The study and intended final painting for Murder in Mississippi are part of the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum, and have been included in a special section in the Museum’s national traveling exhibition, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell Museum. The display offers a remarkably detailed look at the artist’s creative process and research conducted for the painting, including Rockwell’s many reference photos, preliminary drawings, paintings, and notes, which offers an intimate look at the lengths the artist took to best represent the event (including studying real human blood).

To commemorate the anniversary of the event, Mississippi Museum of Art has recently opened the exhibition, Norman Rockwell: Murder in Mississippi, which features this informative section from the American Chronicles exhibition. A special members opening reception will be held at the Jackson, Mississippi museum on the evening of Friday, June 20; followed by a lecture with biographer Deborah Solomon about Rockwell’s Civil Rights-era works on Sunday, June 22, at 3 p.m. Other programs related to  Freedom Summer will be offered during the course of the Norman Rockwell Museum-organized exhibition, which runs through August 31, 2014. For more details, visit the Mississippi Museum of Art’s website: www.msmuseumart.org

View examples of Norman Rockwell’s reference materials for “Murder in Mississippi”