Zebedee Armstrong

Zebedee B. Armstrong (October 11, 1911–1993), aka Z.B. Armstrong, was an outsider artist best known for his doomsday calendars.

Armstrong was born in Thomson, Georgia. He went to school until eighth grade. He married in 1929 and had two daughters. For much of his life, he worked picking cotton on the local Mack McCormick farm. After his wife died in 1969, he began to work at the Thomson Box Factory, staying there until 1982.

Art

In 1972, he claimed to be visited by an angel who warned him that the end of world was coming soon. Armstrong began to construct various "doomsday calendar" calculating machines that would attempt to determine the exact date. Many of the calendars are made of wood and have clocklike designs with hands used to calculate dates.

References

• "Zebedee Armstrong Jr.," Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists (New York: Abbeville Press), pp. 39-40.