Carnegie Visual Arts Center

…

The  The Art & Life of Adelaide Mahan exhibit contains the artwork and personal belongings of Adelaide Eleanor Mahan. Adelaide painted in both oil and watercolor as
well as drawing in pencil and ink. Her talent as an artist and her
interesting life history make her a colorful and notable Alabamian. Dr. Mike Mahan, her great nephew, and his wife, Dr. Linda Mahan, are the conservators of the Adelaide E. Mahan collection.

Adelaide Eleanor Mahan was born in 1872 Brierfield, Alabama. She grew up in Brierfield until 1901 at which time she enrolled in the Female School of Design at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. At Cooper Union she studied under notable instructors such as J.H. Twachtman and Willard Metcalf. During the summer of 1902 she traveled to Cape Cod where she studied under William Hawthorne at the Hawthorne School of Art (also known as the Cape Cod School of Art.) Adelaide returned to Brierfield in 1903 where she remained for several years. She also traveled to Honduras to visit her brother, Jesse W. Mahan, Jr., whom had started a banana plantation. Adelaide then returned to New York to complete her art studies at Cooper Union and graduated in 1911 receiving several honors for her art.

Following graduation she returned to Brierfield where she lived a relatively quiet life although remaining active and involved in various activities such as the Studiosis Club and the Birmingham Art Association. She supported herself by painting, and creating emulsion film photography which was a state-of-the-art process for the time. She also created and sold greeting cards and kept bees.
Relatives remember their aunt as a pretty and extremely high-spirited lady who never married. Her adventurous and creative life ended in 1959 and she is buried in the Brierfield Cemetery.