Vinton Liddell Pickens
{{short description|American artist and activist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Vinton Liddell Pickens
| image = VintonLiddellPickens1922.png
| alt = A young white woman, seated on a step outdoors, wearing a dark blouse and long skirt, and a hat with a floppy brim
| caption = Vinton Liddell, from the 1922 Bryn Mawr College yearbook
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| birth_date = January 1, 1900
| birth_place = Charlotte, North Carolina
| death_date = November 25, 1993
| death_place = Ashburn, Virginia
| occupation = County planner, artist, activist
| years_active =
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}}
Vinton Liddell Pickens (January 1, 1900 – November 25, 1993) was an American artist and activist based in Loudoun County, Virginia, where she chaired the county's first planning board from 1941 to 1964.
Early life
Vinton Liddell was born in Charlotte, North Carolina,{{Cite news|last=Borden|first=Pat|date=1977-10-11|title=Home Looks Different Now|pages=8|work=The Charlotte Observer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84239491/home-looks-different-nowpat-borden/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of Vinton Liddell Sr. and Jane Hyde Hall Liddell (later Battle).{{Cite web|date=1994|title=Virginia Senate Joint Resolution 67|url=https://trackbill.com/bill/virginia-senate-joint-resolution-67-on-the-death-of-vinton-liddell-pickens/502555/|access-date=2021-08-27|website=TrackBill|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=1915-12-30|title=In Honor of Miss Vinton Liddell|pages=5|work=The Charlotte News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84234767/in-honor-of-miss-vinton-liddell/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} Her parents were both born in Pennsylvania; her father owned a cotton mill, and died in 1915.{{Cite news|date=1915-05-15|title=Death Comes to Vinton Liddell|pages=5|work=The Charlotte News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84234495/death-comes-to-vinton-liddell/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} She attended the Shipley School and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1922.{{Cite news|last=Koklanaris|first=Maria|date=1990-01-11|title=Loudoun's Pioneer in Planning|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/01/11/loudouns-pioneer-in-planning/14e9b71b-3c0d-450c-9d0c-82741f021554/|access-date=2021-08-27|issn=0190-8286}} She pursued further studies in Rome,{{Cite news|last=Hostetler|first=Gerry|date=1993-11-28|title=Vinton Liddell Pickens lover of tradition, dies|pages=40|work=The Charlotte Observer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84231805/vinton-liddell-pickens-lover-of/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} and at the University of North Carolina.{{Cite news|date=1924-02-19|title=Newspaper Man, Student, Wins Bride|pages=7|work=The Times Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84232119/newspaper-man-student-wins-bride/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} She studied painting with Eugen Weisz.{{Cite news|date=1955-01-30|title=Mrs. Pickens' Paintings to be Shown|pages=28|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84238527/mrs-pickens-paintings-to-be-shown/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
In 1941, Pickens was appointed to the first Loudoun County planning commission, and became the commission's chair.{{Cite web|last=|date=2021-03-25|title=Loudoun Supervisors Mark Women's History Month|url=https://loudounnow.com/2021/03/25/loudoun-supervisors-mark-womens-history-month/|access-date=2021-08-27|website=Loudoun Now|language=en-US}} On her watch, Loudoun County established zoning ordinances that banned billboards; she was also head of the commission during the construction of Dulles Airport. She was also president of the Virginia Citizens' Planning Association.{{Cite news|date=1956-08-03|title=Planning Groups to Hold Meeting at Charlottesville|pages=5|work=The Times Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84240994/planning-groups-to-hold-meeting-at/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} She led demonstrations against the Concorde as an environmental hazard in the 1970s.{{Cite news|last=Rubin|first=James H.|date=1977-04-18|title=D.C. Finds Concorde Not So Bad|pages=4|work=News-Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84238246/dc-finds-concorde-not-so-badjames-h/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} Pickens was named Loudoun's 1986 Citizen of the Year. She gave an oral history interview to the Loudoun County Oral History Project in 1990.{{Cite web|title=A Guide to the Loudoun County Oral History Project, 1975-1998|url=https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=tbl/viletbl00239.xml|access-date=2021-08-27|website=Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia}}
Pickens was also an artist, whose colorful landscapes and drawings were exhibited nationally,{{Cite news|date=1971-04-22|title=N. C. Artist Exhibiting Paintings|pages=40|work=The Charlotte Observer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84237298/n-c-artist-exhibiting-paintings/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=VanKleeck|first=Richard|date=1969-06-29|title=Art in Asheville|pages=7|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84238867/art-in-ashevillerichard-vankleeck/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} including a solo show at the Mint Museum in Charlotte in 1954.{{Cite news|date=1954-12-02|title=Reception Set at Mint Museum|pages=28|work=The Charlotte Observer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84239629/reception-set-at-mint-museum/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} She published a book about her travels in Sri Lanka, Serendipity (1964).{{Cite book|last=Pickens|first=Vinton Liddell|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2571067|title=Serendipity.|date=1964|publisher=Vantage Press|location=New York|language=English|oclc=2571067}} She was an active member of the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Association, the Loudoun Sketch Club and the Leesburg Garden Club.{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://www.leesburggardenclub.org/history|access-date=2021-08-27|website=Leesburg Garden Club|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|date=1938-06-19|title=Mrs. Pickens Hostess in Loudoun|pages=43|work=Evening Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84240887/mrs-pickens-hostess-in-loudoun/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1987, in her late eighties, Pickens took a four-week, 1160-mile canoe and houseboat trip from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, with her daughters and other friends, retracing the 1878 trip her great-grandfather took on the Clarion, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers.{{Cite news|last=Dulen|first=Jackie|date=1987-06-25|title=Virginia Woman Ends Four-Week River Trip Retracing 1878 Voyage|pages=18|work=The Paducah Sun|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84235878/virginia-woman-ends-four-week-river/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Bonifer|first=C. A. Duane|date=1987-06-18|title=Woman, 87, Travels Down River to Relive Great-Grandfather's Trip|pages=17|work=Messenger-Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84237920/woman-87-travels-down-river-to-relive/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Vinton Liddell married journalist Robert Sylvester Pickens in 1924. They had two daughters, Jane and Cornelia, and lived at Janelia Farm in Loudoun County from 1936.{{Cite book|last=Fishback|first=Mary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fK89PyMB8PwC&dq=Vinton+Liddell+Pickens&pg=PT149|title=Loudoun County: 250 Years of Towns and Villages|date=1999-05-20|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-2682-5|language=en}} She was widowed when Robert Pickens died in 1978,{{Cite news|date=1978-11-13|title=Robert S. Pickens|pages=27|work=The Charlotte News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84239804/robert-s-pickens/|access-date=2021-08-27|via=Newspapers.com}} and she died in 1993, aged 93 years. The Virginia legislature passed a resolution in tribute after her death. There is a collection of the Liddell and Pickens family papers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,{{Cite web|title=Liddell and Pickens Family Papers, 1820-1997|url=https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/03828/|access-date=2021-08-27|website=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries}} and another collection of Liddell family papers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.{{Cite web|title=Collection: Liddell family papers|url=https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/264|access-date=2021-08-27|website=UNC Charlotte Finding Aids}} Her farm in Loudoun County is now the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
References
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External links
- [http://bascom.brynmawr.edu/library/exhibits/maps/sanson.shtml Nicolas Sanson (1702), Atlas nouveau, contenant toutes les parties du monde] ; a map donated by Pickens to the Bryn Mawr College Library
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickens, Vinton Liddell}}
Category:American women artists
Category:People from Charlotte, North Carolina
Category:People from Ashburn, Virginia