New York City’s major cultural institutions are
temporarily closed to help minimize the spread of coronavirus, but many are
making their exhibits and programs available virtually, and have websites that
really engage, that make the time spent in enforced hibernation that much
richer and more productive, and frankly, less maddening.
When the Met reopens,
it will offer a series of special exhibits marking its 150th anniversary:The exhibition Making The Met, 1870–2020 will present
more than 250 works of art from the collection while taking visitors on a
journey through the Museum’s history; The reopening of the galleries for
British decorative arts and design will reveal a compelling new curatorial
narrative; Transformative new gifts, cross-cultural installations, and major
international loan exhibitions will be on view throughout the year; and special
programs and outreach will include a birthday commemoration on April 13, a
range of public events June 4–6, and a story-collecting initiative.
“Our
galleries may be closed, but never fear! Social media never sleeps.”
Follow @metmuseum on Instagram for Tuesday Trivia, #MetCameos, and daily art
content.
Being confined to home is a perfect time to take advantage of the Museum of Modern Art’s free massive open online course What Is Contemporary Art?, available now on Coursera. This course offers an in-depth look at over 70 works of art from MoMA’s collection—many of which are currently on view in the expanded Museum—from 1980 to the present, with a focus on art produced in the last decade. Learners will hear directly from artists, architects, and designers from around the globe about their creative processes, materials, and inspiration. What Is Contemporary Art? can be found at mo.ma/whatiscontemporaryart.
Dorothea Lange’s iconic photograph is featured in MoMA’s exhibit “Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures”. Meanwhile, take advantage of the Museum of Modern Art’s free massive open online course What Is Contemporary Art?
I can’t wait for MoMA to
reopen so I can see Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures,
the first major solo exhibition at the Museum of the photographer’s incisive
work in over 50 years. The exhibition includes approximately 100 photographs
drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection. Dorothea Lange: Words
& Pictures also uses archival materials such as correspondence,
historical publications, and oral histories, as well as contemporary voices, to
examine the ways in which words inflect our understanding of Lange’s pictures.
These new perspectives and responses from artists, scholars, critics, and
writers, including Julie Ault, Wendy Red Star, and Rebecca Solnit, provide
fresh insight into Lange’s practice. (Scheduled through May 9, 2020).
American Museum of Natural History while closed, the
website is a treasure trove of information and engaging photos and ways to
explore and interact on your own. At the section of its site labeled “Explore” https://www.amnh.org/explore, there are
videos, blogs and OLogy: The Science Website for Kids, where kids of all ages
can play games, do activities, watch videos and meet scientists to learn more
about fossils, the universe, genetics, and more. (Check out https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/brain)
New-York Historical Society is closed so you will have to wait to experience “Women March,” presidential/election exhibits (take a selfie in Reagan’s Oval Office) and “Bill Graham” (phenomenal and surprising exhibit with fabulous musical accompaniment about this iconic concert impresario). Meanwhile, the N-YHS website offers sensational online exhibitions featuring some of their important past exhibits, including ‘Harry Potter; A History of Magic,” and “the Vietnam War: 1945-1975” and Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion (https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/online-exhibitions). You can also delve into its digital collection, with selections from the N-YHS Museum and Library’s holdings paintings, drawings, photographs, manuscripts, broadsides, maps, and other materials that reveal the depth and breadth of over two centuries of collecting. (http://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/). (See: Many Pathways to Mark Centennial of Women’s Suffrage)
Meanwhile,
some outdoor venues are open, as of this writing (the situation has changed
daily):
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden remains open to
the public, having implemented stringent cleaning protocols and posted new
signage on-site about best practices in personal hygiene. “We hope that the
Garden might offer you some comfort and beauty even during a particularly
stressful time.” (https://www.bbg.org/visit)
Central Park, Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows may well provide needed respite. However, the Wildlife Conservation Society has temporarily closed the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo and New York Aquarium, effective Monday, March 16. Check wcs.org for updates.
by
Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
The
2017 Women’s March may have been the largest single protest in history, but
women have been marching literally and virtually for 200 years. And for 200
years, the march, the campaign for women’s rights has been shorthand for
voting, education, health care, equal pay, workers rights, civil rights,
environmental justice, gun safety. Yes, there was that period when temperance
was a priority, as well. But it has only been in the 1970s, that Feminism – the
fight for women’s equality – took hold, and with it, the fight for the
essential right: reproductive freedom.
The
new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society simply
called “Women March” (part of The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial
Consortium, www.WomensSuffrageNYC.org) traces
this long arc which has not always moved toward justice or equality. Indeed,
progress, on just about every front, has been in brief spurts of enlightenment.
In reality, that long arc is more zig-zags and a maze with brick walls to block
progress.
From
the beginning, women directed their activism to abolition of slavery, labor
rights, working conditions and pay equity, civil rights, health, education,
property rights, custody, rights for Native Americans – issues regarded as “moral imperative.”
“Women seized on the notion that women had a moral power, beyond home, a moral imperative to effect public policy,” said Jeanne Gardner Gutierrez, curatorial scholar in women’s history at the New-York Historical Society.
Without the right to vote, they took
advantage of the Constitution’s right to petition Congress – until Congress
said they would ignore any anti-slavery petition.
“It was infuriating. The one right
available to women, guaranteed by Constitution, swept away. They realized that
moral suasion has limits.”
Voting
rights was not at the core of the women’s activism, which was hardly a movement
then. Even at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the women leaders – mainly
Quaker women who already had a measure of equality within their religious
society – had to be persuaded (by
Frederick Douglass) to include the right to vote among their demands, enunciated in the Declaration of Sentiments, that
mimicked the Declaration of Independence. Their demands centered on equal pay
and rights to own property and have control of one’s own earnings, a growing
issue for women who were being employed in factories and for the first time
earning their own wage. Many women did not sign on. It may surprise many to
learn (as I did when visiting the Roosevelt historic site at Hyde Park) that
Eleanor Roosevelt was not an early supporter of suffrage.
During
the Civil War – as in the Revolutionary War and later World War II – women took
on roles that had been reserved for men: they managed their farms and
businesses while husbands and fathers were off fighting, they were nurses, and
organized fundraisers showing they could manage large financial projects (Sanitary Fair raised $1 million for union, the treasurer was
a woman).
After the Civil War, there was a
great debate over whether women should seek the vote, whether under the 15th
amendment which said that men could not be denied the right
to vote simply based on their race,
voting should be a right of citizenship. Women were considered citizens, but
the Supreme Court found that citizenship did not automatically bestow voting
rights.
But a section of the exhibit labeled “Go West Young Woman” notes that in the Western territories, women did have right to vote (and apparently, women had the right to vote briefly in New Jersey, from 1776 to 1807 when the vote was restricted to white men. (See:On the Trail of America’s First Women to Vote)
But
those who think that Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first woman to run for
president (she was the first to run as a major party candidate) might be
surprised to learn that even before women won the right to vote, Victoria
Woodhull was the first woman to run for president as the Equal Rights Party
candidate in 1871. “Despite questions about eligibility to vote, women, she
reasoned, still could run for political office,” the notes read. Lawyer Belva
Lockwood, the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court, followed in 1884
and 1888 on the National Equal Rights Party
ticket and was the first woman to appear on
official ballots, endorsing equal rights, temperance, civil service
reform and citizenship for Native Americans; she won some 4,000 votes.
But
at a certain turning point, the women’s movement realized that moral suasion
wasn’t going to effect real change; the key to getting any of the changes and
rights they wanted was the right to vote.
They
used the latest techniques and technology to build support. Film was new in
1915, and a newsreel agency, Universal Animated Weekly, captured a 1915 strike
for workers rights (we get to see the film on a screen almost life-sized). The
films were distributed and shown in nickelodeons (small movie houses), and were an inexpensive
way to reach working-class people.
It’s
only in the 1960s-1970s, it seems, that women’s rights became equated with
reproductive rights, or more precisely, abortion, and coming almost
simultaneously with The Pill and sexual freedom that broke down gender
barriers. The threat to male domination became much starker – uprooting the
concept of women in the home, being consumers of appliances and cosmetics,
caring for children while men held the economic reins. Women could be fired for
becoming pregnant, could be paid a fraction of the same wage, and relegated
into specific jobs. Check out the classified job listing in the 1970s, and you
will see “male” and “female” listings.
Feminism
really only comes to play in the 1980s, when the right to control one’s own
body, make one’s own choices, have the same right as men to self-determination,
takes hold. The outrage at women as
property, chattel, of objectification comes into focus.
Here
you see a display with the first issue of Ms. Magazine, an organizing force
which reinforced women’s yearning for equal status.
Whereas
in the earliest stages of activism, women’s issues were those that were
considered the “moral imperative” – abolition, workers rights – now it boiled
down to self, individual rights, but exploded back up again: women’s rights are
human rights.
But
for others, feminism boiled down to one word: abortion.
Ms.
Magazine publishes an amazing call to sign on to “a campaign for honesty and
freedom” along with a long list of 53 famous women who declared, “We have had
abortions” On the list: Gloria Steinem, Nora Ephron, Judy Collins, Susan
Sontag, Lillian Hellman, Lee Grant, Gael Greene, Billie Jean King.
The
exhibit follows to the 2017 Women’s March, with some of the posters.
And
just to emphasize the importance of Women’s Suffrage, just outside the exit
door is a computer where you can check on your voter registration.
