In 1942, Jacob Lawrence, who was then in his twenties, completed his series of 60 small tempera paintings that along with textual captions depict the "Great Migration," the movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the early twentieth century. The Phillips Collection acquired 30 of these panels, and another 30 panels are owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. All 60 paintings are currently on loan to the Seattle Art Museum in celebration of Lawrence's 100th birthday, but the Phillips has created this web feature that can be viewed at anytime. Visitors can browse all 60 panels with Lawrence's own video commentary (recorded prior to his death in 2000). Textual transcripts are also available. Other sections include migrant's letters, resources for educators, and curated responses to the panels by artists and poets such as Kerry James Marshall and Lou Stovall. There is additional video of curator commentaries, and the Jacob Lawrence's Harlem section features photographs by Lawrence's contemporary Gordon Parks along with a playlist of music from the 1920s and 30s, including Lead Belly, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong.
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