Cornelius Hankins

[1] Hankins moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was taught painting by Edwin M. Gardner, an art teacher and painter.

[4] Hankins painted a portrait of Sumner Archibald Cunningham, the founder of the Confederate Veteran.

[5] He also painted a portrait of Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, the founding president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

[1] Some of Hankins's portraits were donated by Confederate veteran or university alumni groups to public and private institutions.

[7] He also painted a portrait of Julia A. Sears, a founding faculty member of the Peabody College for Teachers (now part of Vanderbilt University), which was placed in the chapel in 1904.