Joslyn Art Museum

Omaha, Nebraska
August 30, 2013

The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska was a gift from Sarah Joslyn in memory of her husband in 1931. A large Art Deco building, it was constructed of Georgia pink Marble.

It was 100 degrees out so had to pass quickly by the outside sculpture garden recently opened in 2009.

Come with clean offering
Into the temple of beauty
She will not neglect
Even the lesser things
She will fulfill gladness
She will assuage sorrow
Illumine with grace
Console with understanding

Inscribed on the exterior wall are these words by Hartley Alexander, American philosopher, 1873-1939.

Admission is free to all in 2013 including the special exhibits!

The impressive inner courtyard took me right to Seville or perhaps Granada.

There is lots of space in this roomy, impressive building.

These are the paintings I loved most:

Open Range, 1942, by Maynard Dixon, American
1875-1946
Oil on Canvaas.

Dixon captured a special essence of the Old West in these two paintings.

The Pony Boy (Blackfeet Indians, Montana) 1920, by Maynard Dixon
Oil on canvas.

The Hailstorm, 1940, by Thomas Hart Benton
American, 1889-1975
Oil and egg tempera on canvas mounted on panel.

Can you believe the shapes? He reminds me of Grant Wood, only with altered shapes.

Russian Beauty with Cat, 1865, by Konstantinos Makovsky
Russian, 1839-1915
Oil on canvas.

This one is for Ashley and Minky.

The Grasshopper and the Ant, 1875, by Jean George's Vibert
French, 1840-1902
Oil on canvas.

Vibert was one of France's most acclaimed Academic genre painters, renowned for his irony and wit, specializing in satiric pictures of the Catholic liturgy, which were highly popular. here he has recast the familiar fable: a lone minstrel accosts a group of monks, only one of whom stops to hear his pleas.

Vibert has carefully contrasted the two men's appearances to illustrate the material discrepancy between them. The minstrel is scrawny and hunch-backed, shivering in his threadbare tights; the monk is well-fed and jolly, his rucksack overstocked with food and game.

It made me laugh out loud.

Saint Catherine, one of the most popular Roman martyrs in the Renaissance refused to renounce Christ and marry a pagan and was therefore killed.

She is simply beautiful. This could have been painted yesterday.

Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine and Agnes, 1520s
Workshop of Jan Gossart, called Mabuse. Flemish, 1478-1532

Young Girls at the Piano, 1889, by Pierre Auguste Renoir
1841-1919
Oil on canvas

Hmmm, maybe change the color of those dresses?

This canvas is one of several depictions of young women at the piano, a motif so meaningful to Renoir that he chose it for a government commission in 1892.

Iowa

Young Corn, 1931, by Grant Wood 1891-1942

Young Corn was painted as a memorial to a teacher from Wilson School in Cedar Rapids and is an example of Wood's vision of rural Iowa.

Wood explored various textures, giving the viewer a sense of the richness and productivity of the land, of peace, prosperity and order.

The brand new Cedar Rapids Library was open just five days when I saw it.

Inside the Cedar Rapids Library where every book is new is this teen center.

The entrance hall is big enough to be a ballroom.

Across the park from the new library was the Art Museum undergoing renovation. Still I was able to see a number of Grant Wood paintings.

Costco! In Cedar Rapids we park inside out of the weather.

Back to school season in Iowa.

The Amana Colonies were settled by German religious believers seeking a place where they could worship in peace like so many other groups who came to America. These Inspirationalists lived communally under the rule of Church Fathers.

For eighty years they maintained an almost completely self-sufficient local economy. In 1932 they adapted to the threat of mutiny within the ranks and separated the church from the economic functions of the community. Today the Amana Colonies are a thriving tourist destination.

This photo was taken c. 1900.

Iowa Writers Workshop which began in 1936 is operated in Iowa City by the University. The Program in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa is a highly regarded graduate-level writing program.

Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni (most recently Paul Harding in 2010) have won seventeen Pulitzer Prizes, as well as numerous National Book Awards and other literary honors. Four recent U.S. Poets Laureate have been either graduates or faculty of the workshop. Some of those associated with the program are Robert Penn Warren, Wallace Stegner, Philip Roth, John Cheever, Jane Smiley, Michael Cunningham, and Rita Dova.

There is a wonderful private bookstore in Iowa City, Prairie Lights; I wish there were bookstores like it in every town.