For as long as there has been a
United States, women have organized to shape the nation’s politics and secure
their rights as citizens. Their collective action has taken many forms, from
abolitionist petitions to industry-wide garment strikes to massive marches for
an Equal Rights Amendment. Women March celebrates the
centennial of the 19th Amendment—which granted women the right to vote in
1920—as it explores the efforts of a diverse array of women to expand American
democracy in the centuries before and after the suffrage victory.
On view in the Joyce B. Cowin
Women’s History Gallery, Women March is curated by Valerie
Paley, the director of the Center for Women’s History and New-York Historical
senior vice president and chief historian, with the Center for Women’s History
curatorial team. The immersive exhibition features imagery and video footage of
women’s collective action over time, drawing visitors into a visceral
engagement with the struggles that have endured into the 21st century.
The exhibition begins with the many
ways women asserted political influence long before they even demanded the
vote. Objects and images demonstrate how they risked criticism for speaking
against slavery, signed petitions against Indian Removal, raised millions to
support the Civil War, and protested reduced wages and longer days. A riveting
recreation of an 1866 speech by African American suffragist and activist
Frances Harper demonstrates the powerful debates at women’s rights conventions.
Absence of the vote hardly prevented women from running for political office:
one engaging item on display is a campaign ribbon for Belva Lockwood, the first
woman to argue before the Supreme Court, who won around 4,000 votes in her own
presidential bid.
Multiple perspectives on the vote,
including African American and working-class activism, are explored, upending
popular assumptions that suffragists were a homogenous group. The 19th
Amendment is hailed as a crucial step forward, but recognized as an incomplete
victory. One photograph shows an African American women’s voter group in
Georgia circa 1920, formed despite wide disenfranchisement, and another shows
women of the League of Women Voters who sought to make suffragists’ goals real
with legislation that addressed issues such as public health and child welfare.
A digital interactive monitor invites visitors to explore the nuances of voting
laws concerning women across the entire United States.
Offering an examination of women’s
activism in the century after the Amendment, the exhibition concludes by
showing how women engaged with issues such as safe workplaces, civil rights,
reproductive justice, and freedom from violence. Photographs and video footage
of women building warships, boycotting segregation, urging voters to register,
and marching for the Equal Rights Amendment convey the urgency of their desire
for full citizenship. The dynamism of women’s collective action continues to
the present day with handmade signs from the 2017 Women’s Marches and footage
of a variety of marches and speeches on topics ranging from reproductive
justice to indigenous peoples’ rights to climate change. Visitors can also
learn about many individuals who have been instrumental in women’s activism
over the past 200 years in an interactive display compiled by New-York
Historical’s Teen Leaders program. Meanwhile, young visitors can explore the
exhibition with a special family guide.
Women
March,
on view through August 30, 2020, is one of four major special exhibitions
mounted by the New-York Historical Society that
address the cornerstones of citizenship and American democracy.
Meet
the Presidentswhich opened on President’s Weekend, is where you can
discover how the role of the president has evolved since George Washington with
a re-creation of the White House Oval Office, decorated “thread by thread”
exactly as it was during Ronald Reagan’s tenure, and a new gallery devoted to
the powers of the presidency.
Colonists, Citizens, Constitutions: Creating the American
Republic explores the important roles
state constitutions have played in the history of our country.
The People Count: The Census in the Making of Americadocuments
the critical role played by the U.S. Census in the 19th century—just in time
for the 2020 Census.
To encourage first-time voters to
learn about our nation’s history and civic as they get ready to vote in the
presidential election, New-York Historical Society offers free admission to the
exhibitions above to college students with ID through 2020, an initiative
supported, in part, by History®. This special program allows college students to
access New-York Historical’s roster of upcoming exhibitions that explore the
pillars of American democracy as they prepare to vote, most of them for the
first time.
“The year 2020 is a momentous time
for both the past and future of American politics, as the centennial of the
19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, coincides with both a
presidential election and a census year,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and
CEO of New-York Historical. “This suite of complementary exhibitions showcases
the ideas and infrastructure behind our American institutions that establish
and protect our fundamental rights to make our voices heard and opinions count.
We hope that all visitors will come away with a wider understanding of the
important role each citizen plays in our democracy.”
The
New-York Historical Society is located at 170 Central Park West at Richard
Gilder Way (77th Street), New York, NY 10024, 212-873-3400, nyhistory.org.
The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial
Consortium
One hundred years ago, women earned
the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th amendment. To honor their
fight and commemorate this moment in history, a collective of New York City
cultural organizations has formed the Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial
Consortium.
The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial
Consortium is a collaboration of cultural
organizations citywide that foregrounds exhibitions and programs that,
together, offer a multi-dimensional picture of the history of women’s suffrage
and its lasting, ongoing impact. The consortium has launched www.WomensSuffrageNYC.org to highlight the activities being presented across New
York City throughout 2020.
Founding members are the New-York
Historical Society, the Staten Island Museum, the New York Philharmonic, The
New York Public Library, Brooklyn Historical Society, the Museum of the City of
New York, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Brooklyn
Museum, Park Avenue Armory, and Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical
Garden.
Announced programming includes the
exhibition Women March at the New-York Historical
Society, which explores the efforts of a
wide range of women to expand American democracy in the centuries before and
after the suffrage victory (February 28 – August 30); Women
of the Nation Arise! Staten Islanders in the Fight for Women’s Right to Vote at
the Staten Island Museum, which presents the remarkable stories of local
suffragists acting on the grassroots level to create the momentum necessary for
regional and national change and the bold tactics they employed to win the vote
(March 7 – December 30); the New York Philharmonic’s Project 19—a
multi-season initiative to commission and premiere 19 new works by 19 women
composers, the largest women-only commissioning initiative in history, which
launched earlier this month and continues in the spring (May – June) and
beyond; and 100 Years | 100 Women a partnership of Park
Avenue Armory with National Black Theatre and nine other cultural institutions in
New York City to commission work exploring the complex legacy of the 19th
Amendment 100 years after its ratification from 100 artists who identify as
women or gender non-binary (showcase of commissions on May 16).
The consortium is committed to
showcasing women’s contributions to the past, present, and future. Though many
women were given access to the right to vote 100 years ago, the fight for
equality continues. Their goal is to expand the conversation through meaningful
cultural experiences that convey that all women should be seen, heard, and
counted.
The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial
Consortium is co-chaired by Janice Monger, president & CEO of the Staten
Island Museum, and Valerie Paley, director of the Center for Women’s History
and senior vice president and chief historian at the New-York Historical
Society, to bring together a group of vital New York City cultural
organizations with a shared vision to honor the Women’s Suffrage Centennial.
“We are so proud to bring together
this collective of organizations and colleagues who share the vision that
women’s stories are important and need to be told. All of these activities
represent multi-faceted, nuanced cultural and historical insights into the
early 20th century movement and equality in progress today,” said Janice
Monger, consortium co-chair and Staten Island Museum president & CEO.
“In an effort that was many decades
in the making, a century ago, women came together to fight for and win the
right to vote. While that right was not fully and immediately extended to all
women, their continued collective action galvanized movements to expand and
give substantive meaning to American democracy after the suffrage victory,”
said Valerie Paley, consortium co-chair and senior vice president and chief
historian at the New-York Historical Society, where she directs the Center for
Women’s History. “Through these cultural experiences across New York City, we
hope New Yorkers and visitors alike will be inspired by the women who made
history and the women who are making history now,” she added.
The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial
Consortium will continue to grow as new programs and exhibitions are announced
during the year.
Meanwhile,
the National Trust for Historic
Preservation
is compiling a catalog of 1000 sites associated with women of accomplishment and
is more than halfway to the goal of
identifying places Where Women Made History
and is inviting people to submit entries (go to the site to submit a photo and
short description).
“This
year the United States commemorates the 100th anniversary of women gaining the
right to vote, providing an important opportunity to celebrate the place of
women in American history. While history, of course, is complicated, and voting
rights for many women continued to be denied because of discriminatory
practices, we at the National Trust want to tell the full history—to uncover
and uplift women across the centuries whose vision, passion, and determination
have shaped the country we are today. Our goal: discover 1,000 places connected
to women’s history, and elevate their stories for everyone to learn and
celebrate.
“But
to do this, we need your help. What places have you encountered where women
made history? They can be famous or unknown, protected or threatened, existing
or lost. No matter their condition or status, these places matter, and we
encourage you to share them with the world.
“Have
a place you’d like to share? Submit a photo and a short description.”
Visiting the historic landmark house of Alice Austen, an early photographer, on Staten Island, one of the 1000 sites to be listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Where Women Made History” site (c) Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
Just
checking the listings in New York State, I see already listed is Grange Hall, Waterloo,
NY, associated with Belva Ann Lockwood; Harriet Tubman House and Gravesite,
Auburn, NY; the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, New York City, “Little
Nellie,” Newspaper Editress, Penfield, NY; Alice Austen House, Staten Island;
and Matilda Joslyn Gage Center for Social Justice Dialogue, Fayetteville, NY.
by Karen
Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
Out of 1200 artifacts, photos, video testimonies, it comes down to one:
a tiny, well-worn leather child’s shoe, the sock still hanging out of it. Was
it taken off in anticipation the child was just going to a shower, or was the
child ferociously pulled out of the shoe and sock?
