Thomas Hart Benton

Missouri actually produced two famous men, great-great-uncle and great-great-nephew, named Thomas Hart Benton.

Senator Thomas Hart Benton
1782 - 1858

Senator Thomas Hart Benton
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Call number LC-USZ62-110024

Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton was a powerful orator and a leading advocate of expansion in the 1840s. He had a reputation as a hothead. In his youth he once fought a duel with Andrew Jackson and years later he narrowly escaped being shot on the senate floor.

Benton believed the untamed wilderness in the West would provide opportunities for America's poor to establish themselves and build better lives, and he was eager to extend America's territory to the coast of California. From there, he argued, goods could be shipped directly to and from Asia, cutting the 20,000 miles around Cape Horn from the trip. Unlike many expansionists, however, he held moderate views on America's relations with the British and Spanish, urging compromise over contentious issues like the Oregon Territory between the 29th parallel and the southern border of Alaska. When America gained possession of California after the war with Mexico, Benton's expansionist goals were realized and his political career began to decline.

After his senatorial career ended he ran once, unsuccesfully, for governor of Missouri. Just eighteen month later he died.

Here is a link to Benton's official biography at the U.S. Senate site.
And here is a site that has another biography of him.

Artist Thomas Hart Benton
1889 — 1975

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-54231]

Of the two Thomas Hart Bentons, this is probably the more famous. He was born in Neosho in 1889, son of a successful lawyer who also served briefly in the U.S. Congress.

A leader in the Regionalism movement, Benton was a champion of the common people. He began his career as staff artist for a paper in Joplin, studied in Chicago and Paris and lived for more than twenty years in New York before returning to his Midwestern roots. He used his art to express his criticisms of problems he saw in society. In an era when artwork was generally for and about the rich and powerful, Benton made a hero of the common man. He drew his subjects from the everyday lives of ordinary Americans, painting them with bold strokes in deep, rich colors.

Benton was often accused of being too political. His most famous work, A Social History of Missouri, a mural in the House Lounge at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City, survived several attempts to whitewash it.

Thomas Hart Benton died in Kansas City in 1975. His home and studio is now a National Historic Site. He is remembered as one of America's most influential artists.

A Social History of Missouri Mural. Missouri State Capitol.
(I stole this from this website. I hope they don't mind!)

This is an excellent biography of Thomas Hart Benton, with pictures of him and of his work. Also, don't stop before you get down to the References and Resources section, which contains a wealth of good links.

Cradling Wheat
(date unknown)
Lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton
Library of Congress catalog number FP - XX - B478, no. 15