Women in the Battle of Adwa

Adwa, the very first decisive victory of a black African power, is an important event in the shared memory of the entire African population. It demonstrated the spirit of unity, love and friendship among Ethiopians; but foremost, it showed the genuine role of women.

Women marched alongside men to the battle at Adwa 127 years ago not as “comfort women”, but to fight against the Italian army. Just like their men-folk, Ethiopian women were ready to sacrifice themselves to prevent colonialists from sneaking into their country, thus forcing their children to live in servitude.

Women were preparing food and water, providing medical care for the wounded and they were following the solders with a slogan of  ‘ freedom or death’.

Detail of the Battle of Adwa

Empress Taytu Bitul was clearly symbolic of the best patriotic qualities of women. Taytu was not only a diplomat and stateswoman with resolve, but also an ingenious commandant versed in the art of war, a tactician par excellence.

Taytu was a strong-willed woman who forged a powerful alliance with her husband, promoting his career and then replacing him when he was incapacitated. Taytu was a remarkable power in her own right: she had a private army and large land holding, she also held a dominant position in determining Ethiopian Orthodox Church policy. 

She opposed Menelik’s conciliatory attitude toward the Italians who had imperial designs on Ethiopia.  She scored a significant victory at an Italian-built fort in Mekelle, where she defeated the Italians by cutting off their water supply.  She then took part in their decisive defeat at Adwa in 1895.

Emperor and Empress of Ethiopia shown during the Battle of Atwa

Portrait of Empress Taytu Bitul

Awa Victory Day is a national holiday in Ethiopia, which is observed on March 2nd every year.  This day celebrates Ethiopia’s victory over Italy in the year 1896.  People pay tribute to their ancestors who helped present-day Ethiopians secure their independence from European rule. This day is an important milestone as it stands for the celebration of Ethiopian sovereignty. People dwa Victory Day is a national holiday in Ethiopia, which is observed on March 2 every year.  This day celebrates Ethiopia’s victory over Italy in the year 1896.  People pay tribute to their ancestors who helped present-day Ethiopians secure their independence from European rule. This day is an important milestone as it stands for the celebration of Ethiopian sovereignty. People come out into the streets, hold parades, and retell old tales. 

Celebrating Adwa Victory Day Photo Credit: Xinhua

3D Pavement Art by Kurt Wenner

Kurt Wenner attended Rhode Island School of Design and Art Center College before working for NASA as an advanced scientific space illustrator. In 1982 he left the NASA to pursue his passion for classical art and moved to Rome where he learned and experienced from the masterpieces first hand.

While in Itlay, Wenner saw an artist who explained the tradition of street painting in Europe. Working with chalks came natural to Wenner and so began his new career creating a unique form of pavement art. 

Wenner’s compositions appear to rise from, or fall into the ground.  Onlookers are encouraged to “walk” into the design.

Keep Exploring.  Canada Tourism Event, Central Park, New York, NY 
© 2011-2019  Kurt Wenner

Left: Universal Studios Japan    Right: The Flying Carpet in Bettona, Italy  
© 2011-2019  Kurt Wenner

In addition to teaching, Wenner has lectured at corporate events and conducted seminars and workshops for organizations ranging from the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution to Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, Toyota, and General Motors.

God of War  Sony Playstation Floor Graphic 
© 2011-2019  Kurt Wenner

Woman Driver  Bahrain F1 Grand Prix International Circuit 
© 2011-2019  Kurt Wenner

The Interrupted Tea Party   Xintiandi. Shanghai, China
© 2011-2019  Kurt Wenner

Chariot of the Sun River Place Festival in Greenville, South Carolina
(c) 2011-2019 Kurt Wenner

Being a firm believer in arts education, Wenner has taught more than a hundred thousand students over a 10-year period for which he received the Kennedy Center Medallion in recognition of his outstanding contribution to arts educations. 

Wenner teaching 3D chalk art at Science Festival in Leominster Massachusetts   Credit:  Facebook Photo Courtesy Denise Kowal

Wenner is now working on several new projects, which will have unusual geometry. He enjoys using multiple surfaces to create single illusions and is currently moving in the direction of creating illusions as permanent installations for interior spaces. 

