A new addition to 601 S. Gay Street is turning heads. But one head in particular is missing. If you’ve noticed the newly installed marble sculpture in a nook at the East Tennessee History Center, you will certainly notice a missing head, and a hand for that matter. The body definitely belongs to the first governor of Tennessee, General John Sevier (1745-1815). The whereabouts of the head and hand is the mystery of the day.
Edgar W. Bowlin with his masterpiece Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, in the lobby of Home Federal Savings and Loan, Kingsport, Tennessee, January 2, 1960
It is the work of East Tennessee sculptor Edgar W. Bowlin, who has three life-size marble sculptures to his credit. Bowlin was born in Hancock County in 1919. After service in World War II, he conducted a successful career as an artist and art instructor in Upper East Tennessee.
His other life-size works include Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, unveiled on October 12, 1956, in the lobby of the Greeneville branch of Home Federal Loan and Savings of Upper East Tennessee (now the lobby of the Greene County Partnership), and Kenneth D. McKellar, United States senator and advocate of commercial aviation, unveiled on June 22, 1958, at the Tri-Cities Airport. Bowlin passed away in Sullivan County in 2001.
Home Federal Bank’s Kingsport Branch commissioned Bowlin to create the life-size work of Sevier. The unveiling took place on January 2, 1960, to much fanfare in the Kingsport bank. The General was a fixture in that space for the next 36 years.
After the bank was sold in 1996, the sculpture was gifted to Donald Ault, founder of the Governor John Sevier Bicentennial Association, who planned to display it in a replica of Tennessee’s first state capitol in downtown Knoxville. The construction of James White Parkway derailed Ault’s project, and he was ultimately forced to store Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, near The Foundry on the 1982 World’s Fair site. There, the sculpture was tipped over, beheaded and behanded.
Was the vandalism a Rush Week dare carried out by fraternity pledges, as some believe, or was it simply a random act? Is John Sevier’s head sitting on a shelf in a fraternity house, or has it been discarded, perhaps at the bottom of the Tennessee River?
If you are in possession of – or have any information about – the sculpture’s missing parts, the team at the East Tennessee History Center would love to speak with you. Please call 865-215-8830 or email curator@knoxlib.org. No questions asked. No charges filed.
In a 2010 interview with the Metro Pulse, William James “Jim” Cortese, a local arborist who helped protect the sculpture, reflected: “It doesn’t bother me that it doesn’t have a head. I’ve been to Europe many times, and in Europe there are thousands of headless, legless and armless statues. It’s about time America had a few headless statues.”
The East Tennessee History Center, a facility of Knox County Public Library, is honored to be the new home of Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, whether in part or, perhaps, in whole, if his head and hand are located. The preservation of Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, was made possible by Mayor Glenn Jacobs and Knox County government. Installation and interpretive signage were made possible by the East Tennessee Historical Society, Maryville Monument Company, T and T Signs Inc. and Tennessee Marble Company. Special gratitude is also extended to the family of Edgar W. Bowlin Sr., Donald and Wanda Ault and Jim Cortese.
Mary Pom Claiborne is assistant director for marketing, communications and development for Knox County Public Library.
