Prophetic Charts

In the Jenks Memorial Collection of Adventual Materials at Aurora University

 The Jenks Collection holds one of the world's largest collections of "Prophetic Charts," over thirty items in all. Dating from 1842 to the 1930s, these charts were used by preachers in the adventual movement to help elucidate their presentations. Some were formally published or produced by trained artists, but many were the product of persons with little artistic background who brought a highly original and vigorous style to the interpretation of the apocalyptic visions of the Bible (the Book of Revelation and the second chapter of Daniel). Ranging from wall charts to massive banners (the largest is approximately 8 by 40 feet), the charts were usually made of canvas, painted with various materials and many show the ravages of weather, outdoor display (including nail holes and attached ropes), and the wear associated with long years on the road from camp meeting to camp meeting.

The charts in the Jenks Collection have been the subject of two recent displays, at Aurora University in January 2000 and more recently at the Intuit Gallery in Chicago. Currently five of the charts are on loan to the University of Memphis for inclusion in the traveling exhibit, "Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South" (these images are shown below). Supported by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Tennessee Humanities Council, the exhibit opens at the University of Memphis on June 18, 2004, running through November 13, 2004, followed by traveling venues over the next three years. For more information, click here to go to the exhibit website.

Charts currently included in the University of Memphis exhibit "Coming Home!"

B. W. Thayer and Company, Lithographer, Millerite Chart of 1843, 1842, Ink on canvas 4' 7.5" x 3' 2.5"

Henrietta Black (1900-1971), Daniel 2 and 8, 1935, Paint on canvas 4' 11.5" x 10' 8.75"

Josephine Lawson (1865-1963), Prophecy Chart, Colossus of Daniel 2, 1917, Oil, tempera, and ink on cotton muslin 42.5" x 20"

J. F. Hurlbutt, Tree of Life, 1935, Oil on canvas 5' 11" x 4' 6.5"

George E. Bingham (1884-1957), Bingham Prophecy Chart, 1927, Tempera and ink on muslin 7' 5" x 11' 8.5"