Incident at Waterloo   Sky HD Publicity Event, Waterloo, London   © 2011-2019 

For more information check out Wenner’s galaries at  https://kurtwenner.com

Father of Crop Art

Stan Herd Photo courtesy of Jon Blumb

A native of Protection, Kansas, Stan Herd nourished a love of art as a young man and was awarded an art scholarship to Wichita State University in 1969.

After working in New York for a number of years he returned to his heritage in rural Kansas and began developing a large quantity of artwork including paintings and large murals with mostly western imagery. A few years into his career as an established western artist, Herd had a thought.

“I was on a flight back from Dodge City in 1976 after painting a mural on a bank when I was looking down at a field and saw a tractor traversing a field corner to corner when the idea came to me to create a design on the ground,” he explained. “

Herd’s first Earthwork was of Chief Satanta, a Kiowa leader.  It was several years in the making before it was unveiled in 1981. The 160-acre portrait would become the first of many Earthworks.

Chief Satanta Earthwork and photo by Stan Herd

To date Herd has created about 40 commissioned commercial pieces and 40 art pieces of his own.  The commercial works afford him the freedom to do the work that means the most to him.

He has used combines, tractors, Roto tillers, drills, and many hand-held tools combining new and existing vegetation to carve out an image.  His work sometimes includes mulch, rocks and stones as well. Herd said he usually has a dozen people assist on an average Earthwork project, sometimes family, friends, locals, students and agriculturists who know the area and its crops.

Stan Herd Amelia Earhart as seen from the air. Photographer: TALIS BERGMANIS Credit: THE STAR Keyword: ART

An example of Stan Herd’s commercial work for Shock Top Belgian Ale. This one is in Austin Texas. It is made with two ingredients in the ale: wheat and oranges.

In 2018 Herd received an email from a tobacco executive in China inviting him to visit Yunnan province and see if he wanted to participate in the construction of a public park. After a bit of consideration and recovering from the surprise of the invitation, Herd jumped at the chance. This would be a four-acre earthwork on a hillside in the center of the 800-acre Taiping Lake Park.

Thus began an epic undertaking that found Herd traveling to China 15 times in 15 months. He insisted on creating the design outline without a GPS – laying every single line by himself.”  The work was interrupted by several rainy seasons.

Herd used more than 15,000 bricks chipped out of locally quarried rock. These were placed to create beds for flowering plants and medicinals native to the region. Together the stone and vegetation formed the patterns of the subject’s face and clothing.

Construction Young Woman of China in Yunnan Stan Herd

Herd’s comment about the finished art: “It beautifully represents the elegance of the (women) of China. … And this artwork also (embodies) communication in culture and art areas between China and America.”

Show above is Stan Herd’s Young Woman of China.

Stan Herd’s most recent project is a 1.2-acre recreation of Van Gogh’s famous artwork, Olive Trees, which he “planted” in Minneapolis. The piece was commissioned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and involved weeks of mowing, digging, planting, and earthscaping to create the piece viewable from the air near the Minneapolis airport. The field location was specifically chosen so that flight passengers can easily see the land art.

Olive Trees by Stan Herd. Van Gogh’s signature dazzling painted sky was recreated using a field of oats mowed in concentric circles.

Olive Trees by Stan Herd as seen from a plane.

Like many of his artworks, Herd’s rendition of Van Gogh’s painting will disappear over time as the crops grow out and the elements wear down the design.

Young Woman of China might not be big enough to be seen from space, however, it does have one advantage over the Great Wall of China.  As Herd explains: “It’s so deep and embedded in the ground, and so massively created on that hillside, it will be here hundreds of years from now.”

Stan Herd has certainly created a niche in the art world.  Dan Rather reporting on CBS News called him the Father of Crop Art.

A Tribute to Audubon

Nineteenth-century naturalist, ornithologist, and artist John James Audubon lived the later years of his life in northern Manhattan, in what is now the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Harlem. Audubon is best known for his comprehensive book, The Birds of America, which was accompanied by beautiful, detailed illustrations of many of the birds.

Illustrated page from John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. Photo by Susie Cushner

Today, visitors to Hamilton Heights will discover a series of amazing murals that honor Audubon while bringing attention to the effects of climate change on North America’s bird populations. Known as the Audubon Mural Project, the murals are a collaborative effort of the National Audubon Society and Gitler & ______Gallery (yes, that’s the gallery’s actual name – there is an underlined blank space).