Shoes take on special significance at the “Auschwitz: Not so long ago.
Not far away.” landmark exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in
downtown Manhattan, which has been extended through August 30, 2020 before
touring to other cities.
As you first walk in, there is a single red shoe in a glass case that perversely sparks an image of the ruby slippers in “Wizard of Oz.” set against a grey-toned wall-mural sized photo of piles of shoes. Further on as you walk through the three-floors of exhibits, there is the pair of hardened leather clog-looking shoes in a case with a prison uniform so rough and raw they would irritate, then infect and swell the feet, a death sentence for the hapless prisoner.
Another display case in the “Selection” section contains shiny leather boots, much like those that the prisoners would see Mengele wearing as they were forced out of the freight cars minutes after being unloaded at Auschwitz, beneath the sign that said. ‘Work Sets You Free.” He was the doctor who selected out twin children for his medical experiments. The rest of the children – 200,000 of them – were immediately sent to the gas chamber along with their mother, aunt, sister, grandmother or friendly stranger who had accompanied them on their journey. The tiny leather shoe with the sock still in it is the only evidence this child existed at all, his life extinguished.
800,000 more Jews were immediately sent to their deaths in the gas
chambers, 2000 at a time, their bodies thrown into crematoria that worked 24/7
to keep up with the factory-scale exterminations, their ashes thrown into a
river.
Out of the 1.1 million “deported” to Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi
killing camps, only 200,000 were “selected” not for immediate death but to
become slave labor in the concentration camp. They too were immediately marched
into showers, their hair shaved, their arms tattooed, their bodies stripped of
any dignity or humanness. Few lived more than a month or two under the
atrocious conditions – dying of starvation, disease, overwork, beatings or
simply shot on the spot. Some became so infirm, they settled into their fate,
and welcomed being carried by stretcher to end their daily terror and pain.
Others, packed six to a wooden plank in the barracks, would wake up to find a
dead person next to them.
“Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away.” offers a different perspective on the Holocaust, a horror on a scale that is incomprehensible, by focusing down to the most personal elements.
This exhibit, which focuses down to one “tiny dot” on a map that was the
largest killing camp in the Nazi’s network – makes it as personal as is
possible. You walk in their shoes. And yet, as well as they show the faces, the
horrors, the personal objects, the testimonials of survivors, the drawings and photos,
an actual freight car and an actual barracks, even so, it is still hard to
comprehend.
Indeed, the incomprehensibility of the horror was key to its success – along
with secrecy and deception. People could not imagine the level of brutality,
cruelty, savageness. So they packed up what they could in suitcases, expecting
they were being resettled to places free of anti-Semitism, where they could
work and live out their lives.
It is also the danger that such dehumanization, genocide, industrial-scale
killing can happen again. Indeed, Auschwitz was not that long ago, nor that far
away.
“Auschwitz” isn’t just a look back with graphic evidence to plant a marker in the history books that others are working so hard to erase . It is a look at now, a look at where the trajectory can lead. That is what is embodied in the phrase. “Never Again.”
I had been steeling myself to visit the Auschwitz exhibit at the Museum
of Jewish Heritage. I recognized that I had an obligation, a responsibility to
be a witness to the extent possible. A NYC-Arts special on PBS helped
enormously because I could visualize, know what to expect and better prepare
for the horror – unlike the millions who were sent to the killing camps. Then
there was that television screening of the story of Irena Sendler, a Warsaw
nurse who smuggled 2,500 children out of the Ghetto to safety – the film so
graphic, her courage and nobility so palpable. Surely I could summon the
courage to face the past. To Remember. Never Forget.
If you thought you knew about the Holocaust and the Nazis’ Final Solution
that exterminated 6 million Jews and too many (40% of adults and 65% of young
people) don’t know anything at all, this rare exhibit, with artifacts gathered
from 20 institutions around the world, focuses just on Auschwitz – from how a
simple Polish village, Oswiecim where half the population was made up of Jewish
families who had lived there for centuries, was turned into the largest of six
killing factories in Poland. Original artifacts – documents, personal items,
posters, photos – show the roots of anti-Semitism and how being Jewish was
converted from a religion to “an inferior race,” a sub-human species, stripped
of legal, political, property and professional rights. That’s the first floor.
You see and hear from survivors how families were stuffed 100, 150 into a
box car (like the one outside the museum), with the ploy of telling them they
were being resettled to a better place free of anti-Semitism, then locked in
with just one pail as a toilet and one pail for water, so crowded, one had to
stand up in order for someone to sit down. And then they arrive on the “ramp”,
where they are “selected,” crossing under a wrought iron sign that said, “Work
Makes You Free.” That’s just the middle of the second floor.
Here you see stacks of suitcases, a pram (a rare artifact) that eerily reminds
you of the display as you enter Ellis Island, the gateway for millions of
immigrants into the United States. But here, it shows how unwitting the victims
were. Because they were only moments away from being sent to their death. And
because access to safe harbors like the United States were shut off to them.
Turn the corner in a room shrouded in darkness and you come upon a white
door of a gas chamber, a metal mesh chimney down which the Zykon B poison was
sent, a gas mask. In another case, one of the innocuous looking showerheads
that survived the fire the Nazis set to destroy evidence of their Final
Solution. Extraordinarily powerful and horrifying drawings by survivor Alfred Kantor depict how women and
children were told to undress and hang up their clothes on a numbered hook so
they would find them again – “Remember your number.” And then they would be
locked into the gas chamber.
They, too, were told they were going to shower to be de-loused. The Nazis
made a show of having them undress in a changing room, have them put their
clothes on numbered hooks so they could find them again. They were shoved 1000
at a time into a shower room, the doors clanked shut, and Zykon B poison pumped
in. It took barely 15 minutes to exterminate them all.
The door would open at the other end and a group of Jewish prisoners, called
Sonderkommandos, would pull the bodies out one by one, drag them to a dumbwaiter
to the crematoria. To keep the secret safe, the Sonderkommandos were kept
isolated from the rest of the camp, living in barracks above the crematoria. A
rabbi among them, a Hungarian, took each child and said Kaddish before placing
the small body in the crematorium.
But one of the Sonderkommandos, working with Polish resistance, smuggled
a camera and film and took photos of bodies being burned in vast fields with
the overflow that couldn’t be handled in the crematoria, working night and day.
There are four of these photos on display.
The Nazis harvested their victims. As the bodies were pulled from the gas
chamber, a Sonderkommando designated “The Dentist” would pull out their gold
teeth. Their clothes and meager belongings had already been plundered and sent
to “Kanada” – vast warehouses named for a country that was considered rich but
out of reach. Between the various business enterprises that the Nazis used
their slave labor and the looting, it is estimated that each prisoner returned
$794 in profit to the SS.
How were the Nazis able to lead 11 million including 6 million Jews to
slaughter like sheep? The secret is how they kept such a massive killing secret,
and who could have imagined such diabolical cruelty, such grotesque brutality,
who could have imagined a Final Solution?
How did they keep such a monstrous secret? How they managed to move
people by the thousands – trapping them into the freight cars when the people
thought they were being resettled to a pleasant village where they would be
allowed to work. They kept it a secret when immediately upon arriving at
Auschwitz, they were separated into two groups. One line was pushed to showers,
told to strip and were turned into slave labor – their hair shaved, arms tattooed,
all their property stripped away along with their identity, their personhood,
stuffed into a prison uniform with an appropriate identifying symbol as to
their status.
You continue on to learn what life was like in Auschwitz for the 200,000
who were not immediately murdered. You listen to harrowing testimonials by survivors,
see part of an actual barracks.
Indeed, Auschwitz
death toll of 1.1 million was the largest
among all the German death camps. But it also had the greatest number of
survivors – some 200,000 people brought to Auschwitz were sent to other camps
before the war ended, and some 7,000 prisoners were liberated at Auschwitz in
January 1945.
You leave this section, which is dark, almost completely black, into a
room called “Persistence and Resistance,” which is off-white, round, with
natural light streaming from a domed ceiling.
Persistence took the form of ways that the prisoners preserved their
humanity.
Resistance took the form of getting the story of what was going on in
Auschwitz out to the world, in the hopes that the Allies would bomb the killing
center or disrupt the deportations, and preserving evidence that would
ultimately hold perpetrators of such colossal evil accountable.
This is the most moving section of all –
when I can finally start breathing again.
The
Auschwitz SS aimed to destroy any possible solidarity between prisoners…‘Resistance’
in Auschwitz therefore consisted of acts in which prisoners, against all odds,
showed solidarity with others. It included heroic actions made with a view to
the larger world outside of the camp, grand gestures of generosity and small
acts of kindness and charity, along with spiritual resistance. And it was
expressed in the determination that-despite the best efforts of the SS – death
in Auschwitz would not remain anonymous, and the victims would not remain
without names.
I learn the amazing story of Witold
Pilecki, a Second Lieutenant in the Polish Army who had himself arrested under
the name Tomasz Serafinski and sent to Auschwitz in 1940 (prisoner no. 4859) in
order to spy for the Polish government.
