Missouri farmer Jesse Howard began putting hand-painted signs around his 20-acre property; decades later, more than 100 of them were preserved in museum collections

A walk through Jesse Howard’s Missouri farm meant walking through his thoughts. Across 20 acres of land near Fulton, hundreds of signs painted by Howard showed his ideas and beliefs about everything from religion to politics and social matters. What started with one farmer putting up signs on his land developed into an artistic project that spanned decades, recording his views on life in wood and paint.

That roadside display, created by self-taught artist Jesse Howard (1885–1983), was once viewed by many locals as unusual and controversial. Years later, these same signs gained recognition as significant works of self-taught art. The foundation states that Howard’s collection included well over 100 individual signs, along with sculptures and archival materials, many of which were later preserved in museum collections, including the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The man behind the signs of Sorehead Hill


Howard was born in 1885 in Shamrock, Missouri, and worked a variety of jobs before returning to farming later in life. He bought a house and 20 acres of farmland outside the town of Fulton, Missouri, where he started to develop the sign-covered landscape that evolved into “Sorehead Hill.” The first signs he showed were related to his personal experiences and beliefs. He gradually experimented with various materials such as wooden boards, metal, old farm materials, and found objects as a surface on which to write his messages. He painted in large block letters, sometimes black, sometimes white, occasionally with red highlights and pointing-hand symbols to accentuate some of the words. The signs addressed a wide range of subjects. Some contained Bible verses, while others commented on politicians, government decisions, personal conflicts, and events that affected Howard’s life. His property became a place where visitors could encounter his opinions simply by walking through the grounds.

How personal conflicts shaped a lifelong artwork

Partly, Howard’s sign-making stemmed from conflicts over his property. His work was repeatedly vandalized or stolen, and he responded by creating more signs that expressed his frustration. One example was a 1960 sign in which Howard complained that the Ten Commandments had been stolen from his fence. While some locals reacted negatively to the signs, artists and researchers later recognized their importance. By 1968, Howard’s work appeared in Gregg Blasdel’s Art in America essay “The Grass Roots Artist,” bringing wider attention to his creations. Later, his signs were exhibited at institutions including the Walker Art Center and the Philadelphia College of Art.

From roadside messages to museum collections

As interest in Howard’s work increased, museums and collectors began preserving individual signs from his property. The Kansas City Art Institute became an important steward of Howard’s work after he died in 1983. In 2016, the institute, in partnership with the preservation organisation, transferred 187 objects from its Jesse Howard collection to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. The collection included signs, mixed-media sculptures, and archival materials. His signs and sculptures are now preserved in collections at institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, and other museums.

A new life inside an art preserve

After leaving the original farm environment, Howard’s signs entered a different kind of setting where they could be studied as a complete body of work. The Art Preserve created an immersive display for his signs, allowing visitors to see them as part of the larger artistic environment he once built rather than as isolated wooden boards. The preserved collection is an invaluable resource for researchers since it is not just based on Howard’s completed signs, but numerous archival pieces and documents related to his creativity are part of the collection. The collection helps museums to study the journey of a farmer’s message as it turned into a long-lasting artistic legacy.