This spray-painted menagerie graces roll-down gates and barren walls with permission of willing property owners. Here are a few examples:

Bay breasted warbler semipalmated plover by Fifty/FFTY Photo by Mike Fernandez/Audubon

Rufous-crowned Sparrow and Western Bluebird at 1614 Amsterdam, NYC Artist: Shawn Bullen Photo: Hillary Eggers/Audubon

Anhinga at 3458 Broadway, NYC Artist: Lexi Bella Photo: Hillary Eggers Audubon

Spotted owl at 3841 Broadway, NYC Artist: Paul Nassar Photo: Hillary Eggers/Audubon

Roseate spoonbill at 3541 Broadway, NYC
Artist: Danielle Mastrion Photo: Mike Fernandez/Audubon

Elsewhere, Audubon himself is rendered in flesh tones and with mutton-chop sideburns, staring curiously at a cerulean warbler on his shoulder with neither his rifle nor palette at hand.

John James Audubon contemplating the Cerulean Warbler at 601 W. 149th NYC Artist: Tom Sanford Photo : Mike Fernandez/Audubon

The National Audubon Society’s website has a map showing the location of each mural. The website also serves as an excellent guide for a tour of the murals, as it gives much more information about each one, including an explanation of how the birds are being affected by climate change and some remarks by each artist about their art.

http://www.audubon.org/amp

Check out this video of Damien Mitchell creating a mural of a peregrine falcon for the Audubon Mural Project:

Alexander the Great Quest for Immortality

Alexander the Great fighting Darius III – mosaic from Pompeii Credit: Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) is known as the conqueror of much of the ancient world. By the time of his early death at the age of 32, he had won territories from Egypt to India and made a lasting name for himself as a brilliant military commander and strategist. Accounts of his life and exploits are known from an early period, in various cultures and in a number of different languages.

Through the years, so many stories have been told and retold about Alexander the Great that he has become more like a character from Greek mythology than a real human being.

Medieval accounts of Alexander’s adventures and exploits included illustrations with fearsome beasts as seen in several European examples shown below.

Miniature of Alexander the Great in battle with dragons, Royal 20 B. xx, f. 49v. The British Library

 

Detail of a miniature of Alexander the Great, in a cage, being carried aloft by griffins, Royal 20 B. xx, f. 76v.
The British Library

As a great general, Alexander was a fitting role model for young princes and kings, particularly during the troubled period of the Hundred Years War, when a ruler’s military prowess was so important.  The illustration above is from a French manuscript called The True History of the Good King Alexander. Whoever its original owner might have been, by the mid-sixteenth century it had indeed found a royal home: the added inscription ‘HR’ (Henricus Rex) at the beginning of the book indicates that the volume eventually found its way into the library of Henry VIII.

Another miniature from The True History of the Good King Alexander ca. 1420 shows Alexander  exploring the ocean in a glass barrel accompanied by a cat and a cock. His unfaithful wife tries to murder him by cutting the cord connecting him to the ship. It’s the cat that saves the day.

 

Imagery from Song of Alexander by Lamprecht von Pfaffen Photo credit: Lebrecht

In a German epic poem entitled Song of Alexander by Lamprecht von Pfaffen there is another fabulous account of the life of Alexander the Great. This 12^th century illustration shows Alexander doing battle with six-handed human-like creatures and pigs with terrible fangs.  The monsters look a lot like the beasts in Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where the Wild Things Are as seen below:

Drawing from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (c) Harper & Row Publishers

 

Another illustration from Song of Alexander showing Alexander doing battle with dragons and other fantastical beasts. Credit: Lebrecht

Alexander the Great is quoted as saying, “I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity.” That’s exactly what he got. 2,300 years later we remember him as a legendary, mythic figure. He fulfilled his quest for immortality.

 

 

 

A Medieval Feminist

Christine de Pizan (1364-1430), often called the first professional female author, wrote to support herself and her family. She is one of the few women who had prominence as a secular writer during a time when women were neither educated nor independent.

Christine de Pisan Teaching Her Son – Unknown illuminated manuscript from British Library, London

Christine was born in Venice in 1364. When she was five, her family moved to France so that her father, a physician and astrologer, could work as a councilor to King Charles V.

In Paris Christine’s mother wanted her to learn domestic skills, but her father believed that it would benefit her to learn how to read and write. In the milieu of a court that had an immense library, she learned Italian, French, and some Latin.