He
managed to smuggle out messages about life and death in the camp while organizing
fellow prisoners. In April 1943, Pilecki escaped, and returned to Warsaw to
convince the Polish Resistance to attack Auschwitz in a coordinated effort with
prisoners. But the commander who had sent him on his mission had been arrested,
and the new leader judged an attack on the large and well-armed Auschwitz
garrison to be suicidal. They also realized they wouldn’t be able to shelter
the tens of thousands of inmates who might be freed. Pilecki wrote the first
full report on conditions of Auschwitz and the mass murder of Jews in the gas
chambers. The allies received the report but ignored it. Pilecki continued to
fight the Germans, participating in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
Outrageously, in 1947, he was arrested
by the Polish Communist government, tortured, and executed in 1948.
It was so critical to
get information out that several risked their lives to smuggle information out.
I learn the story of The
Auschwitz Protocols: In March 1944, Slovakian Jewish inmates Walter
Rosenberg (aka Rudolf Vrba) and Alfred Wetzler observed the Nazi’s preparations
for the arrival of transports from Hungary. With a lot of planning and luck,
they escaped from Auschwitz on April 7, 1944 and fled to Slovakia in the hopes
of warning the Jews of Hungary.
The testimony of Vrba and Wetzler, along with
information supplied by Czeslaw Mordowicz and Arnost Rosin, who escaped Auschwitz
on May 27, 1944, yielded the first substantial report of the use of Auschwitz
as a death factory. It became known as the “Auschwitz Protocols” and detailed
the continuing massacres in the gas chambers. But the information didn’t reach
the Hungarians in time: beginning in May, over 400,000 Jews were deported and
murdered. A summary of the report arrived in the US in July. That same month,
the Red Army’s liberation of the Majdanek camp led to the publication in the US
of sensational reports written by well-known journalists in America media.
Though it didn’t succeed in its primary objective, the Auschwitz Protocols led
to diplomatic pressure that forced the Hungarian government [the leader now
fearing he would be tried for war crimes] to stop further deportations, saving
the lives of over 150,000 Jews. It also triggered a debate among the Allies:
what parts of Auschwitz could or should be bombed.
On August 20, Allied bombers attacked the IG
Farben factory, but not Auschwitz camps.
“I firmly believed that [the daily killing in
the crematoria] was possible because the victims who came to Auschwitz didn’t
know what was happening there,” Auschwitz survivor Rudolf Vrba wrote in 1985.
“I thought that if this would be made known by any means within Europe, this
might stir up the Resistance outside and bring help directly to Auschwitz. And
thus the escape plans are finally formulated and the escape took place on April
7, 1944.
The Sonderkommandos
organized an ill-fated revolt in October 1944.
Roza Robota recruited women prisoners working in
the munitions factory operating next to the camp to smuggle gunpowder off-site.
Robota passed it to Timofei Borodin, a Russian technician, who carried it to
the Sonderkommandos. Their aim was to destroy the crematoria and spark a
rebellion.
But the uprising went awry. The Sonderkommandos
of Crematorium 5, hearing they were to b e gassed, revolted ahead of schedule.
On October 7, they killed 3 SS, wounded 12 and burned down Crematorium 4. At
the same time, the Sonderkommandos of Crematorium 2 attempted a breakout.
In retaliation the SS killed 451
Sonderkommandos. The camp Gestapo identified Robota and three other Jewish
women – Regina Sapirstein, Ala Gertner and Ester Wajeblum – as plotters. After
weeks of torture they were hanged publicly. As the noose was placed around her
neck, Robota cried out ‘Nekama;’ (Revenge!)
Auschwitz
Sonderkommando Zalman Groiadowski (Sept 6, 1944), leaves a note. “Dear finder,
search everywhere, in every inch of soil. Tons of documents are buried under
it, mine and those of other persons, which will throw light on everything that
was happening here. Great quantities of teeth are also buried here. We, the
Sonderkommando workers, have expressly strewn them all over the terrain so that
the world should find material traces of the millions of murdered people…”
This groundbreaking 18,000-square-foot exhibition takes up three
floors, 20 thematic galleries. Through the artifacts and Holocaust survivor
testimony, it brings you inside and re-creates the experience as best as possible,
raising the alarm how the unimaginable, the inconceivable happened and can
happen again. The commentary notes that one demagogue like Hitler could not
have produced the Holocaust.
“Genocide is a social
act,” the audio guide says toward the end of the exhibit. “It requires a
society who conspires…But the same society can resist.”
But there is one question that is not answered: who, what and how those
who administered torture, who beat and murdered and presided over such intense
suffering. That is a critical question to knowing whether such a thing could
happen again. Just what percentage of a given population are sociopaths?
There are some clues provided in the statements that are presented:
Once Hitler had decided that the “Final Solution”
would be enacted, one important question remained: Who was to be in charge of
the genocide? Heinrich Himmler sought this responsibility as he believed it
would help him consolidate his power.
Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss (1946)
testified, “I visited Treblinka to find out how they carried out their exterminations.
I did not think his methods were very efficient. I used Zykon B, a crystallized
prussic acid dropped into the death chamber from a small opening. It took from
three to 15 minutes to kill the people. Another improvement we made over
Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were
to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into
thinking that they were to go through a delousing process.”
“The children, they’re not the enemy at the
moment. The enemy is the blood inside them. The enemy is the growing up to be a
Jew that could become dangerous. And because of that the children were included
as well.” (Former Auschwitz SS man Oskar Groning explaining in a 2004 interview
why he condoned killing Jewish children).
The exhibition explores the dual identity of the camp as a
physical location—the largest documented mass murder site in human history—and
as a symbol of the borderless manifestation of hatred and human barbarity.
Consider this: Jews had lived in Germany for 1000 years before the
Holocaust; they had lived in the Polish town of Oswiecim.that the Germans renamed
Auschwitz and repurposed for a killing factory for hundreds of years. It was
only 10 quick years between when Hitler was democratically elected Chancellor
in 1933, to the Final Solution in 1942. By the time Germany surrendered, two
years later, 6 million Jews – two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population – had
been exterminated.
That’s how fast things can descend into unimaginable evil.
Groundbreaking
Exhibition
Produced by the international exhibition firm
Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, the groundbreaking
exhibition is the largest ever on Auschwitz with more than 700 original
objects and 400 photographs. The New York presentation of the exhibition allows
visitors to experience artifacts from more than 20 international museums and
institutions on view for the first time in North America, including hundreds of
personal items—suitcases, eyeglasses and shoes—that belonged to survivors and
victims of Auschwitz. Other artifacts include: concrete posts that were part of
the fence of the Auschwitz camp; part of an original barrack for prisoners from
the Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp; a desk and other possessions of the first and
the longest-serving Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss; a gas mask used by the
SS; Picasso’s Lithograph of Prisoner; and an original German-made
Model 2 freight train car of the type used for the deportation of Jews to the
ghettos and extermination camps in occupied Poland.
The exhibition also features 10 artifacts on
loan from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which include the spilled, dried
beans Anne wrote about in her diary and that were later discovered lodged
between the cracks of stairs in the home where she hid from the German Nazis.
The beans have never been displayed anywhere before. Most recently, the Museum
announced the exhibition’s incorporation of a shofar (a ram’s horn that is made
into a special wind instrument used during Jewish High Holiday services) that
was hidden and clandestinely blown in the Auschwitz. The shofar was newly added
to the exhibition on the cusp of the High Holy days and temporarily transported
to two New York City synagogues to be blown on Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage has incorporated
into the exhibition nearly 100 rare artifacts from its collection that relay
the experience of survivors and liberators who found refuge in the greater New
York area. Alfred Kantor’s sketchbook and portfolio that contain over 150
original paintings and drawings from Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and
Schwarzheide; the trumpet that musician Louis Bannet (acclaimed as “the Dutch
Louis Armstrong”) credits for saving his life while he was imprisoned in
Auschwitz; visas issued by Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania
often referred to as “Japan’s Oskar Schindler”; prisoner registration forms and
identification cards; personal correspondence; tickets for passage on the St.
Louis; and a rescued Torah scroll from the Bornplatz Synagogue in Hamburg,
postcards sent home in order to deceive family members as to what was really
going on at the camp.
Most profound is a
film that has survived showing a killing field in which the killers are so
casual, even bored by the routine as villagers look on, and the four photos of
Crematorium 5 smuggled out by Alberto
Errera, a Jewish-Greek army officer who joined the resistance during the German
occupation, assuming the name Aleksos (Alex) Michaelides. Captured, Errera was
sent to Auschwitz in April 1944 and selected for the Sonderkommando. On August
9, Errera attempted an escape but was captured, tortured and killed.
Most poignant are the video testimonials of
survivors describing their personal experiences.
Also on display from the Museum of Jewish
Heritage collection is Heinrich Himmler’s SS helmet and his annotated copy of
Hitler’s Mein Kampf, as well as an anti-Jewish proclamation issued
in 1551 by Ferdinand I that was given to Hermann Göring by German security
chief Reinhard Heydrich on the occasion of Göring’s birthday. The proclamation
required Jews to identify themselves with a “yellow ring” on their clothes.
Heydrich noted that, 400 years later, the Nazis were completing Ferdinand’s
work. “These artifacts stand as evidence of a chapter of history that must
never be forgotten.”
The
information is presented as clearly, simply, directly, forth-rightly and in
excruciatingly personal terms, but it is all still so hard to comprehend, to
process, the magnitude, the scale of cruelty.
The artifacts and materials in the exhibition
are on loan from more than 20 institutions and private collections around the
world. In addition to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Museum of
Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, participating
institutions include Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Anne Frank House in Amsterdam,
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Auschwitz Jewish Center
in Oświęcim, the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg, and the
Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London.
Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. was conceived of by Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State
Museum and curated by an international panel of experts, including
world-renowned scholars Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt, Dr. Michael Berenbaum, and
Paul Salmons, in an unprecedented collaboration with historians and curators at
the Research Center at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, led by Dr. Piotr
Setkiewicz.
“When we, the Musealia curatorial team set out
to design the Auschwitz exhibition, we realized that we faced a difficult
problem. In Auschwitz over a million people, mostly Jews, were murdered shortly
after their arrival or suffered and died in unimaginable circumstances. How
does one create an exhibition about such a dark chapter in human history that,
in our understanding, is not long ago and happened in a place not far away? How
does one make the public, that has so many opportunities to explore a great
city like New York, decide that it would want to see such an exhibition? Our
tools were straightforward: a narrative told through more than 700 original
artifacts, 400 original images, 100 stories, made present by means of filmed
testimonies and quotes – all revealing individual experiences of a history we
must learn from,” said Dr. Robert
Jan van Pelt, Chief Curator.
Following the New York presentation, the
exhibition will tour to other cities around the world.
Visiting
You need 2 ½ to four hours to see just this
exhibit (I was there five hours before I realized it). hours).
Entry is by timed ticket available at
Auschwitz.nyc. Audio guide (available in 8 languages) is included with
admission. Tickets are $25 Flexible Entry (entry any time on a specific day); $16
Adults; $12 Seniors and People with Disabilities; $10 Students and Veterans; $8
Museum Members.
FREE for Holocaust survivors, active members
of the military and first responders, and students and teachers through grade
12 in schools located in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut (with valid
school-issued ID).
The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living
Memorial to the Holocaust is
New York’s contribution to the global responsibility to never forget. The third
largest Holocaust museum in the world and the second largest in North America, since
1997, the Museum of Jewish Heritage has welcomed more than 2.5 million
visitors; it maintains a collection of more than 40,000 artifacts, photographs,
documentary films, and survivor testimonies and contains classrooms, a 375-seat
theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, a resource center
for educators, and a memorial art installation, Garden of Stones,
designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Set in
the southernmost tip of Manhattan overlooking the New York Harbor, the Museum completes
the cultural and educational triad with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island,
visible from its balcony.
The Museum also partners with Jewish Heritage Travel – offering heritage trips to Germany & France; Poland; The Baltics; Germany; Spain & France; Argentina; and India (jhtravel.org, 845-256-0197).
The Museum is closed on Saturdays, Jewish
holidays, and Thanksgiving.
Museum
of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 36 Battery Place, New
York City, 646-437-4202, mjhnyc.org.
by Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
“Solar Impressions,” a new art exhibit featuring works using the innovative Solarplate print-making process, has opened at the Gold Coast Arts Center in Great Neck, Long Island. The exhibit, which runs through April 10, 2020, brings together the works of more than 40 artists including internationally acclaimed American painter Eric Fischl. Each work of art is a representation of an ongoing exploration of the Solarplate etching process developed by Dan Welden, and reflects the extraordinary diversity of applications of the technique.
Noted artist, master printmaker, educator, and author, Dan Welden, was among scores of artists and art lovers on hand at an opening reception that took place on Sunday, January 26. Welden, director of Hampton Editions, Ltd., in Sag Harbor, is the developer of the Solarplate etching process, which uses light-sensitive material applied to a metal plate, and then hardened by the sun. The innovative process is a simpler and safer alternative to traditional etching that uses corrosive acids and is now used at universities and art schools all over the world.
Ron Pokrasso, Who is Pulling My Chain, 2019 , “Solar Impressions” exhibit, Gold Coast Arts Center, Long Island.
Solarplate eco-friendly
sunlight and water to fix an image from a photograph or drawing into a steel
plate which has been treated with polymer. Artists can apply color by hand into
the ridges and grooves, or use a silk-screen process.
What is impressive is
the versatility of the Solarplate process for artists across various media –
photographers, painters, printers, collage makers – as well as the materials
they use – paper, textured paper, Mulberry paper, fabric – which is very much
on view in the Gold Coast exhibit.
“Rather than using all of these harmful materials that get inside an artist’s lungs and immune system, solarplate etching uses sunlight and water,” Welden said in an interview with Robert Pelaez of Blank Slate Media. “It’s pretty easy to grasp for people of all ages, and you don’t need an extensive artistic background for this.”
Solarplate is a light-sensitized steel-backed
polymer material. Artist can work on the plate directly, with opaque materials
in nonwater-based pigments, or by expose the plate through a transparent film
with artwork on it. The artwork is printed on the plate through UV exposure for
2 to 5 minutes depending on light exposure, time of day and other variables.
When
Welden first developed the technique, he called fellow artist Jude Amsel. and
current Gold Coast Gallery Director Jude Amsel. More than 30 years later,
Amsel, the Gold Coast Gallery Director, brought together 40 pieces of
solarplate etching from across the country for the Gold Coast exhibit.
“At
first I definitely had some questions about the process,” Amsel told Pelaez
during a studio tour. “But once I did it, I realized how revolutionary an art
form this would be for artists all over the world.”
“There’s
a common ground of personal creativity,” Amsel said. “Some feature nature,
traveling, or aspects of life that resonate with an artist, but there’s no
limit to what can be done with solarplate etching. It’s one of the many things
I think is fascinating about it.”
Amsel
said artists from all backgrounds are able to use the technique. Even
photographers can use the art form by reprinting and then shading in the
outline of their subject through etching.
One
of them, photographer Kelli Glancey, has two pieces in the exhibit. Using the
process, she has created photo images – shot in color on a phone – that harken
back to Steichen and Stieglitz. Two of her works, “Freedom Tower, Pier A”
(2019) and “The Conductor” (2019), are images taken from the 1907 Lackawana
train depot in Hoboken, NJ, pay homage to Steiglitz who lived in Hoboken.
Describing
herself as a “newbie” to solarplate, Lori Horowitz said, “Artists are so
fixated on making art we poison ourselves. This is safe process for print
making.” She holds up the original color photograph from which she made the
black-and-white solarplate.
Lori Horowitz, “Four Under Four” (2019 ), Solar Impressions (c) Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
“The
realm of possibilities is really endless with solarplate,” Amsel told Pelaez.
“My personal relationship with Dan makes this exhibit even more special.
Watching him work and being a part of the early stages of this art is a
blessing.”
Welden
innovated the process but says he has not patented it. “I did it to
share, not to own.” He travels around the world giving workshops in the
technique.
Printmaking,
which is almost 2,000 years old, developed in China with the invention of
paper, is a process used in art to transfer images from a template onto another
surface. The design is created on the template by working its flat surface with
either tools or chemicals. Traditional printmaking techniques include
engraving, etching, woodcut, lithography and screen-printing. In the 1970’s,
Dan Weldon, a Long Island printmaker created Solarplate, a new printmaking
technique.
“Printmaking
with Solarplate is a simple approach and safer alternative to traditional
etching and relief printing,” Amsel writes in the introduction to the exhibit. “Solarplate
is a prepared, light-sensitive polymer surface on a steel backing for artists
to produce fine prints. Since Dan Welden’s development of the process in the
1970s, printmakers, painters, photographers and art teachers interested in
multiple impressions have found printmaking with Solarplate a new tool. All an
artist needs is inspiration, a graphic image crated on a transparent film
(acetate or glass), sun or UV light, and ordinary tap water. Both positives and
negatives can be utilized; intaglio and relief printing techniques can be
applied.
“Universities and art schools all over
the world are using Solarplate as part of their curriculum. The simple,
spontaneous approach also makes it faster and more economical for use in
professional printmaking workshops and collaborations with artists. Educators
are replacing traditional acid techniques with Solarplate because of safety
regulations. Photographic in nature, Solarplate incorporates a broader range of
techniques than any other printing medium,” Amsel writes in the introduction to
the exhibit.
Welden’s 50-year career
includes collaborations with numerous artists, including Willem and
Elaine de Kooning, Jimmy Ernst, James Brooks, Kurt Vonnegut, and Eric
Fischl, andis
among those on display at the Gold Coast Arts Center Gallery. Fischl’s work
graces the cover of the “Solar Impressions” souvenir catalog guide.
Artworks in the exhibit are available for sale to the public, according to Regina Gil, Founder and Executive Director of the Gold Coast Arts Center. The artists have priced the art well to make them affordable to art lovers and collectors.
“‘Solar Impressions’
presents the public with a display of unique and creative works of art using
Dan Welden’s innovative process now used by artists and art students around the
world,” Gil said. “This is an opportunity for everyone to acquire some of these
outstanding pieces.”
The gallery is open to the public and is free. For more information about “Solar Impressions,” including gallery hours, visit www.goldcoastarts.org. For tour information or to register for classes, visit https://goldcoastarts.org/art-gallery/ or call 516-829-2570.
