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Contact: Mary Perkins
Hancock County Library Phone 228-467-6636 Fax 228-467-5503
312 Highway 90 Bay St. Louis, Mississippi 39620
Press Release
Unprecedented Barthe exhibit set at Bay Library
An unprecedented exhibit of locally owned, never before seen, works of Richmond Barthe, Bay St. Louis native and internationally renown black sculptor, will be on display at the Bay St. Louis-Hancock County Library, beginning Sunday, February 4, from 1 to 4 p.m. The exhibit will run through Saturday, February 9.
To mark Barthe?s 100th birthday and kick off Black History Month, the Hancock County Library System and the Library Foundation of Hancock County will host this unique exhibit of
11	pieces by Barthe. Four of the pieces have been seen by the public - - one owned by the Hancock County Library System; one owned by the Jackson-George Regional Library System; and two owned by the University of Southern Mississippi. The other pieces are locally owned by friends and family of Barthe, along with paintings by Barthe that have never before been seen by the public.
Handwritten postcards and letters by Barthe, along with numerous photos and newspaper clippings, will also be on display. These items have been in the library?s collection for some time, and some are personal correspondence from Barthe to local residents. This display was recently presented as a poster session at the Mississippi Library Association?s annual conference in Jackson.
Barthe was bom in Bay St. Louis on January 28, 1901, to Richmond Barthe and Marie Clementine Raboteau. He attended St. Rose De Lima School and Valena C. Jones Public School, only to drop out of school to work as an ice carrier with his stepfather.
He later went to work for a New Orleans family, the Ponds, who owned a summer residence in Bay St. Louis. Recognizing his talent for drawing and painting, the Ponds asked him to accompany them to New Orleans. His application for enrollment in art school in New Orleans was rejected because he was black. So, with the financial assistance of a local
For Release January 22, 2001