found: Moe, J.F. Amazing grace, c1990:title page (Elijah Pierce) page 10, etc. (barber, minister, wood carver; b. 3/5/1892, Miss.; moved to Columbus, Ohio, 1920s; d. 5/7/84)
found: "Great and mighty things" : outsider art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz collection, c 2013:page 117 (Elijah Pierce; born on cotton farm near Baldwyn, Miss., March 5, 1892; worked on his family's farm and trained as barber's apprentice; took up work as itinerant railroad worker and, in 1920, received his preacher's license; early 1920s moved to Danville (Ill.); moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1923, to be near family of second wife; worked as barber and later took up preaching when Depression affected barber business; opened own barbershop, around 1953; displayed his carved-wood panels at his barber shop; died May 7, 1984, Columbus, Ohio)
found: African American National Biography, accessed March 09, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Pierce, Elijah; folk artist, woodcarver, barber; born 05 March 1892 in Baldwyn, Mississippi, United States; ordained preacher at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Baldwyn (1920); opened a barbershop in Columbus, Ohio; oldest surviving carving is known as, The Little Elephant (1920's); discovered undercutting as a technique for making figures float above a background; famous assemblages include, Monday Morning Gossip (1934); associate pastor at the Gay Tabernacle Baptist Church; joined Master Lodge 62 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (1947); began to draw from comic strips, popular advertising and illustrated Bibles and Sunday school books (1930's-1940's); carved small animals and ambitious large panels as well as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.; died 07 May 1984 in Columbus, Ohio, United States)
found: Outsider art sourcebook, 2016:page 172 (Elija Pierce 1892-1984)