Gold Coast Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) multi-arts organization dedicated to promoting the arts through education, exhibition, performance, and outreach. For a quarter-century, it has brought the arts to tens of thousands of people throughout the Long Island region. Among the Center’s offerings are its School for the Arts, which holds year-round classes in visual and performing arts for students of all ages and abilities; a free public art gallery; a concert and lecture series; film screenings and discussions; the annual Gold Coast International Film Festival; and initiatives that focus on senior citizens and underserved communities. These initiatives include artist residencies, after-school programs, school assemblies, teacher-training workshops, and parent-child workshops. The Gold Coast Arts Center is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts “Partners in Education” program and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Gold
Coast Arts Center, 113 Middle Neck Rd., Great Neck, NY 11021, 516-829-2570, www.goldcoastarts.org.
by
Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
It’s our last
day of the Wilderness Voyageurs six-day “Badlands and Mickelson Trail” bike
tour of South Dakota, when we would have biked back a portion of the Mickelson
Trail that we cycled yesterday before visiting Mount Rushmore. But as luck
would have it (and it is actually lucky), it rains as we leave Deadwood. It is
lucky because the rest of our rides have been glorious and we did get to
complete the 109-mile long Mickelson Trail, in addition to riding through
Badlands National Park and Custer State Park. Our guides, James Oerding and
John Buehlhorn, offer us alternatives: instead of doing the Mickelson 18 miles
from Dumont to Mystic (the same trail we did yesterday but downhill) we go
directly to Mount Rushmore and see if the weather dries out.
Mount
Rushmore is such a familiar American icon, it may be a cliché. But seeing it “in
person” makes you rethink what it is all about.
The
sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, wrote “Let us place
there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders,
their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a
prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall
wear them away.”
Borglum also wrote, “The purpose of
the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and
unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington,
Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.”
The
National Park Service offers this about Mount Rushmore National Monument:
“Majestic figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt
and Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by the beauty of the Black Hills of South
Dakota, tell the story of the birth, growth, development and preservation of
this country. From the history of the first inhabitants to the diversity of
America today, Mount Rushmore brings visitors face to face with the rich
heritage we all share.”
The NPS posits that Borglum “selected these four presidents
because from his perspective, they represented the most important events in the
history of the United States. Would another artist at that time, or perhaps a
modern artist choose differently? As you read more about Borglum’s choices,
think about what you might have done if the decision was up to you.”
I stumble upon a
15-minute Ranger talk in the Sculptor’s Studio about Gutzon Borglum,
the carving process and the lives of the workers – how they
dynamited away 90 percent of the stone, leaving just 3 to 6 inches of material
to chisel off by hand, how they hang a weight to where the nose should be and
create the facial features from that reference point.
The Ranger
stands in front of a model of how a completed Mount Rushmore was envisioned by
Borglum. Who knew there was more? I’ve always taken for granted that what we
see was all that was meant to be. The model shows that it would have had their
jackets down to their waist and hands.
To
see the scale of the sculpture, it is hard to contemplate the challenge of
blasting away all that rock and carving that stone. But we learn that getting
this project underway was a challenge unto itself.
South Dakota historian
Doane Robinson is credited with conceiving the idea of carving the
likenesses of noted figures into the mountains of the Black Hills of South
Dakota in order to promote tourism in the region. But once Doane
Robinson and others had found a sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, they had to get
permission to do the carving. Senator Peter Norbeck (the man who created the
Needles Highway through Custer State Park) and Congressman William Williamson
were instrumental in getting the legislation passed to allow the carving. The
bill requesting permission to use federal land for the memorial easily passed
through Congress. But a bill sent to the South Dakota Legislature faced more
opposition.
Robinson’s initial idea
was to feature heroes of the American West, such as Lewis and Clark, Oglala
Lakota chief Red cloud and Buffalo Bill Cody. But Borglum wanted the sculpture to
have broader appeal, so chose the four presidents, who would each symbolize an
important aspect of American history. (That might be why Robinson was not
chosen for the 12-member commission to oversee the project.)
Early in the project, money was hard
to find, despite Borglum’s guarantee that eastern businessmen would gladly make
large donations. He also promised South Dakotans that they would not be
responsible for paying for any of the mountain carving. Borglum got Treasury
Secretary Andrew Mellon on board, but only asked for half of the funding he
needed, believing he would be able to match federal funding ($250,000) dollar
for dollar with private donations.
Borglum worked on the project from
1927, the presidents’ faces were carved from 1933-1939, with his son, Lincoln. Meanwhile,
in 1929, the stock market crashed; in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt placed
Mount Rushmore under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.
In March, 1941, as a final dedication was being planned,
Gutzon Borglum died. This fact, along with the impending American involvement
in World War II, led to the end of further carving on the mountain. With the
money – and enthusiasm – running out, Congress refused to allocate any more
funding. On October 31, 1941, the last day of work, Mount Rushmore National
Memorial was declared a completed project.
The Ranger
explains that the death of the artist raised an ethical issue for anyone who
would take over the work. And, the Ranger said, “The country had moved on. They
were not as interested in presidents as they were in the 1930s; when Mount
Rushmore was a shrine to democracy. And what if the new artist made a mistake?”
I can see how
Mount Rushmore was a cautionary tale for the Crazy Horse Memorial and why
sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who worked on Mount Rushmore before being tasked
to do Crazy Horse, refused any federal funding, instead establishing a foundation
funded with private donations and admissions. Some 70 years after he began his
work, his grandchildren are involved in continuing to carve the memorial.
I walk the
Presidential Trail (just 0.6 miles long, 422 stairs, weather
permitting) to get up close and personal with the mountain
sculpture and perhaps glimpse some of the area wildlife.
Some 3
million visitors come to Mount Rushmore each year.
Among the activities offered: the Junior
Ranger program (booklets are available at the information desks for ages
three to four, five to twelve and 13 and up), and the Carvers’ Café, Ice Cream Shop and Gift Shop.
Also:
Lakota,
Nakota and Dakota Heritage Village (10 – 30 mins., free): Explore
the history of the Black Hills and the American Indian tribes who have
populated this land for thousands of years. Located next to the Borglum View
Terrace for 2019, this area highlights the customs and traditions of local
American Indian communities. Open 10:30 am to 3 pm, early June through mid-August, weather
permitting.
Youth Exploration Area (10 – 30 mins., free): Explore the natural, cultural and historical aspects of Mount Rushmore with interactive programs. Located at the Borglum View Terrace for 2019. Open early June through early August.
Self-Guided
Tour
(30 – 120 mins; rental fee): Rent an
audio tour wand or multimedia device to hear the story of Mount
Rushmore through music, narration, interviews, historic recordings and sound
effects while walking a scenic route around the park. Available at the Audio
Tour Building across from the Information Center (rentals available inside the
Information Center during the winter months). The tour and accompanying
brochure are available in English, French, German, Lakota, and Spanish.
It had been gray
and drizzly when we first arrived making the monument look dull, but as we are
leaving, blue sky breaks through and for the first time, I realize that George
Washington has a jacket.
(During our
visit, the Visitor Center and amphitheater are closed for construction.)
(Just recently, the last living Mount
Rushmore construction worker, Donald ‘Nick” Clifford, who worked on the
monument from 1938-40, passed away at the age of 98.)
Even thought the weather has cleared up
just as we are leaving Mount Rushmore, because it is a getaway travel day, the
group decides not to bike (the trail James suggests is impractical because it
requires the guides to take off the roof racks in order to fit through the
tunnel). We decide instead, to go straight to Rapid City, our departure point,
for lunch before we all go our separate ways.
Rapid City, South Dakota (c) Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
Our last lunch
together, in Rapid City, is at Tally’s Silver Spoon (best Reuben sandwich
outside of NYC!) – just across the street from the historic Alex Johnson Hotel,
where I began my South Dakota odyssey a week ago.
What I love best
about Wilderness Voyageurs’ “Badlands and Mickelson Trail” bike tour are the
varied experiences: Badlands – fossils – Circle View Guest Ranch – Black Hills
– Crazy Horse – Custer State Park – stone spires – wildlife – buffalo – Blue
Bell Lodge – Mount Rushmore – biking the 109-mile long Mickelson rail trail.
Guided bike trips are not cheap, but what I look for is value for money – my test is whether I could reproduce the trip for less out-of-pocket, to make up for the decided increase in convenience of having the itinerary already plotted out. I found Wilderness Voyageurs excellent value – in the services provided, wonderful accommodations (especially the guest ranch and the lodge), dining, creating an itinerary that was idyllic, entrances to attractions (Badlands National Park, Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore), and also considerate, superb guides, a relaxed, unpressured atmosphere (“You’re on vacation!”).
The destination, South Dakota, is quite sensational and unexpectedly varied – spectacular scenery, nature and wildlife, fossils (!), culture and history – a microcosm of North America, really. Indeed, it is an ideal destination for international visitors to plunge into the American frontier west mythology of the past, but more interestingly, to see the American West as it is today. And frankly, even if I rented a bike and paid for shuttle services, I couldn’t have duplicated the itinerary, or the camaraderie, or the expertise and care.
Wilderness
Voyageurs started out as a rafting adventures company 50 years ago, but has
developed into a wide-ranging outdoors company with an extensive catalog of
biking, rafting, fishing and outdoor adventures throughout the US and even
Cuba, many guided and self-guided bike itineraries built around rail trails
like the Eric Canal in New York, Great Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania, and
Katy Trail in Missouri.
by
Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
It strikes me as somewhat ironic, or perhaps appropriate, that
Deadwood, South Dakota, so famous for being the place where Wild Bill Hickok
was killed in a saloon playing poker, after being mining boomtown and a virtual
ghost town, has been reincarnated as a casino gaming mecca.
