Abstract:
North Carolina artist and educator William G. Randall, originally from Piedmont Springs in Burke County, walked from his home to Chapel Hill in order to receive an education. Randall left a detailed account of his journey which was taken completely on foot except for a train ride from Winston to Greensboro. Leaving Burke County with three dollars and carrying his few clothes in a valise, Randall arrived in Chapel Hill to begin his education with only thirty cents in his pocket. While at the university, Randall began to earn extra money as a portrait artist, and after graduating in 1884 he got his first job as a teacher in Marion, NC. With encouragement from his wife, Randall left teaching to study art in New York, eventually opening a gallery in Raleigh and painting portraits that have hung in Raleigh at the State Library, the Supreme Court chamber, and at the state universities in Greensboro and Chapel Hill.