July 11, 1907

Born in El Paso, Texas, to Tom and Zola Utt Lea.

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1912 – 1924

Attends Lamar Elementary and El Paso High Schools. Spends summers in Santa Fe. Mentored by librarian Maud Durlin Sullivan, and art teacher Gertrude Evans. 

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1924 – 1926 

Studies at Art Institute of Chicago. Marries art student Nancy Jane Taylor.

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1926 – 1933

Leaves school to work on murals. Becomes apprentice to John Warner Norton. Travels to Paris and Italy, where he sees Italian Renaissance murals for the first time.

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1933 – 1935

Moves to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Works at the Laboratory of Anthropology, copying Pueblo Indian designs. Completes Conquistadors and Old Mesilla murals, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University), Las Cruces, New Mexico.

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1936

Returns to El Paso where Nancy, his mother, and grandmother die within the same year.

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1936-1938

Completes Branigan Memorial Library mural, Las Cruces, New Mexico; Texas Centennial murals, Hall of State, Dallas State Fairgrounds; The Nesters mural (lost), Ben Franklin Post Office, Washington, D.C.

 

Completes The Baptism of Christ mural, First Baptist Church, El Paso, Texas (lost). Competes for San Antonio Post Office murals and Pass of the North mural, Federal Courthouse, El Paso. Awarded El Paso commission.

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1938

Marries Sarah Catherine Dighton of Monticello, Illinois. Adopts Sarah’s son, James Dighton.

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1939-1940

Completes Burlington Railroad Station mural, Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Completes Back Home 1865 mural, Pleasant Hill, Missouri. Illustrates Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver and John C. Duval: First Texas Man of Letters by J. Frank Dobie. Completes The Stampede mural, Odessa, Texas Post Office. Illustrates The Longhorns by J. Frank Dobie.

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1941

Illustrates children’s book, Hills of Gold. Writes and illustrates Randado, designed and printed by Carl Hertzog.

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1941 – 1946

Completes Comanches mural, Seymour, Texas Post Office. Awarded Rosenwald Fellowship he declines after hired by LIFE magazine. Travels 100,000 miles. Writes and illustrates Grizzly from the Coral Sea and Peleliu Landing. Travels to Mexico for LIFE, documenting history of beef cattle.

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1947

Begins work on a novel, teaching himself to write. Completes painting Sarah in the Summertime.

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1948-1951

Writes and illustrates bestseller The Brave Bulls. Novel adapted to Hollywood movie with the world premiere at El Paso’s Plaza Theatre.

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1952-1959

Writes and illustrates bestseller The Wonderful Country. Novel adapted to Hollywood movie with world premiere at El Paso’s Plaza Theatre. Writes and illustrates The King Ranch. Completes Southwest mural, El Paso Public Library. Writes and illustrates The Primal Yoke.

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1960 – 1966

Illustrates Knight in the Sun for El Paso author Harper B. Lee. Writes and illustrates The Hands of Cantu. Paints Ranger Escort West of the Pecos for Texas Gov. John Connally. Paints portrait of Sam Rayburn for Rayburn Building, Washington, D.C.

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1967 – 1968

Western Beef Cattle: A Series of Eleven Paintings by Tom Lea published by Encino Press, Austin. Writes and illustrates A Picture Gallery.

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1974

Writes and illustrates In the Crucible of the Sun, published by King Ranch, Inc., Kingsville.

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1974 – 1997

Works as studio painter in El Paso. Receives Colonel John W. Thomason, Jr. Award by U.S. Marine Corps. Records Tom Lea, An Oral History with Adair Margo. The El Paso Museum of Art establishes Tom Lea Gallery.

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January 29, 2001

Tom Lea dies in El Paso, Texas. Funeral held at the First Baptist Church, February 1, 2001. First Lady Laura Bush attends.

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2007​

The centennial celebration of Tom’s birth: The city proclaims Tom’s accomplishments and inaugurates “Tom Lea Month.”​

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2009

Tom Lea Institute is founded to formalize centennial proclamations with Adair Margo as Executive Director and Jamey Clement as Chairman.

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2010

The first newsletter of the Tom Lea Institute is published. Premier of Tom Lea’s El Paso by Capstone Productions.

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2011

Society of XII Travelers is launched. Tom Lea Month changed to October to coincide with the Celebration of our Mountains.

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2012

Release of first offset lithographs of Tom Lea’s art: Southwest & Star Map. Brigadier General Dana Pittard and Major General Heidi Brown as My El Paso keynoters at Plaza Theatre.

