring of 1930 that included “decorative work in both oils and watercolors” by Ruth H. Wales and “commendable work, chiefly still life studies in watercolor” by Willa Mae Terry, Victoria Hopper, and Octavene Beachem.
Today, the work of Indianapolis African American visual artists can be seen and celebrated at various venues and since 2021 at the annual Butter Art Fair.
