The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Print in black ink on beige paper depicting a White man in a bucket hat and overalls walking in front of a group of shirtless Black men working with shovels and pick-axes. The White man twists slightly to our left, arms at his sides, gun hanging at his right hip, and right eyebrow raised within the jagged angels of his face. The Black men, three clustered to our right and another two further back on the left, have rounded features and defined muscles.

Ol' Peckerwood

1939

Elmer William Brown

(American, 1909–1971)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
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Image: 18.4 x 25 cm (7 1/4 x 9 13/16 in.); Sheet: 21.8 x 33 cm (8 9/16 x 13 in.)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1939.240
Catalogue raisonné: Salsbury, Benay, and Kruse 8
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Although he worked in a wide variety of media, Elmer William Brown is best known for the murals that he created for public spaces as part of the Works Progress Administration during the 1940s.

Description

This composition centers on the White overseer of a chain gang composed of incarcerated Black men. To create the print, Elmer W. Brown drew on his own experiences in the Missouri state-prison system after having been caught riding a freight train illegally. While the men labor in the background, Ol’ Peckerwood—an insulting nickname for the lead guard—stands imposingly in the foreground, his hand poised near his weapon, as shadows from the clouds above darken his form.
  • Elmer William Brown Entry Card to 1939 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Kraynak, Scott, Henry Adams, Douglas Max Utter, William G. Scheele, R. A. Washington, and Mike Hudson. The Heart of Cleveland. Shaker Hts, OH: Red Giant Books, 2018. Reproduced: P. 29, fig. 28
    Benay, Erin. "Peripheral Prints: Karamu House and the Rise of African American Art in the Midwest." Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art 10, no. 1 (Spring 2024). Mentioned and reproduced: fig. 6 journalpanorama.org
    Francis, Jacqueline. "Modernism(s): Karamu Artists Inc and Modernist Art." In Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community, Britany Salsbury and Erin Benay, 80-91. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 84-85, no. 41
  • Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-August 17, 2025).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art (1/26/2014 - 5/18/2014); "Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings"
    The May Show: 21st Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 3-June 11, 1939).
  • {{cite web|title=Ol' Peckerwood|url=false|author=Elmer William Brown|year=1939|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1939.240