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2013

Dee and Adair Margo establish the Tom Lea Research Fellows Program to encourage high-level research using primary documents relating to Tom Lea's art, literature, and life. Kevin O’Riley, the State Department's Director for Mexican Affairs, finds the previously lost Benito Juarez Tom Lea painting in Washington, D.C. Adair Margo establishes the Tom Lea History Trail as part of Tom Lea Month, making it Texas’ first cultural and artistic trail and the only one in the United States. Premiere of the one-act play Tom Lea: Grace Note in a Hard World by director and playwright Camilla Carr at the Philanthropy Theatre.

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2014

The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center completes the finding aid for its 538-piece Tom Lea Collection. Fort Belvoir hosts The Two Thousand Yard Stare, A Discussion of Lea’s WWII Art in the U.S. Army Center of Military History, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Smithsonian American Art Museum hosts The Art of Tom Lea: Preserving Our National Heritage conference, which resulted in a historic agreement between Odessa, Texas, and the U.S. Postal Service to conserve and house the 1940 Stampede mural at the Ellen Noel Art Museum. El Paso Designer Zayra Estrada presents her Tom Lea Collection of Dresses at El Paso Community College as part of Tom Lea Month.

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2015

Three exhibitions hosted in Texas: Tom Lea, Chronicler of 20th Century America at Bullock Texas State History Museum; Tom Lea, Life magazine and WWII at National Museum of the Pacific War; and Tom Lea, A Retrospective at the Museum of the Big Bend.

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2016

10th anniversary of Tom Lea Month. Holly Cobb is hired as the Director of Education and produces An Awkward First Date, an educational video recounting the history behind the Pass of the North mural. The Tom Lea Institute collaborates with Ysleta and El Paso Independent School Districts to launch the Awakening the Giants of our History curriculum about the Pass of the North mural.

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2017

Ann Johnson is elected Chairman of the Board. The State of Texas recognizes the Tom Lea Trail, and the governor signs the legislation into law. Adair Margo and Harvard scholar Melissa Renn speak at the Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas, about their recently published book Tom Lea, Life Magazine, and WWII.

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2018

The New Mexico legislature officially recognizes Tom Lea Trail through Senate Memorial 18, sponsored by Mary Kay Papen. WWII camp launched for middle schoolers. Lisa Pugh is hired as Executive Director. Publication of Tom Lea: Pass of the North, 1938, commemorating the 80th anniversary of El Paso’s historic federal courthouse mural. Holly Cobb produces Manny Rivas’ Peleliu video, which becomes part of WWII curriculum. The Tom Lea Institute sponsors the El Paso Plaza Classic Film Festival, which features Tom Lea’s films The Brave Bulls and Wonderful Country.

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2019

Holly Cobb is hired as Executive Director of Tom Lea Institute. Joe Lea is elected chairman. The Texas State Daughters of the American Revolution in Dallas recognize Adair Margo and the Tom Lea Institute for their work in historic preservation. Tom Lea's Southwest mural is temporarily loaned to the El Paso Museum of History while the El Paso Public Library undergoes renovations. At the invitation of Kay Bailey Hutchinson, former US Senator and US NATO ambassador, more than 20 members of the Tom Lea Institute fly to Brussels, Belgium, to support the Tom Lea Trail and its European connections. We Live on a Volcano curriculum is developed for a STEAM camp in collaboration with Ysleta Independent School District. The Tom Lea Institute’s The Mexican Revolution Through the Eyes of Tom Lea, Jose Cisneros, & Posada curriculum launches in collaboration with Canutillo Independent School District.

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2020

The Tom Lea Trail is officially recognized by the State of Chihuahua through a proclamation signed by Governor Javier Corral Jurado. Mighty Horses on El Camino Real video game and curriculum launches in collaboration with San Elizario Independent School District. The Uncommon Valor WWII Through the Eyes of Tom Lea and Admiral Chester A. Nimitz high school curriculum debuts in collaboration with the National Museum of the Pacific War.

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2021

Booklet on The Equestrian Monument published. A searchable transcript of Tom Lea, An Oral History by Adair Margo, is made available online through the Tom Lea Institute website. Who Passed Through Here? A 4th-grade bilingual curriculum is launched in collaboration with El Paso Independent School District. The Tom Lea Institute implements Artmaker camps for Boys and Girls Clubs.

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2022

The Tom Lea Institute begins developing a state-of-the-art mobile website for the Tom Lea Trail in collaboration with the Texas Historical Commission, including 32 sites across 11 cities. Tom Lea Month becomes Tom Lea Celebration, extending from October to April.

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2023

Tom Lea Trail Mobile Tours website, a collaboration with the Texas Historical Commission,

is launched.

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2024

In collaboration with Humanities Texas, the Tom Lea Institute creates Brushstrokes from the Front Lines, a traveling exhibit highlighting Tom Lea’s works during his time as a WWII Life Magazine Artist Correspondent.

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