Huddie Ledbetter, (sculpture).

Huddie Ledbetter, (sculpture).

Pitts, Jessie, Jr., sculptor.

Huddie Ledbetter, (sculpture).

Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, (sculpture).

Copyrighted 1993. Dedicated Oct. 22, 1994.

Digital Reference:

Approx. 71 x 38 x 30 in.

JESSIE PITTS JR. (On plaque on top of sculpture's base, incised lettering:) JESSIE PITTS JR./HUDDIE LEDBETTER/1993 (copyright symbol)/From the Collection of/Shreveport Regional Art Council,/Commissioned through the City of/Shreveport. signed

A portrait of blues musician Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter seen standing, wearing a double-breasted suit and bow tie. He has a twelve-string guitar strapped across his proper left shoulder, the guitar held horizontally across his lower chest, his proper left arm bent and the fingers on the guitar's neck. His head is turned to the proper right and his proper right arm is outstretched to his side with his finger pointing to the nearby neighborhood of "Ledbelly Heights." The sculpture is set on a brick sidewalk.

Portrait male -- Ledbetter, Huddie -- Full length

Ethnic -- African American

Performing Arts -- Music -- Guitar

Outdoor Sculpture -- Louisiana -- Shreveport

Administered by City of Shreveport, Public Works Engineering, P. O. Box 31109, Shreveport, Louisiana 71111

Located Shreve Memorial Library, Corner of Texas & Marshall Streets, Shreveport, Louisiana

The sculpture costs $25,000 and was commissioned by the Shreveport Regional Arts Council as part of the city's revitalization, commemorating African-American blues musician Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter (1888-1949). Ledbetter received some of his early musical training in the nearby Fannin Street area of Shreveport, then called St. Paul's Bottom. It is this area to which the figure of points. In 1983 that neighborhood was renamed Ledbetter Heights in his honor, and designated a National Historic Site in 1984. IAS files contain excerpt from Lead Belly Letter 4 (Fall 1994): pg. 1, 5.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Louisiana survey, 1996.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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