Archives Road Trip: South Carolina
Blanche Lazzell (1878–1956) kept this diary while attending boarding school at South Carolina Coeducational Institute in Edgefield. Lazzell provided details on her day-to-day life—her art classes, her friends, and the weather. After graduating in in 1900, she observed on her train home: “It was a lonely spring evening, I watched the sun go down behind the tall green pines. The moon came up and greeted the lonely little girl. I watched the old moon and it seemed to speak and cheer me on my lonely journey.” The thoughtful young artist eventually became a multi-talented printmaker and designer.
Lazzell's diary is currently on view in our exhibition, Off the Beaten Track: A Road Trip through the Archives of American Art, on view through June 3 in our Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in Washington, D.C.