VAM galleries including this work:
The Kentucky Library and Museum | Kentucky Past and Present || VAM Home

Harry Jackson illustrated the letters he wrote to his family members as a serviceman in World War II. In this letter, he used line to create patterns that depict water, trees, and vegetation, with hatching to create shadow and to suggest form and depth. The placement of the drawing at the bottom of the page led him to incorporate the words as part of the visual aesthetic.

About the Artist

Harry Lucellus Jackson was born in a log cabin in Warren County, Kentucky, on January 23, 1907, and attended local schools until the age of 17. He and one of his sisters then moved to Detroit, where he worked during the day and took art classes at night. Later he moved to New York City, where he continued to take art classes and began working in the art realm. His art background helped him secure the position of Kentucky supervisor of the Works Progress Administration Arts and Crafts program in 1938.

During World War II, from 1942 to 1945, Jackson served as a Special Services officer in Europe. His expressive and well-written letters to family members relay some of the horrors of the war, but he stressed that beauty could still be observed in the landscape and local people, especially children. His letters contain sketches depicting everything from magnificent cathedrals he had visited to everyday sights, such as German vehicles and his foxhole. He also collected art in various media.

Jackson died on June 30, 1985, in his hometown of Bowling Green, where he had lived since 1977.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: Read the letter. Where was Jackson when he wrote it? Is there any connection between the letter and the illustration? Why do you think Jackson illustrated his letters? Have you ever sent or received a letter that included an illustration?

Compare this letter to the Miller family fraktur in the Kentucky Historical Society gallery of the Kentucky Virtual Art Museum.

Activity: Research World War II. Find out what was going on in Holland in 1944, which is where the soldier who wrote this letter was stationed. Try to imagine yourself in his shoes. Write a letter as if you were a soldier in World War II, stationed in Holland in 1944 or at some other place and point during the war. How would you feel? What would you miss most about home?

Links

The Legacy Project is a nationwide effort to preserve letters from soldiers.
[www.dogrun.com/mission/]

Explore a timeline of World War II in Europe, with photos and text, at the History Place.
[www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm]

Read more letters from WWII on the History Channel web site.
[www.historychannel.com/exhibits/dearhome/ever.html]

A variety of interesting links on letter writing past and present can be found on Wendy Russ’s Letters, Letter Writing, and Other Intimate Discourse page.
[www.wendy.com/letterwriting/#fiction]