Famous book illustrator created images of Cumberland County history for Crossville's First National Bank

The man who painted a little bit of Cumberland County's history for Crossville's First National Bank was raised in Johnson City, Tennessee and was a well-recognized illustrator and painter who was called in 1948 by Esquire magazine, “one of today's brightest lights in the illustrating field.”

Artist John Alan Maxwell was apparently engaged by Crossville's First National Bank to create some paintings representing the history of the local area. The two known images that he painted are not dated but could have been done between the time of Cumberland County's Centennial and the early the 1960s. Many people have seen the print of the Crab Orchard Inn with a stagecoach in front of it as it was reproduced as a print that was given to customers of the bank.

The Crab Orchard Inn print from a painting by

John Alan Maxwell

Maxwell began doing illustrations in New York City in the 1920s for Collier's and Golden Book magazines. As a prolific book illustrator, Maxwell did work for books by famous authors including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Pearl S. Buck, Aldous Huxley, John Steinbeck, and others.

In 1936 Maxwell was recognized with the first place by the Society of Illustrators and named one of the top 10 illustrators in the country. After 1956 he left New York when the building housing his studio was demolished and he returned to Johnson City where he continued to work. His painting style as a romantic illustrator also lent itself to the images of local history featuring people and idealized landscapes.

In addition to the Crab Orchard Inn painting above, Maxwell did at least one other painting that represents one of the early trails or roads that crossed the plateau and eventually gave Crossville its name from being located at the crossroads of a north-south and an east-west road.

This other painting features a family traveling in a covered wagon pulled by oxen past a couple of cabins and a grove of trees. A Native American and a man in a coonskin cap with a long rifle are standing beside the road as the family goes by. Also shown is a stagecoach headed in the opposite direction.

Photo of an original painting by John Alan Maxwell

that once hung in Crossville's First National Bank

Maxwell may have done one other painting but if he did it has not been seen by the public in many years. The reports are that these paintings were hung for many years in the First National Bank main branch when it was at Main Street and East First Street. 

The whereabouts of the original Maxwell paintings done of Cumberland County is currently unknown.