10 Facts About Cornelius Hankins

Cornelius Hankins painted agrarian landscapes of Tennessee and portraits of Confederate veterans and politicians.

Cornelius Hankins was born on July 12,1863, in Itawamba County, Mississippi.

Cornelius Hankins's father was Edward Locke Hankins and his mother, Annie Mary McFadden.

Cornelius Hankins painted a portrait of Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, the founding president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Cornelius Hankins did 15 portraits for the Shelby County Courthouse in Memphis, Tennessee.

Cornelius Hankins went on to do portraits of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Admiral Albert Gleaves, Senator William B Bate, Governor Albert H Roberts and Governor Benton McMillin.

Some of Cornelius Hankins's portraits were donated by Confederate veteran or university alumni groups to public and private institutions.

For example, Hankins painted a portrait of Confederate General Benjamin F Cheatham for the Frank Cheatham Bivouac of the Association of Confederate Soldiers, who unveiled it in the Tennessee State Chamber and placed it in the Tennessee State Library in 1904.

Cornelius Hankins painted a portrait of Julia A Sears, a founding faculty member of the Peabody College for Teachers, which was placed in the chapel in 1904.

Additionally, Cornelius Hankins painted a portrait of William Lofland Dudley, the founding dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine; it was donated by local alumni to Vanderbilt University in 1915.