Anna Heyward Taylor (1879-1956)

A descendant of a wealthy cotton planting family from Columbia, South Carolina, she had a grandfather who owned one of the largest cotton plantations in the State. In 1929, she moved to Charleston permanently and became known for her woodblock prints of women flower vendors, usually posed against an historical structure of the city. She was one of the Charleston Renaissance group of artists, active between 1915 and 1940, that did etchings and prints of Charleston scenes that were widely circulated and brought national recognition to the area. Because of her background, she was more than sensitive to working conditions of the poor in the textile industry, and some of her watercolors reflected these social concerns.

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