When she was 15 years old, she married Étienne du Castel, a nobleman and courtier who became the king’s secretary. But that same year Charles V died and her father lost his position, and with it the high income. Three years later her husband died, leaving her with the burden of three small children. Her widowed mother, also dependent on her, cared for her children while Christine threw herself into literature, philosophy, and anything she could learn.

Instead of remarrying, she decided to enlarge upon her studies. Fortunately she was allowed access to the libraries of the courts. In 1394 she began to write and sell her poems and receive commissions by patrons of the court.

As Christine continued to write poetry and prose, a feminist voice emerged. In The Book of the City of Ladies she created a utopian world where women had power and control and proved that many of the negative myths regarding the female sex were false.

Illuminated page from The Book of the City of Women. Paris about 1405. Photo credit: Manuscript Department/Library of Congress

In this illustration from The Book of the City of Women, aided by Reason, Uprightness, and Justice, she lays the foundation of a City exclusively for women who have served the cause of women (female warriors, politicians, good wives, lovers, and inventors, among others). The imagined City will be crowned by the glory of the Virgin and sainted women.

Its sequel, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, was different, written specifically for upper-class women and members of the court, to give them advice on managing their homes during their husbands’ absences. In this book she cautioned against dishonest governors and protecting one’s rights as a landowner so that unscrupulous agents would not take advantage of a woman’s status.

Christine was knowledgeable in farming and spoke to the role of women as housekeepers in a time when their domain included fields, crops, laborers, and maids.

“The good housekeeper must keep her eyes wide open.” Christine was well acquainted with the chores involved in livestock maintenance, as well as agriculture. Every detail of the work involved in a responsible woman’s life was spelled out. She stressed that the mistress of a domestic enterprise should constantly be watchful.

Illustrations from The Treasure of the City of Ladies Credit: Special Collections, Boston Public Library

The left side of this illustration shows Christine reclining on a canopied bed trying to rest after finishing The Book of the City of Ladies. The three Virtues awakening Christine giving her such a mighty tug that she pulls her into an upright position, commanding: Have you already put away the tool of your intelligence and consigned it to silence? Take your pen and write.

 The right side of this miniature portrays all of the women addressed in the text. The middle class women are seated on a bench in the foreground, with their backs to the viewer.  Three of these women wear hoods with long tails hanging down their backs.  These hoods indicate their lower status. There are several women on the bench with white horned headdresses identical to the one our author wears, spelling out their slightly higher status as servants of the court, or members of the affluent middle class.

Christine de Pizan lecturing men (I) and in her study) Both illustrations accompany the Cent Ballades, in the Queen’s Manuscript of 1411-12, now in the British Library.

The Book of the Queen contains the largest extant collection of Christine’s writing, and was written and decorated under her supervision, commissioned for Isabeau of Bavaria, the queen consort to Charles VI of France.

Christine’s life was dramatically altered by the Hundred Years War clash between France and England. Sometime after France lost the Battle of Agincourt she entered a convent in Poissy, France. In 1429 she penned a work to praise Joan of Arc. This proved to be her final contribution to literature. Christine died around 1430.

 

 

 

 

Two Portraits of Nan

American Gothic, 1939 by Grant Wood. The Art Instiute of Chicago/© Figge Art Museum.

This familiar painting was exhibited publicly for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago, winning a $300 prize and instant fame for Grant Wood. The male model for American Gothic was Wood’s dentist, Dr. Bryon McKeeby. What you might not know is the woman was the artist’s sister, Nan Wood Graham. The models sat separately and never stood in front of the Gothic style house in the background. Grant dressed his models as if they were tintypes from an old family album.

The portrait of the somber Midwestern farmer is often misinterpreted. The woman is not meant to be the man’s wife, but his unmarried daughter destined to stay on the farm to assist and care for her widowed father. The man and woman, in their solid and well-crafted world, with all their strengths and weaknesses, represent survivors.

At the time the painting was shown in 1939 critics said the plain, stern-faced Iowa woman “would turn milk sour”. The following year, by way of an apology, Grant painted Portrait of Nan.  “It’s really a kind of love letter from Grant to his sister” said Wood’s biographer, R. Tripp Evans.  “He adored Nan.  And it’s a painting that he felt very close to as well, one of very few of his mature paintings that he kept for himself.”

