Knox County has produced quite a few outstanding artists over its long history, and many of their works are on display at our Museum.

   In the 1940’s and ‘50’s, Vernon Johnson produced more than 50 water color paintings of our beautiful homes, buildings, businesses, fairgrounds, and other scenes in the area, with twelve of these now in our Museum collection.
   During his years here as a graphic designer at the Shellmar Corporation, Johnson preserved in his work the look and feel of our community as representative of small-town America in the middle of the twentieth century.
   Johnson's daughter, Janis, has recounted the story of her father's life and art in her recent beautiful book, The Artist's Eye, which is available for purchase at our Museum Shoppe.

   Knox County played an important part in the early development and growth of commercial photography through the innovations of Hamilton Smith and Peter Neff at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Their work led to the development of the tintype of the mid-1800's. Excellent examples of photographic art were also produced by students in the Kenyon Camera Club throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century.

   Many other photographers have been in business here from the end of the Civil War to the present day.