On Thursday, September 25, UK Libraries will welcome Jessica K. Whitehead to share the fascinating life story of the Kentucky writer, artist, and sustainability pioneer Harlan Hubbard.
Drawing from rare archival materials and her new comprehensive biography, Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard, Whitehead will lecture on Hubbard’s vision for living a unique existence of simplicity and wild beauty and provide new insights into his character and legacy.
The event will take place at 6pm in the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts & Design Library and is free and open to the public. Copies of Driftwood will be available for purchase and a book signing will be held following the lecture.
RSVPs are appreciated.
Born January 4, 1900 in Bellevue, Kentucky, Hubbard was known both for his creative output and for his simple and sustainable lifestyle.
Hubbard and his wife Anna Eikenhout famously drifted down the Ohio and Mississippi for eight years in a shantyboat, after which they built a self-sufficient homestead by hand in Payne Hollow, Kentucky, where they lived for over 30 years, maintaining a large organic garden and foraging for most of their food.
A traveling exhibit detailing the Hubbards' lives is on display now in the Fine Arts & Design Library through September 25.
UK Libraries has color slides of over 200 of Hubbard’s watercolors in the Bill Caddell Slide Collection of Harlan Hubbard Watercolors, Circa 1930-1950.
Whitehead currently serves as the senior curator of collections for the Kentucky Derby Museum. She has studied Hubbard for over a decade and curated multiple exhibits of his artwork in the region. She served as a founding member of the non-profit Payne Hollow on the Ohio, which manages Hubbard’s former homestead, and still manages its collection of artifacts. She is currently a board member for the Kentucky Museum & Heritage Alliance.
More information on her work and research may be found on her website.
