The lecture tells the story of the marriages, mentorship and geography that entwined the lives of two of Kentucky’s most important artists, Matthew Harris Jouett (1788-1827) and Oliver Frazer (1808-1864), and their descendants. Of special interest to Missouri residents is the time that seven of these paintings spent in Missouri. Rebecca Redd moved to Missouri with her four sons just before the Civil War and was banished as part of General Order #9. Rebecca was forced to abandon her family paintings on the bank of the Missouri River as she boarded a steamboat. Amazingly, the paintings were recovered by her niece and remained in Missouri until about 1903 when they returned to Kentucky. One of these paintings, a portrait of Rebecca Redd, will travel back to Missouri for exhibit during the lecture.

Cox currently serves on the executive committee and board of the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation in Lexington, Kentucky. He also serves on advisory boards for the Colonial Williamsburg Art Museums in Virginia, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) in North Carolina, and The Magazine Antiques in New York City.