# Laura Pope Forester

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American folk artist

Laura Pope Forester Born Laura Atkinson 31 January 1873 Thomas County, Georgia, U.S. Died 1953 (aged 79–80) Grady County, Georgia, U.S. Monuments Pope's Museum, Georgia Occupation Folk artist Spouse(s) B. H. Pope (1894–1911) J. F. Forester ​ (m. 1914)​ Children 2

**Laura Pope Forester** (also spelled **Forrester**;[1] 31 January 1873 – 1953)[2] was a self-taught American [folk artist](/source/Folk_art), who created one of the earliest outdoor art environments in the United States.[3] By the time she died in 1953, the space around Forester's rural [Georgia](/source/Georgia_(U.S._state)) home and store featured over 200 concrete sculptures, many of which celebrated notable women in history and mythology.[2]

## Life

Laura Pope Forester was born Laura Atkinson on 31 January 1873 in [Thomas County, Georgia](/source/Thomas_County%2C_Georgia), the daughter of Hezekiah and Katura Davis Atkinson .[4] As a child, she was taught to sculpt with clay and create dyes from berries and other natural materials.[5] At 21, she married B. H. Pope, a school teacher.[6][5] The couple had two sons, who were 12 and 14 when her husband died in 1911.[5] She later married J. F. Forester.[7]

Between 1917 and 1953, Laura Pope Forester created what is possibly the oldest known outside art space in the United States.[8] Her works depicted people, particularly women, whose traits and achievements she admired, and included [Cleopatra](/source/Cleopatra), [World War I](/source/World_War_I)'s Red Cross nurses, and [Scarlett O’Hara](/source/Scarlett_O'Hara).[9] Forester typically built her figures using found objects, such as scrap iron and tin cans, which she then covered in concrete, and often coloured using handmade dyes.[10]

Forester also painted prolifically, her works ranging from landscapes to religious and historical scenes.[2] As well as on the interior walls of her home, she painted on stretched flour sacks and other homemade "canvases".[2] In 1961, a newspaper report described Forester and her work:

Mrs. Forester’s inventiveness was almost as incredible as her talent. Besides using scrap iron from junkyards, discarded tin cans and other waste material as braces for her statues, she painted the figures with liquids of many flowers and brightly colored berries…[11]

A journalist for the *Macon Telegraph* described Forester herself as:

a gracious, friendly lady, tiny brown curls slipping from the knot worn high upon her head, cool clear complexion, light brown eyes which brightened when she talked, and a charming smile. Her voice is lovely, low yet vibrant with life and her words have a way of rippling forth.[5]

During her lifetime, Forester achieved national recognition, including by the [*Smithsonian*](/source/Smithsonian_(magazine)) journal, and the [Library of Congress](/source/Library_of_Congress).[8] She did not, however, exhibit her work in shows.[12] Following her death, the home (by then known as 'Mrs Pope's Museum') remained as a roadside curiosity and tourist attraction, until it was sold in 1974.[10] Many of the freestanding sculptures were removed, taken down, or destroyed, leaving only those built into the walls.[10]

Today, Forester's former home is a museum.[12] In 2021 Forester was added to the [Georgia Women of Achievement](/source/Georgia_Women_of_Achievement) hall of fame.[13]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Laura Pope Forester's Art: What's Left • Deep Fried Kudzu"](https://deepfriedkudzu.com/2013/06/laura-pope-foresters-art-whats-left.html/). *Deep Fried Kudzu*. 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_2-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:0_2-3) ["Pope Store Museum"](https://www.cairogachamber.com/pope-store-museum.html). *Grady County Chamber of Commerce*. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Mrs. Pope's Museum | New Georgia Encyclopedia"](https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/file/5465). *www.georgiaencyclopedia.org*. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Mrs. Laura Pope Forester Died at Grady Co. Home"](https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/us-and-world-newspapers/page/view/189298297). *Thomasville Press*. 6 February 1953.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:3_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:3_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:3_5-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:3_5-3) ["Information about Pope's Museum"](https://web.archive.org/web/20220514051418/http://spaces-art-environments.org/uploads/2014/07/24/ga708pope005.pdf) (PDF). *Spaces*. Archived from the original on May 14, 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["United States Marriages"](https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=US/FS/M/077088485/2). *Find My Past*. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-:2_7-0)** Grady County Historical Society (2003). *A dash, a pinch, a smidgen : more than a cookbook*. Cairo, Ga.: Grady County Historical Society. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-300-35564-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-300-35564-9). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [53977588](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/53977588).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_8-1) ["Where Women Made History"](https://contest.savingplaces.org/srbx4yxw). *contest.savingplaces.org*. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** ["Mrs. Pope's Museum and Garden"](http://spacesarchives.org/explore/search-the-online-collection/laura-pope-forrester-mrs-popes-museum-and-garden/). *Spaces Archives*. 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:4_10-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:4_10-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:4_10-2) ["Laura Pope Forrester, Mrs. Pope's Museum and Garden | SPACES"](https://web.archive.org/web/20220512233815/http://spaces-art-environments.org/explore/collection/environment/laura-pope-forrester-mrs-popes-museum-and-garden/). *spaces-art-environments.org*. Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Unique Museum Has Over 200 Hand-Carved Statues"](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gpokAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YTEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6916%2C2528851). *Rome News-Tribune*. 23 March 1961.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:5_12-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:5_12-1) ["About The Museum | Popes Museum Farm | United States"](https://www.popesmuseumfarm.com/about-the-museum). *Popesmuseumfarm*. Retrieved 2020-12-24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-GaWomen_13-0)** ["Laura Pope Forester"](https://www.georgiawomen.org/forester-laura-pope). Georgia Women of Achievement. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210122232127/https://www.georgiawomen.org/forester-laura-pope) from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.

