New Hunter exhibit showcases Eudora Welty’s 1930s photos
One of my favorite short stories of all time is Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” I read it in high school, and its charming evocation of a South I would never know ensnared me.
Most people know Welty as a revered Southern writer, but not nearly as many know she was also an expert photographer. The Hunter Museum brings her photography skills to our attention in its new exhibit, “Eudora Welty and the Segregated South.” The photos featured were all taken during the Depression, when Welty traveled her native Mississippi working as a photographer for the WPA. Hunter materials say this about that time: “Later, she recalled that it was her experience as a WPA photographer that inspired the honest and penetrating voice that characterized her writing. She explained that while working for the WPA, ‘my feelings were engaged by the outside world, I think for the first time.’”
This is another coup for the Hunter in an outstanding season of exhibits. Don’t miss it, and don’t forget that April 5 will be “First Free Sunday” at the museum.
“Eudora Welty and the Segregated South,” Hunter Museum, 10 Bluff View. (423) 267-0969, huntermuseum.org