Jessie Housley Holliman

Jessie Housley Holliman (née Jessie May Housley; May 27, 1905 – August 10, 1984) was an African-American educator, muralist, printmaker, and commercial artist active in St. Louis, Missouri from 1929 until 1949.

Biography Though very little is known about her early life, Jessie May Housley was born on March 27, 1905, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Education Jessie remained a voracious learner and education advocate throughout her life, doing whatever was necessary to receive the schooling she desperately sought. Jessie graduated from Sumner High School, the first high school in Missouri built to serve African-American students, in 1925. At around the same time, she was a regular attendee at free classes offered by local artist Joe Jones. While in New York City, Holliman also attended many art classes at Columbia University. Rather than accept defeat, Holliman decided to do whatever was necessary to gain access to the art lessons. The school refused to accept her as a student so Jessie applied to work as a model for the same classes she had attempted to enroll in. She was successful and worked in the classes for several years, effectively obtaining the artistic knowledge she was denied.

Jessie Housley Holliman died on August 10, 1984, in St. Louis, Missouri at the age of 79 following a lengthy illness. She is buried at Washington Park Cemetery in Berkeley, just outside of the city of St. Louis. While working as a teacher, Jessie also freelanced as a commercial artist and fashion illustrator. The portrait's current whereabouts are unknown.

Murals In the mid–1930s, Holliman began studying the art of fresco murals. The Urban League of St. Louis hired her to paint a large mural titled Racial and Industrial Harmony, which has since been destroyed as the building was demolished. She also painted a mural titled Christ's Fellowship for Central Baptist Church in St. Louis, but the artwork was destroyed by a fire in 1971. The mural can be found inside, above the entrance to the New Masonic Temple in St. Louis. The building was designed by the Eames & Young architecture firm with assistance from architect Albert B. Groves in 1926, and it was declared a historic city landmark in 1976. The mural was on public display until 2018, when the freemasons sold the building to a private buyer.

Exhibitions In 1929, Jessie's paintings titled Meditation was accepted to the Smithsonian's Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by Negro Artists alongside the work of several other artists from St. Louis.

In 1936, Jessie's pencil lithograph Left–Handed Ironer was awarded the grand prize in the Seventh Annual Art Exhibit of the St. Louis Urban League. The exhibition was held in the Arts and Crafts Hall of one of the largest department stores in St. Louis, Stix Baer & Fuller, where it was viewed by hundreds of both black and white visitors. The grand prize was awarded by local cartoonist E. Simms Campbell, who sponsored it in honor of his mother Mary who had been a longtime local schoolteacher. As a result of her win, Jessie was given the opportunity to illustrate the February 1936 cover of Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, a monthly periodical that was published nationwide by the National Urban League. Holliman exhibited at least three additional black and white lithographs at the show titled Peace, Gossip, and Baachanalis. All four of her exhibited artworks were shared in a two–page feature article published in the following issue in March 1936.

Jessie Housely Holliman exhibited prolifically in St. Louis and beyond for approximately twenty years between 1929 and 1949. The following is a small selection of her exhibit record:

Exhibition of Fine Arts by American Negro Artists, Harmon Foundation and The Federal Council of Churches, New York City, 1929. Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by American Negro Artists, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1929. Art Alliance of St. Louis Exhibition, 1929. Awarded first prize for work in black and white. Exhibition of Productions by Negro Artists, Harmon Foundation, New York City, 1933. Seventh Annual Art Exhibit of the St. Louis Urban League, Stix Baer & Fuller, 1936. Awarded grand prize for Left–Handed Ironer lithograph.