Vinton Liddell Pickens (January 1, 1900 – November 25, 1993) was an American artist and activist based in

Loudoun County, Virginia Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun C ...

, where she chaired the county's first planning board from 1941 to 1964.

Early life

Vinton Liddell was born in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, the daughter of Vinton Liddell Sr. and Jane Hyde Hall Liddell (later Battle). Her parents were both born in Pennsylvania; her father owned a cotton mill, and died in 1915. She attended the

Shipley School , motto_translation = Courage for the deed; Grace for the doing , address = 814 Yarrow Street , location = , region = , city = Bryn Mawr , county = , st ...

and graduated from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

in 1922. She pursued further studies in Rome, and at the University of North Carolina. She studied painting with Eugen Weisz. Janelia Farm

Career

In 1941, Pickens was appointed to the first Loudoun County planning commission, and became the commission's chair. On her watch, Loudoun County established zoning ordinances that banned billboards; she was also head of the commission during the construction of

Dulles Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and Fai ...

. She was also president of the Virginia Citizens' Planning Association. She led demonstrations against the

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

as an environmental hazard in the 1970s. Pickens was named Loudoun's 1986 Citizen of the Year. She gave an oral history interview to the Loudoun County Oral History Project in 1990. Pickens was also an artist, whose colorful landscapes and drawings were exhibited nationally, including a solo show at the

Mint Museum The Mint Museum, also referred to as The Mint Museums, is a cultural institution comprising two museums, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, together these two locations have hundreds of collection ...

in Charlotte in 1954. She published a book about her travels in Sri Lanka, ''Serendipity'' (1964). She was an active member of the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Association, the Loudoun Sketch Club and the Leesburg Garden Club. In 1987, in her late eighties, Pickens took a four-week, 1160-mile canoe and houseboat trip from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, with her daughters and other friends, retracing the 1878 trip her great-grandfather took on the

Clarion Clarion may refer to: Music * Clarion (instrument), a type of trumpet used in the Middle Ages * The register of a clarinet that ranges from B4 to C6 * A trumpet organ stop that usually plays an octave above unison pitch * "Clarion" (song), a 2 ...

, Allegheny, and

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

rivers.

Personal life

Vinton Liddell married journalist Robert Sylvester Pickens in 1924. They had two daughters, Jane and Cornelia, and lived at

Janelia Janelia or Janelia Farm is a mansion and former farm near Ashburn, Virginia, built in 1936 for artist Vinton Liddell Pickens and her husband Robert Pickens, a journalist. The farm property has become the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hu ...

Farm in Loudoun County from 1936. She was widowed when Robert Pickens died in 1978, and she died in 1993, aged 93 years. The Virginia legislature passed a resolution in tribute after her death. There is a collection of the Liddell and Pickens family papers at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, and another collection of Liddell family papers at the

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs through nine colle ...

. Her farm in Loudoun County is now the

Janelia Research Campus Janelia Research Campus is a scientific research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that opened in October 2006. The campus is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the town of Ashburn. It is known for its scientific research and m ...

of the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

References

External links

Nicolas Sanson (1702), ''Atlas nouveau, contenant toutes les parties du monde''
; a map donated by Pickens to the Bryn Mawr College Library * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pickens, Vinton Liddell 1900 births 1993 deaths American artists American women artists People from Charlotte, North Carolina People from Ashburn, Virginia Bryn Mawr College alumni Shipley School alumni