Portrait of Nan by Grant Wood highlighting his sister’s feminity. (Collection of William Benton, Chazen Museum of Art/© Figge Art Museum)

Nan is holding a plum in one hand and a chick in the other.  Most likely Grant liked the idea of the chick to convey Nan’s tenderness.  Purchased in a dime store the chick turned out to be more than a handful.  “It wouldn’t eat toast without butter or potatoes without gravy, said Nan.

 

 

 

The Eyes Have It

Third Eye NepalIndian-Goddess-Mask

In yoga the sixth chakra (point on the body) relates to the mystical third eye – the organ of inner perception.  The purpose of this sixth chakra is to see the way, and bring the light of consciousness to all that exist within and around us.  In South Asia it is traditionally shown as a bright dot of red color (a bindi) applied in the center of the forehead close to the eyebrows, but it can also consist of other colors with a sign or piece of jewelry worn at this location.

Bronze Buddha with prominent third eye from National Museum of Korea

Photo of Selena Gomez. Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Singer Selena Gomez found herself embroiled in a controversy involving a dance she did and the improper use of a bindi. Leaders at the Universal Society of Hinduism want Selena to apologize for wearing the religious adornment.

“The bindi on the forehead is an ancient tradition in Hinduism and has religious significance,” as Rajan Zed explained:  “It is also sometimes referred to as the third eye and the flame, and it is an auspicious religious and spiritual symbol.  It is not meant to be thrown around loosely for seductive effects or as a fashion accessory aiming at mercantile greed. Selena should apologize and then she should get acquainted with the basics of world religions.”

Historically the eye symbol has been picked up by different religious faiths.  I was surprised to see the symbol on Shaker spirit drawings.

Sarah Bates sacred roll includes the Eye of Wisdom or spiritual eye, which allowed Holy Mother Wisdom to see the faithful members of the Shaker Community. Credit: Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Freemasons borrowed this important symbol of the Supreme Being, from the nations of antiquity. Both the Hebrews and the Egyptians selected the open eye as the symbol of watchfulness, and the eye of God as the symbol of Divine care of the universe.

Masonic All Seeing Eye of God

Egyptian Eye of Horus (shown below from King Tut’s tomb) was a symbol of protection, royal power and good health.

Credit: National Geographic Society

The Eye-in-the-Hand symbol was used by the ancient Native Americans of the Mississippian culture.   The meaning of the Hand Eye is related to gaining entry to the Upperworld (heaven).  The Eye-in-the-Hand symbol is believed to be representative of a supreme deity.

Rendering of ceremonial disk mound Credit: Alabama Museum of Natural History

The universal symbol called Humsa (khamsa) by the Hindus is a powerful protection amulet and is often called the All Seeing Eye of Mercy helpful in banishing fear and oppression.

Tunisian Khamsa hanging inside a car. Credit: CarlesVA/Wikipedia

Collection of khamsa amulet collected in Israel. Credit: Bluewind/Wikipedia

And finally here’s a contemporary African sculpture with the same symbol

Zimbabwean Sculpture Eye in Hand by Lameck Bonjisi

International Street Art

People have been making graffiti for centuries. ‘Street art’ is the newer international term, dressing up this once-reviled practice.

Ben Frost’s example (shown below) painted on a wall in Brisbane, Australia, rips off Roy Lichtenstein as shamelessly as Lichtenstein ripped off the comics. The aim of Mr. Frost’s art isn’t ironic, though, but satirical. His ‘crying girl’ is funnier than Lichtenstein’s, and more topical too—one imagines the flat black slab of a beloved iPhone cradled against her ear.

With a background in graffiti and graphic design, Berlin-based installation artist Clemens Behr seizes opportunities in the streets of the cities he visits. Across Europe and the States it is not unusual to stumble by one of Behr’s tessellating sculptures. Mainly focusing on triangular shapes and using recyclable materials like wood and cardboard, Behr stakes out prime spots – subways, street corners, rooftops, billboards – and stews on a design for a couple of days before erecting the assemblage without warning or commission.

The style itself is, simply, busy and precarious. But the works can range from almost camouflaged, 2-dimensional paintings, to enormous structures of painted wood and cardboard, slotted perfectly into a corner, or standing proudly alone, like a bonfire nobody wants to light because the composition came out so beautifully.

Sculpture by Clemens Gehr. Photo courtesy of artnet.com

Installation by Clemens Gehr. Photo courtesy of artnet.com

Behr really stands out in the world of pop-up artists as one of the few who is able to blur the boundary between graffiti, design and installation art with a special kind of subtlety.

