James A. Porter

James Amos Porter (December 22, 1905 – February 28, 1970 age: 65) was a pioneer in establishing the field of African-American art history. He was instrumental as the first scholar to provide a systematic, critical analysis of African-American artists and their works of art. An artist himself, he provided a unique and critical approach to the analysis of the work. Dedicated to educating and writing about African-American artists, Porter set the foundation for artists and art historians to probe and unearth the necessary skills essential to their artistic and scholarly endeavors. Porter’s determination to document and view African-American art in the context of American art created the canon.

Biography

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Porter had a long career in the visual arts as an artist and historian. Under the direction of James V. Herring, head of the Art Department at Howard University, Porter studied painting, drawing, and art history. Porter was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha.

James A. Porter (novelist)

James A. Porter (novelist) (1836-Jan. 13, 1897) was born in Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio. He served as a bugler and bandmaster in the U.S. Civil War. Later, he was a music teacher in Galion, Urbana, and Greenville. After his retirement from teaching, he wrote a novel called A Prince of Anahuac; A Histori-Traditional Story, which was published by The Crawford Company, Galion, Ohio, in 1894.

The book is available from Google Books and will soon be available from Project Gutenberg.

Reference: Ohio authors and their books : biographical data and selective bibliographies for Ohio authors, native and resident, 1796-1950 by William Coyle; Ernest Wessen; Adlai E Stevenson; James Thurber Cleveland, World Pub. Co., 1962, p. 505.