Our
hotel, the Deadwood Mountain Grand Resort, actually reflects both
these traditions: it has one of the biggest casinos and the building has
repurposed what used to be a slime plant (slime is the waste left when they use
cyanide to decompose rock to release the gold), that was part of the Homestake
Mine. The Homestake Mine was the second-largest gold producer in the
United States and the longest continually operating mine in US history,
operating from 1885 to as recently as 2001.
We’ve arrived at Deadwood at the end of biking the 109-mile long Mickelson Trail, a bike trail converted from a former railroad line named to Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Hall of Fame, which we have covered in three days of the six-day Wilderness Voyageurs “Badlands and Mickelson Trail” bike tour of South Dakota.
My day begins at the Blue Bell Lodge in Custer State Park, with a buffalo strolling up to the porch of my cabin. We then are shuttled in the Wilderness Voyageurs van to the Mystic Trailhead, to ride the remaining 34 scenic miles of the Mickelson Trail into Deadwood.
It’s
already about 3 pm, and armed with a list of activities that take place which I
have obtained from the concierge (the shootout on Main Street at 6 pm, for
example), I quickly drop my things to rush out to get to the Mount Moriah Cemetery which I remember
the Alex Johnson Hotel manager, Ross Goldman, telling me about. Though the
concierge and the visitor bureau guy discourage me from walking up there (there
isn’t a public bus and the bus tour which makes a quick stop at the cemetery
doesn’t make sense, I head out anyway – the hike, up 4,800 ft. to a high ridge
overlooking Deadwood Gulch – the highest point in Deadwood – proves no big deal
(especially compared to the hills we biked yesterday in Custer State Park) and
takes just about 20 minutes.
At
the entrance, they provide an excellent map with information and location of
the notable graves of the important people who are buried here for you to do
your own self-guided walking tour.
The
major lure – and why there is a line of people – is the side-by-side plots of James
Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok and Calamity Jane, whose legends continue to animate
Deadwood even today.
According
to the guide, James Butler Hickok was murdered in Deadwood on August 2, 1876.
He came, along with so many others, to the Deadwood gold camp in search of
adventure and fortune. But his true passion was gambling. While playing a game
of cards, he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall. “Wild
Bill’s colorful life included service as a marshal, an Army scout and other
tasks which called for a fast gun and no aversion to bloodshed.” (Later, you
can see the re-creation of the arrest of Jack McCall, and then a re-creation of
the hastily convened miners’ court, by the Deadwood Alive troop.)
Martha
“Calamity Jane” Canary (1850-1903) also had a colorful life, which she largely
created and which may or may not be true. “She worked on a bull train,
performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and was a prostitute.” She claimed
to have been Wild Bill Hickok’s sweetheart (and even that they were married and
had a daughter). Her grave marker calls her Martha Jane Burke because she
married Clinton Burke after Hickok’s death. She is known for acts of charity
and willingness to nurse the sick. In 1903, Calamity Jane died in the Terry
mining camp, her dying wish, “Bury me beside Wild Bill” was carried out.
The
cemetery was established in1878 and actively used until 1949. There are some
3,627 people buried here including a children’s section with 350 who died in of
scarlet fever and diphtheria epidemic 1878-1880; a Civil War section, a Jewish
section (surprisingly large) and a Chinese section (there is even a Chinese
altar and ceremonial oven), and several notable and colorful characters who are
described in the guide with directions to their gravesites.
I am
struck by the wrought iron gates at the entrance which have symbols
representing the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Freemasonry and the Star of
David. Indeed the name Mt. Moriah was chosen for its religious affiliation with
both the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah (Mount Moriah is located within Jerusalem,
the site of Solomon’s temple.)
It takes about an hour to visit. ($2/entrance, 108 Sherman St., Deadwood 57732, 605-578-2082, www.cityofdeadwood.com).
Deadwood,
it turns out, was named for the dead timber on the surrounding hills, not for
its shoot-outs. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills brought thousands of
new people to the area.
I get
back down to the historic Main Street in plenty of time for the 6 pm “Main Street Shootout”, featuring a
fantastic Calamity Jane character.
There are free shows
throughout the day on Historic Main
Street (reminiscent of a theme park’s re-creation of a Wild West town):
Deadwood’s True Tales; a 2 pm Main Street shootout; a Rootin’Tootin’ Card Game
for kids and old-thyme musical show; Dr. Stan Dupt’s Travelin’ Medicine Show; 4
pm Main Street shootout; 4:30 Old Thym Hoe Down; 5:45 Deadwood’s True Tales on
the steps of the historic Franklin Hotel.
After the 6 pm
shootout, I check out the shops and grab a burger with another couple from our
bike tour who I meet up with on the street, and come back for the 7:30 pm
“Capture of Jack McCall” outside Saloon 10 (there is
the “original Saloon 10 where Wild Bill was actually shot).
From
there, we all march up the street to the Masonic Temple for the 8 pm “Trial of
Jack McCall”.
“The
Trial of Jack McCall” has been performed steadily, I am astonished to
learn since 1925, making it one of the nation’s longest
running plays. It began as an annual presentation during Statehood Days. The
script is based on news accounts of the actual trial which took place in the
mining camp of Deadwood after Jack McCall murdered James Butler
“Wild Bill” Hickok. Wild Bill was playing poker in Nuttal and Mann’s
Saloon No. 10 and was shot in the back of the head while holding Aces and
Eights, forever known as the “Dead Man’s Hand”. (People leave the
cards at his grave.). Though based on fact, it is done with great humor (if a murder trial
can be fun). “It has to be accurate,” any “Cookie” Mosher who plays John Swift,
Clerk of the Courts and Executive Director of Deadwood Alive, tells me because Deadwood Alive, a nonprofit, is supported in part
by Historical Preservation Society. (It reminds me of the “Cry Innocent,”
recreation of a Salem Witch Trial, in Salem, Massachusetts).
They even
recreate the edition of the Black Hills Pioneer which reported the story of
Hickok’s murder, on August 3, 1876. “A dastardly murder was committed in
Deadwood gulch yesterday afternoon. The fiendish murderer who shot him in the
back is in jail. The dead man is Wild Bill Hickok, whose prowess with the
pistols is known far and wide. Single-handed, he captured robbers and trouble
makers in the south, at Dodge city, Abilene and Hays, Kansas, in Nebraska, in
all the south. Men feared him, feared his quickness on the draw, the deadly and
accurate aim which send more than one roustabout sprawling.
“But on this
terrible, bloodstained afternoon in the wild gold camp of the Black Hills, Wild
Bill never had a chance.”
This is a family-friendly show where the
selected members of the audience participate in the performance serving as
jurors in the trial- the jury of miners is made up of “minors” – kids who get
to wear various hats and sit on a bench). The show is held nightly Monday
through Saturday with the schedule as outlined below.
It proves
extremely entertaining as a trial for murder could possibly be.
In 1876,
Deadwood didn’t have a courthouse so the trial was held in Deadwood Theater
(the narrator/court manager explains they have to wait for auditions to finish
– so there is music provided by Calamity Jane as the audience files in. The
theater was tearing down from the previous week’s show and getting ready for
the next, so you see various props.The trial was held just the day after McCall’s
arrest.
A
boy is given the role of sheriff; wearing an oversized cowboy hat, he seems
just itching to shoot the toy gun he hold on McCall.
They
call “witnesses” and John Swift, the clerk of Courts (played by Mosher) goes
into the audience and pulls somebody up – then after jokes (swearing on
“Bartenders Guide” instead of bible), “sneaks” them a script. He grabs a guy as
a witness who is wearing shorts so he puts shawl over his leg for modesty; he grabs
a woman to play McCall’s’ employer and pretends to flirt. (It’s very Shakespearean the way they go
in/out of character and talk to audience.)
One
witness says Wild Bill asked him to move his chair so Wild Bill could sit with his
back to wall, and he refused.
The “minors”
on the jury pretend to sleep during Defense’s summation.
As
in real life, McCall was found Not Guilty. Then, in an epilogue, the Clerk relates
that McCall was driven from town but bragged about killing Wild Bill over a
game of cards. The federal government said that because the crime was committed
in Indian Country the feds still had jurisdiction to try McCall without
violating the rule against double jeopardy. McCall was rearrested in 1877, got a
new trial, was found guilty and hanged.
Deadwood Alive has been entertaining visitors for over 20 years
with Main Street shootouts and regular performances of the Trial of Jack
McCall. The Deadwood Alive troupe of superb actors consists of over 10
characters and provide entertainment throughout the year including daily
shootouts, guided walking tours, musical performances and the famous Trial of
Jack McCall. Deadwood Alive is managed by a non-profit board of directors and
employs up to a dozen individuals each summer to re-enact several historically
accurate incidents of Deadwood’s past and make a visit to Deadwood so
entertaining for people of all ages (($6 adults, $5 seniors, $3 children,
800-344-8826, www.deadwoodalive.com).
I
enjoy the charm of the Main Street. I stop in to the Franklin Hotel, opened since
1903, a beautiful, elegant hotel, now with a casino in the lobby.
Deadwood actually offers a lot of history and attractions, which unfortunately, I do not have time to experience): The Adams Museum (554 Sherman St); Days of ’76 Museum (18 Seventy Six Dr), and Historic Adams House (22 Van Buren St.). (DeadwoodHistory.com, 605-722-4800).