## External links

- [1948 photograph of Laura Pope Forrester carving a statue](https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/ajc/id/9490), from the [Georgia State University Library](/source/Georgia_State_University_Library) Digital Collections

- [Old pamphlet for Pope's Museum](https://web.archive.org/web/20220514052059/http://spaces-art-environments.org/uploads/2014/07/24/ga708pope004.pdf)

Authority control databases International VIAF National United States

v t e Georgia Women of Achievement 1990s 1992 Martha Berry Lucy Craft Laney Juliette Gordon Low Flannery O'Connor 1993 Dicksie Bradley Bandy Mary Musgrove Cassandra Pickett Durham Viola Ross Napier Ma Rainey 1994 Julia Flisch Carson McCullers Margaret Mitchell Ruth Hartley Mosley Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman 1995 Selena Sloan Butler Anna Colquitt Hunter Hazel Jane Raines 1996 Susan Cobb Milton Atkinson Nellie Peters Black Ellen Craft Corra Harris Lugenia Burns Hope 1997 Rebecca Latimer Felton Mary Ann Harris Gay Nancy Hart Lucy Barrow McIntire 1998 Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Julia Collier Harris Rhoda Kaufman Carrie Steele Logan 1999 Moina Michael Lillian Smith 2000s 2000 Sallie Ellis Davis Laura Askew Haygood Ellen Axson Wilson 2001 Julia L. Coleman Catherine Evans Whitener 2002 Wessie Gertrude Connell Lula Dobbs McEachern Alice Harrell Strickland 2003 Madeleine Kiker Anthony Helena Maud Brown Cobb Julia Lester Dillon Leila Ross Wilburn 2004 Mathilda Beasley Louise Frederick Hays Helen Dortch Longstreet Sarah McLendon Murphy Emily Barnelia Woodward 2005 Alice Woodby McKane Nina Anderson Pape Jeannette Rankin 2006 Eliza Frances Andrews Grace Towns Hamilton Sarah Porter Hillhouse 2007 Margaret O. Bynum Edith Lenora Foster Helen Douglas Mankin Sara Branham Matthews 2008 Elfrida De Renne Barrow Amilee Chastain Graves Susan Dowdell Myrick 2009 Caroline Pafford Miller Jane Hurt Yarn Harriet Powers 2010s 2010 Mary Ann Lipscomb Celestine Sibley Madrid Williams 2011 Lillian Gordy Carter Mary Francis Hill Coley May duBignon Stiles Howard 2012 Sarah Randolph Bailey Beulah Rucker Oliver Ethel Harpst 2013 Lollie Belle Wylie Mary Gregory Jewett Henrietta Stanley Dull 2014 Rebecca Stiles Taylor Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas Bazoline Estelle Usher 2015 Allie Carroll Hart Frances Freeborn Pauley Nell Kendall Hodgson Woodruff 2016 Sarah Harper Heard Ellamae Ellis League Katie Hall Underwood 2017 Carolyn Mackenzie Carter Clermont Huger Lee Lucile Nix 2018 Ludie Clay Andrews Susie Baker King Taylor Mamie George S. Williams 2019 Leila Denmark Mary Dorothy Lyndon 2020s 2020 Clarice Cross Bagwell Katharine DuPre Lumpkin Juanita Marsh Jean Elizabeth Geiger Wright 2021 Ruby M. Anderson Mary G. Bryan Laura Pope Forester Allie Murray Smith 2022 Lizzie Lurline Collier Josephine Fields Sanders Hedy West Josephine Wilkins 2023 Phyllis Jenkins Barrow Alice Coachman Luck Flanders Gambrell Dorothy Rogers Tilly 2024 Beatrice Hirsch Haas Adella Hunt Logan Valerie Murphey Elizabeth "Bessie" Tift 2025 Jessye Norman Alma Thomas

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