Timeline

Woodruff (1900-1980), after a public school education in Tennessee, attended art school in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1926 Woodruff won a Harmon Foundation award; that, plus additional financial backing from a patron, enabled him to study art in Paris for four years. In 1934 he spent six weeks studying mural painting in Mexico with Diego Rivera. Most of Woodruff's murals are located at Georgia's Atlanta University and Talladega College. From 1946-1967 he taught in the education department of New York University. known for his mural, paintings, and prints. One example of his work, the Amistad murals can be found at Talladega College in Talladega County, Alabama. The murals depict the ship itself and a sequence of scenes depicting various stages of the revolt upon the ship. Local tradition at the school has decreed that no one shall ever step upon the mural of the ship despite its central location in the library’s lobby.