Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 87 pages

Format: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 31 min.

Summary: An interview of Margaret Burroughs conducted 1988 November 11-December 5, by Anna Tyler, for the Archives of American Art African-American artists in Chicago oral history project (1988-1989).

Discussion ranges from her childhood and early artistic training through her current activities. She reminisces about her experiences as a student at the School of the Chicago Art Institute, the arts in Chicago in the 1930s, the Grant Park Art Fair and the South Side Community Art Center. Other topics include World War II and the McCarthy era, her sabbatical in Mexico, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Emancipation Centennial Exposition and the Afro-American Visual Roundtable.

Biographical/Historical Note

Margaret Taylor Burroughs (1915-2010) was a painter from Chicago, Illinois.

Provenance

This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.

Funding

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Margaret Taylor Burroughs, 1988 November 11-December 5. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.