JOHN ALAN MAXWELL PAPERS
1921-1986 and undated
East
Tennessee State
University
Archives of Appalachia
Box
70295
Johnson City,
Tennessee 37614
U. S. A.
E-Mail - archives@etsu.edu
Telephone -
(423) 439-4338
________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
Title: John Alan Maxwell Papers
Collection Number: Accession No. 579
Physical description: .25 linear ft. (1 box)
2 photographs
1 oversized map folder
Creator: John Alan Maxwell
Repository: Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee
State University
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Provenance: The John Alan Maxwell Papers
were transferred to the Archives of Appalachia from the Reece Museum,
ETSU, on February 20, 2001.
The papers had originally been donated to the museum by the Rocky Mount Museum,
Piney Flats, Tenn.
Access: The collection is open for research.
Processing Information: The collection
was processed by Ned Irwin and Brian Winstead in December 2005.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
John
Alan Maxwell was born on March 7, 1904 in Roanoke,
Va. As a boy, he became
fascinated by the history of the region, and this interest continued into
adulthood and found expression in many of the illustrations and art work he
later produced on historical subjects. He grew up in Bristol,
Va., and later Johnson
City, Tenn., where he attended Science Hill High School.
Artistic
from an early age, Maxwell trained in the 1920s at the Corcoran School of Art
in Washington, D. C., and at the Art Students’ League in New York City. A need to earn a living led
Maxwell to begin professional work as an illustrator. Over the course of a long
career, he provided illustrations for many advertisements, books, and for such
magazines as Collier’s, Civil War Times Illustrated, Saturday Evening Post, Life, Cosmopolitan, and the Woman’s
Home Companion. He supplemented this bread-and-butter work with paintings,
especially commissioned portrait
paintings. Maxwell lived for many years in New York City
and returned to live in Johnson City,
Tenn., in the mid-1960s.
He
was married to Michelle O’Hara and died in Johnson City on April 13, 1984. Maxwell was
the older brother of Johnson City
photographer Clifford Maxwell, whose collection of photographs is also in the
Archives of Appalachia.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The papers of John Alan Maxwell document Maxwell’s personal
life and his career as a professional artist. The collection includes
correspondence, newspaper clippings and magazine articles, printed ephemera,
biographical information, information regarding art work and exhibits, and his
involvement in such organizations as the Tipton-Haynes Historical Association, Munsey Memorial
United Methodist
Church, and the Society
of the Sons of the American Revolution. The collection is arranged in one
series of subject files, alphabetically by topic. Undated material is filed at
the back of folders. Two photographs of John Alan Maxwell are filed in a folder
in Small Photographic Collections Box 7.
Important subjects in the collection
include the following:
Artists—United States—Tennessee
Maxwell, John Alan, 1904-1984
Tipton-Haynes Historic Site (Johnson City, Tenn.)
BOX AND FOLDER LIST
Box
1
1. Artistic
work, undated
2. Correspondence,
1945-1985 and undated
3.
Doubrava,
Jan, 1952
4.
Newsclippings
and articles, 1926-1968
5.
Newsclippings
and articles, 1970-1986 and undated
6. John
Alan Maxwell School of Art, 1963-1977
7.
Maxwell,
Jim, undated
8.
Maxwell,
John Alan: Biographical, 1921-1984 and undated
9.
Miscellaneous,
undated
10. Munsey Memorial Methodist
Church, 1976
11.
Southern
Landmark, undated
12.
Tipton-Haynes
Historical Association, 1966-1971 and undated
Oversized Folder 1
1. “John Alan Maxwell: A Long, Distinguished Career” article
by Dorothy Hamill from Johnson City
Press-Chronicle, January
17, 1981
2. “History as seen by John Alan Maxwell” article by Mark
Dawidziak from Kingsport Times-News,
August 31, 1980
3. “Artist John Maxwell busier than ever” article by Bill
Williams from Kingsport Times-News, February 17, 1984