today in Black history - feb 22

Painter, lithographer, cartographer, Grafton Tyler Brown was born on February 22, 1841

Grafton Tyler Brown, View of the Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 1890, oil on canvas, 30 1⁄4 x 20 1⁄8 in. (76.9 x 51.2 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum

Grafton Tyler Brown may not be a familiar name to those outside of art circles, but his life and work are certainly remarkable. He is known as the first professionally recognized African American artist in the state of California and was a trailblazing cartographer and lithographer.

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston's website says this of Brown:

"Brown’s often-overlooked story is that of a successful, ambitious, and skilled professional artist who navigated class and racial divisions in order to market his work to wealthy tourists visiting the natural wonders of the West and Pacific Northwest. To paint a landscape is, in some small way, to possess that land, to stake a claim to knowing and belonging to it. With his art, Grafton Tyler Brown made a place for himself in the American West."