A Parisian artist who calls himself Zevs “liquidates” corporate logos by defacing signs with spray paint that suggests they are melting, and Disney, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are popular targets the world over.

Zevs liguidated Coca-Cola logo

Another Berlin’based artist, Aram Bartholl, has taken things further, constructing large, thin sculptures that imitate the tear-drop-shaped ‘pins’ of Google Maps, then setting them up in squares and parks in Germany, France and China. It’s like stepping inside your iPhone.

My favorite – Os Gêmeos (The Twins) are brothers Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo. Based in São Paulo, Brazil, the pair has been painting graffiti since 1987, and their work has been a main influence on street art in Brazil. Their subjects range from family portraits, to social and political commentary, and Brazilian folklore. Aside from walls, Os Gêmeos also paint canvases, make sculptures, and are both graphic designers and photographers. Their work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cuba, Europe as well as numerous exhibitions in Sao Paulo and Latin America

Os Gemeos mural at corner of Bowery and Houston in New York City

“The Giant at Boston” by Os Gemeos. Photo (c) Geoff Hargad

And finally here ere are two examples of abstract street art in Amsterdam

© by Hugo Mulder

Neo-graffitti by Dutch Artist Amer

Merry Trippers on Great Brewster Island, 1891

Before Facebook people kept travel journals to document their summer adventures.  I recently saw an article about a wonderful album acquired by the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe Institute written by Helen Augusta Whittier which she titled:  “Ye Log of Ye Square Partie at Ye Great Brewster in ye pleasant month of July 1891”.   The author was an art teacher, photographer, avid promoter of women’s clubs and an entrepreneur who helped run the family’s mill business in Lowell. Helen, along with three of her well-educated, upper class friends sailed from Rowe’s Wharf in Boston on board the Nantasket Steamer landing at Pemberton Pier in Hull, Massachusetts.   There the “merry trippers” changed into more casual clothes and set off for Great Brewster Island in Boston Harbor on a lobster rig piloted by a man they dubbed “William the Swedish fisherman”.

Contemporary view of Great Brewster Island in Boston Harbor

Leaving behind their families (and apparently their identities) they simply called themselves the Autocrat, the gentle Aristocrat, the artistic Acrobat and the veracious Scribe.

Drawing from Helen Augusta Whittier’s album. Credit: Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute/Harvard University

Their journal includes photographs of the house they rented for two weeks as well as floor plans of the rooms.

Photos from Helen Augusta Whittier’s album. Credit: Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute/Harvard University

The acrobat made sketches for the “glorification” of their album and lovely watercolor drawings of sunsets, sailing boats and the wildflowers they collected to decorate their dining room table.

Watercolor of nasturtiums gathered on Great Brewster Credit: Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute/Harvard University

I especially enjoyed reading the daily menus they prepared.  Breakfast:  coffee, oatmeal, fishballs, salt pork, fried potatoes and toast.  Lunch:  lobster –just boiled, crackers and preserved giner.  Dinner:  Fricassee chicken on toast, boiled potatoes and tea.

Photo from Helen Augusta Whittier’s album. Credit: Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute/Harvard University

Photo from Helen Augusta Whittier’s album Credit: Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute/Harvard University

Roughing it on the island included fetching driftwood for the fire, lugging water from the well, walking to the seawall, wading and clamming.  William the Swedish fisherman brought them fresh milk, ice for the icebox, newspapers and on one happy occassion chocolates.   They also had a visit from the Lighthouse Keeper of Boston Light.

Boston Light Photo Credit: US Coast Guard Auxiliary

For entertainment the trippers wrote verse, sewed, photographed, used a spy glass, sketched, waded in the cold sea, played a board game called halma and card games like solitaire.  Believing that “a contented mind is a continual feast” they also read aloud most notably these three books:

The friends weathered rainy days with a sense of humor even when the roof leaked soaking all the bedding in the east room and restless nights when the fog horn kept them awake all night.  However when it was time “to leave behind the uneventful days to return to the work-a-day world”, they would miss the fog horn which had come to have a friendly, protective sound. They would return home to “winter fireside dreams of dawns and sunsets by the summer sea.”

Watercolor from Helen Augusta Whittier’s album Credit: Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute/Harvard University

If you are interested in reading more about this journal you can go to: http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collection/helen-augusta-whittier-album