Jean Woodham Collection

Collection

Identifier: OPL010

Scope and Contents

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The Jean Woodham Collection consists of biographical and career documentation, photographs, correspondence, and project records relating to the Alabama-born sculptor Jean Woodham (1925-2021), a pioneer of welded metal sculpture, and to Whirlwind, the bronze fountain sculpture she created for Opelika in 1977. Together the materials document both the breadth of Woodham's national career and her enduring connection to Alabama, where Whirlwind stands on the terrace of the Opelika Public Library.

Materials donated by the Silvermine Guild Arts Center document Woodham's career as a whole. They include an artist biography sheet issued by the Silvermine Guild of Artists, where Woodham served as head of the sculpture program; a curriculum vitae listing her exhibitions, collections, commissions, awards, and documentary films; and a 1998 New York Times review by William Zimmer of her fifty-year retrospective at the Stamford Museum. Photographs show Woodham's Westport, Connecticut studio during the fabrication of Scholars' Sphere and the sculpture Spinoff. A letter of October 7, 1977, from Woodham to the Azalea Garden Club of Opelika, written on the occasion of the dedication of Whirlwind, is also included.

The Whirlwind Project Records document the commission, fabrication, and dedication of the sculpture between 1975 and 1977. They appear to have been the working file of Aileen Maxwell Samford, who chaired the Azalea Garden Club's Whirlwind Project. Correspondence among Samford, Woodham, project architect Earl D. Peacock of Lancaster and Lancaster, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Humanities traces the project from Woodham's delayed sketches in 1975, through the club's approval of her design in May 1977, to the presentation of Whirlwind to the City of Opelika on September 20, 1977, and the adjustments to the fountain's water jet that followed. Planning records include guest lists, committee assignments, a club membership roster, drafts of Samford's publicity letter, and her handwritten speaking notes for the presentation and luncheon. Printed materials include the invitation and program for a coffee held in Woodham's honor, the invocation delivered at the presentation, an early résumé of Woodham's career, and a circa 1984 Opelika Chamber of Commerce brochure featuring Whirlwind on its cover. Black-and-white photographs show the sculpture and Woodham welding in her studio. The correspondence also documents Woodham's personal ties to Alabama in this period, including her family, her friends from her hometown of Geneva, and her plans to marry the writer James Blumgarten.

The Jean Woodham Collection is an assembled collection developed by the Opelika Public Library. The Whirlwind Project Records were identified in a library vertical file in 2026. Additions are expected as the library continues to document Woodham and her work.

Dates

Creation: 2026

Biographical / Historical

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Jean Woodham was born on August 16, 1925, in Midland City, Alabama, and grew up in the southeast Alabama town of Geneva. She earned a bachelor's degree in applied art from Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, in 1946, and moved to New York City that same year. There she studied at the Clay Club Sculpture Center and was among the first students to take up welding as a fine-art technique, a method that would define her work.

In 1955 Woodham settled in Connecticut, where she became head of the sculpture program at the Silvermine Guild of Artists. From the late 1960s she built a national practice in large-scale commissioned public sculpture, completing more than 150 works for corporate, civic, and educational clients, among them the New York City Board of Education, General Electric, and the World Bank. She served as president of the Sculptors Guild from 1990 to 1993.

Woodham maintained ties to Alabama throughout her career. Several of her sculptures are installed in the state, including Monody at Auburn University and Spinoff at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Her sculpture Whirlwind, commissioned by the Azalea Garden Club of Opelika, was installed at the Opelika Public Library in the 1970s. Jean Woodham died in Westport, Connecticut, on October 28, 2021.

Full Extent

254 Megabytes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Biographical and career materials, photographs, correspondence, and project records documenting the Alabama-born sculptor Jean Woodham (1925-2021), a pioneer of welded metal sculpture, and her bronze fountain sculpture Whirlwind, presented to the City of Opelika in 1977 and installed at the Opelika Public Library. The collection includes a Silvermine Guild artist biography, a curriculum vitae, a 1998 New York Times review, and photographs of Woodham's studio and of the sculpture Spinoff. It also includes the Whirlwind Project Records, 1975-1977, kept by Azalea Garden Club project chair Aileen Maxwell Samford. These comprise correspondence with Woodham and the project architect, planning records, Samford's speaking notes, dedication programs, and photographs of the sculpture and of Woodham at work.