Oral history interview with Margaret Taylor Burroughs
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 31 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Burroughs, Margaret Taylor, 1915-2010
label: Interviewer
content: Tyler, Anna, 1933-
label: Names
content: African American Artists in Chicago Oral History Project
label: Names
content: South Side Community Art Center
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Illinois -- Chicago
label: Topic
content: African American artists
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
label: Topic
content: African American women educators
label: Topic
content: African American women poets
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Burroughs, Margaret Taylor, 1915-2010
label: Interviewer
content: Tyler, Anna, 1933-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Margaret Taylor Burroughs (1917-2010) was a painter, poet, and art educator who lived and worked in Chicago, Illinois.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 57 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1988 November 11-December 5
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.burrou88
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Margaret Burroughs conducted 1988 November 11-December 5, by Anna Tyler, for the Archives of American Art African American artists in Chicago oral history project (1988-1989).
label: Scope and Contents
content: Burroughs recalls her childhood and early artistic training through her current activities. She reminisces about her experiences as a student at the School of the Chicago Art Institute, the arts in Chicago in the 1930s, the Grant Park Art Fair, Chicago Negro People's Theater, African American Visual Artists Association, Lake Meadows Art Fair, Chicago Park Board, National Conference of Negro Artists, and the South Side Community Art Center. Other topics include WPA, World War II and the McCarthy era, her sabbatical in Mexico, awards and honors,  the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Emancipation Centennial Exposition and the Afro-American Visual Roundtable. She discusses her teaching career in Chicago Public Schools and at Kennedy King College. She also discusses facing racism and discrimination, her exhibitions, and the philosophy of her artwork. She reads her poem, "What Shall I Tell my Children Who are Black?" She recalls her associations with Elizabeth Catlett; Sophie Wessel; Si Gordon; Kathleen Blackshear; Charles Sebree; Charlemae Rollins; Bernard Goss, and Marion Perkins, among others.