Westward bound, I stopped briefly in Grinnell to see the famous liberal arts college. These two photos were taken downtown.

This is a new building on campus.

The residential area next to the College reflects the relaxed, uncrowded ambiance of the area.

Herbert Hoover

West Branch, Iowa
August 28, 2013

Herbert Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933).

His accomplishments are many despite early setbacks.

Born to a Quaker family and orphaned at age nine, Hoover made a fortune as a professional mining engineer after graduating from Stanford University.

In the lobby of the museum is a mixed-media sculpture by Iowa artist Richard Pinney that combines objects and photographs related to the former president.

This section of the sculpture has Hoover's birthdate and family photos; in the photo on the right, he is between his siblings, a sister and brother. When their parents died quite young, the kids were farmed out separately to different relatives. Bertie was sent on the train to his stern Quaker Uncle in Newberg, Oregon.

Hoover married Lou Henry. As a girl she loved camping, horses, hunting; she enrolled in Stanford in 1894 as the school's only female geology major. In 1898 the year she graduated from Stanford, Hoover cabled a marriage proposal from Australia which she promptly accepted by return wire.

The day after they were married, both age 24, they sailed from San Francisco to Shanghai. Hoover's job required extensive travel through remote and dangerous areas which they did together. This statue shows the newlywed, Lou, assisting in the Boxer Rebellion, holster and pistol at the ready.

Hoover was extremely successful organizing humanitarian efforts following both World Wars.

In spite of the heat the blacksmith was on the job outside the air conditioned Visitor Center.
This modern-day worker was well-informed on Hoover and American history in general. We agreed the motto E Pluribus Unum should be restored. (Out of many, one.)

Oberlin and Edison

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the country.

In 1844, Oberlin College graduated its first black student, George B. Vashon, who became one of the founding professors at Howard University and the first black lawyer admitted to the Bar in New York State.
It is also the oldest continuously operating coeducational institution, since having admitted four women in 1837. These four women were the first to enter as full students. Mary Jane Patterson graduated in 1862 to become the first black woman to earn a B.A. degree.

One historian called Oberlin "the town that started the Civil War" due to its reputation as a hotbed of abolitionism. Oberlin was a key stop along the Underground Railroad. In 1858, both students and faculty were involved in the rescue of a fugitive slave, which received national press coverage.

In 1970, Oberlin made the cover of Life as one of the first colleges in the country to have co-ed dormitories.
Many accomplishments made by this little Ohio College!

I stopped in Milan (MY-lan), Ohio, for a look at Tom Edison's home still held by his descendents, and hometown.

For the most part the neighborhood still looks like the 19th century.

Edison's record player is demonstrated.

This is a photo of Thomas Edison, age 14, 1861 (the year the Civil War began), working as a newsboy and candy butcher for the Grand Trunk Railroad in Michigan. (A candy butcher is a concessionaire hawking sweets on trains and circuses. It was a popular profession for young boys who were strong, outgoing and savvy.)

RV Hall of Fame

Elkhart, Indiana

August 26, 2013

Reader, you may be surprised to learn that there really is a RV Museum.
Just head on down to Elkhart, Indiana and see for yourself.

1954 Yellowstone Travel Trailer. This is an example of the higher line travel trailers made at this time.

1958 Airstream "der Kleine Prinz (Little Prince)
Built as a 10 foot prototype for a potential very small trailer to be sold in the European Caravan market, owner Wally Byam decided not to take it into production, so this the only one.
I think he would have made a great success with it!

1931 Mae West Housecar
Paramount Studios offered this to Mae West to get her to leave the Vaudeville circuit and make movies for them.It was a chauffeur-driven lounge featuring a hot plate stove and ice box. It was used for several years to transport Miss West from her home or hotel to the shooting locations. She had a rocking chair on the back porch where she could enjoy the breeze.

Mae's back porch.

Thor was the owner of several brands including Dutchman who manufactured my T@B in 2007.

A craftsman donated his clamshell model to the RV Museum.

1962 Mallard 13' Travel Trailer
This pristine unit was used regularly by one family for 30 years. It was fully equipped with the common amenities of the day: a kitchen, dining area, and beds for up to five (!) people. If I could turn back the clock I would have this one.

Good-by to the RV museum and Indiana as I cross the great Mississippi River.