Patricia DuBose Duncan

Patricia DuBose Duncan (August 16, 1932 – September 17, 2021) was an American artist who lived in Topsham, Maine. She is best known for her work to gain support for designating some of the last remaining tall grass prairie land in the American Midwest, as the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. This land was publicized in a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition (S.I.T.E.S.) in 1976-86 as a Bicentennial Exhibition. The exhibit has been digitally preserved by Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.

Duncan has paintings and photographs hanging in museums across the country, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas, the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art in Manhattan, Kansas, and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Background Duncan was born in Nashville, Tennessee on August 16, 1932.

Duncan married another graduate of the Washington University, Herb Duncan. He joined the Navy soon after the Korean War draft was enacted, and during his service, he was stationed in Newport, Rhode Island and Long Beach California.

Career

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Much of Duncan's work during the 1970s focused on the interests of the environmental movement. The Smithsonian Institution, with additional support from the Hallmark Corporation, commissioned Duncan to create a large traveling exhibit as part of their Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service: "The Tallgrass Prairie: An American Landscape." Notably, she recruited noted photographer and Kansas native, Gordon Parks, to help her with the campaign.

Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum also contains 98 works by Duncan. The Beach Museum of Art published a collection of her art, Taking Root: the Art of Patricia Dubose Duncan.