The Akron Art Museum is presenting selections from Jacob Lawrence’s celebrated screen prints in “The Legend of John Brown” until February 14, 2010.

Location: Akron Art Museum, One South High, Akron, OH 44308

This fall marks the 150th anniversaries of John Brown’s anti-slavery raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, and his December 2, 1859 execution. To commemorate this famous Akron resident, the Akron Art Museum presents selections from Jacob Lawrence’s celebrated print series The Legend of John Brown. Lawrence, one of the most significant American artists of the 20th century, was also the first African American to depict the story of the controversial white abolitionist.

Lawrence’s screenprints, which are owned by the museum, will be joined by related images and artifacts from the Summit County Historical Society and the Akron-Summit County Public Library Special Collections Division. A Northerner, Brown (1800-1859) worked on farms in Northeast Ohio before moving in 1844 into a two-room cottage across from the mansion of Simon Perkins, Jr., for whom he worked in the wool trade. Brown’s religious convictions led him to oppose slavery. He regularly housed slaves moving through the Underground Railroad in his Akron home. Now part of the Summit County Historical Society, it houses a permanent display about Brown’s life.

http://www.akronartmuseum.org/exhibitions/details.php?unid=1272