More visitor information at Deadwood
South Dakota, 800-344-8826,www.deadwood.com.
Wilderness
Voyageurs started out as a rafting adventures company 50 years ago, but has
developed into a wide-ranging outdoors company with an extensive catalog of
biking, rafting, fishing and outdoor adventures throughout the US and even
Cuba, many guided and self-guided bike itineraries built around rail trails
like the Eric Canal in New York, Great Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania, and
Katy Trail in Missouri.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is sensational, awesome and profound. The
carved portrait in the cliff-side, which I first encounter by surprise as I
bike on the Mickelson Trail between Custer and Hill City is spectacular enough,
but there is so much more to discover. There is also a superb Museum of Native
Americans of North America (it rivals the Smithsonian’s Museum in Washington
DC) where you watch a terrific video that tells the story of the America’s
indigenous people, and can visit the studio/home of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski.
It is the highlight of our third day of the Wilderness Voyageurs “Badlands and
Mickelson Trail” bike tour of South Dakota.
I rush to join a tour (a
modest extra fee) that brings us right to the base of the sculpture. You look
into this extraordinary, strong face – some quartz on the cheek has a glint
that suggests a tear.
Only then do I realize that,
much to my surprise, seeing the scaffolding and equipment, that 70 years after
sculptor Ziolkowski started carving the monument in 1947, his grandson is
leading a crew to continue carving. Right now it is mainly a bust – albeit the
largest stone carving in the world – but as we see in the museum, the completed
sculpture will show Crazy Horse astride a horse, his arm outstretched toward
the lands that were taken from the Lakota.
At 87 ft 6 inches high, the Crazy Horse Memorial
is the world’s largest mountain carving in progress. They are now working on
the 29-foot high horse’s head, the 263-foot long arm, and 33 ft-high hand, the
guide tells us. The horse’s head will be as tall as 22-story building,
one-third larger than any of the President’s at Mount Rushmore. The next phase of progress on the
Mountain involves carving Crazy Horse’s left
hand, left forearm, right shoulder, hairline, and part of the horse’s mane and
head over 10-15 years. The plan is to carve the back side of the
rock face as well, which would make the Crazy Horse Memorial a three-sided
monument.
When completed, the Crazy
Horse Mountain carving will be the world’s largest sculpture, measuring 563
feet high by 641 feet long, carved in the round. The nine-story high face of
Crazy Horse was completed on June 3, 1998; work began on the 22-story high
horse’s head soon after.
“One if hardest decisions
(after two years of planning) was to start with head, not the horse (in other
words, work way down),” the guide tells us.
In 71 years of construction,
there have been no deaths or life threatening injuries of the workers (though
there was that accident when a guy driving a machine slipped off edge; his father
told him he had to get the machine out himself.)
Four of Korczak and Ruth’s 10 children
and three of his grandchildren still work at the Memorial.
On the bus ride back to the
visitor center, the guide tells us that Zioklowski was a decorated World War II
veteran who was wounded on D-Day, but was so devoted to the Crazy Horse
Memorial, he even planned for his death: there is a tomb in a cave at the base
of the monument..
Back at the visitor
center/museum, the story about the Crazy Horse Memorial is told in an excellent
film:
The overwhelming theme is to
tell the story, to give a positive view of native culture, to show that Native
Americans have their own heroes, and to restore and build a legacy that
survived every attempt to blot it out in a form of genocide.
There were as many as 18 million Indians living in North America when the Europeans arrived
(the current population is 7 million in the US). “These Black Hills are our
Cathedral, our sacred land,” the film says.
Crazy Horse was an Ogala
Lakota, born around 1840 on the edge of Black Hills. He was first called “Curly”
but after proving himself in battle, earned his father’s name, “Crazy Horse” (as
in “His Horse is Crazy”). The chief warned of encroaching “river” of settlers,
leading to 23-years of Indian wars. In 1876 Crazy Horse led the battle against
General Custer, the Battle of Little Big Horn (known as Custer’s Last Stand,
but Indians call it “the Battle of Greasy Grass”). It was a victory for the
Indians, but short-lived. Soon after, the US government rounded up the rebels
and killed Crazy Horse while he was in custody at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. (See www.nps.gov/libi/learn/historyculture/crazy-horse.htm)
Standing Bear was born 1874 near Pierre, South Dakota, and was among the first Indian children sent away to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania where his name was randomly changed to “Henry.” In the school, their Indian identity was forcibly removed – they cut the boys’ hair, they were not allowed to speak their language “to best help them learn the ways of non-native.”
“As a result of attending Carlisle, Standing Bear concluded that in order to best help his people, it would be necessary for him to learn the ways of the non-Native world. Somewhat ironically, Carlisle – an institution that was designed to assimilate Native Americans out of their indigenous ways – became a source of inspiration that Standing Bear would repeatedly draw upon to shape his enlightened understanding of cross-cultural relationships, as well as to find new ways of preserving his people’s culture and history.” He honed leadership skills like public speaking, reasoning, and writing, realizing that because of the changing times, the battle for cultural survival would no longer be waged with weapons, but with words and ideas. “This realization became a driving force behind much of his work during his adult life and led him to become a strong proponent of education,” the background material on the Crazy Horse Memorial website explains (crazyhorsememorial.org).
Standing Bear
attended night school in Chicago while he worked for the Sears Roebuck Company
to pay for his schooling. With feet firmly placed in both worlds, he became
heavily involved in the affairs of his people over the course of his life and
politically astute —working with Senator Francis Case and serving as a member
of the South Dakota Indian Affairs Commission. He led the initiative to honor
President Calvin Coolidge with a traditional name – “Leading Eagle,”
taking the opportunity for advocacy during the naming ceremony to challenge
President Coolidge to take up the leadership role that had been previously
filled by highly-respected leaders such as Sitting Bull and Red Cloud.
In 1933, Standing
Bear learned of a monument to be constructed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, to
honor his maternal cousin, Crazy Horse, who was killed there in 1877. He wrote
to the organizer that he and fellow Lakota leaders were promoting a carving of
Crazy Horse in the sacred Paha Sapa – Black Hills.
Standing Bear looked for an
artist with the skill to carve the memorial to his people that would show
Indians had heroes too and turned to Korczak Ziolkowski, a self-taught
sculptor who had assisted at Mount Rushmore and had
gained recognition at the 1939 World’s Fair. Standing Bear invited him back to
the Black Hills.
Born in Boston of Polish descent in
1908, Korczak was orphaned when he was one year old. He grew up in a series of
foster homes and is said to have been badly mistreated. He gained skills in heavy construction
helping his foster father.
On his own at 16, Korczak took odd jobs
to put himself through Rindge Technical School in Cambridge, MA, after which he
became an apprentice patternmaker in the shipyards on the rough Boston
waterfront. He experimented with woodworking, making beautiful furniture. At
age 18, he handcrafted a grandfather clock from 55 pieces of Santa Domingo
mahogany. Although he never took a lesson in art or sculpture, he studied the
masters and began creating plaster and clay studies. In 1932, he used a coal
chisel to carve his first portrait, a marble tribute to Judge Frederick
Pickering Cabot, the famous Boston juvenile judge who had befriended and
encouraged the gifted boy and introduced him to the world of fine arts.
Moving to West Hartford, Conn., Korczak
launched a successful studio career doing commissioned sculpture throughout New
England, Boston, and New York.
Ziolkowski wanted to do something
worthwhile with his sculpture, and made the Crazy Horse Memorial his life’s
work.
“Crazy Horse has never been
known to have signed a treaty or touched the pen,” Ziolkowski wrote. “Crazy
Horse, as far as the scale model is concerned, is to be carved not so much as a
lineal likeness, but more as a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse – to his
people. With his left hand gesturing forward in response to the derisive
question asked by a white man, ‘Where are your lands now?’ He replied, ‘My lands
are where my dead lie buried’.”
There is no known photo of
Crazy Horse, Ziolkowski created his likeness from oral descriptions.
He built a log studio home
(which we can visit) at a time when there was nothing around – no roads, no
water, no electricity. For the first seven years, he had to haul himself and
his equipment, including a decompressor and 50 pound box of dynamite, up 741
steps.
Living completely isolated
in the wilderness, Korczak and his wife Ruth bought an 1880s one-room school
house, had it moved to this isolated property and hired a teacher for their 10
children.
There is so much to see
here: The Museums of
Crazy Horse Memorial feature exhibits and engaging experiences that let you
discover Native history and contemporary life, the art and science of mountain carving and the lives of the Ziolkowski family.
THE
INDIAN MUSEUM OF NORTH AMERICA® houses an enormous collection of art
and artifacts reflecting the diverse histories and cultures of over 300 Native
Nations. The Museum, designed to complement the story being told in stone
on the Mountain, presents the lives of American Indians and preserves Native
Culture for future generations. The Museum collection started with a single display
donated in 1965 by Charles Eder, Hunkpapa Lakota, from Montana, which remains on display to this day. The
Indian Museum has about the same number of annual visits as the National Museum
of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. Close to
90% of the art and artifacts have been donated by generous individuals,
including many Native Americans.
The gorgeous building housing the Museum
was designed and built by Korczak Ziolkowski and his family in the
harsh winter of 1972-73, when no work was possible on the Mountain.
The Museum incorporated Korczak’s love of wood and natural lighting, being
constructed from ponderosa pine, harvested and milled at Crazy Horse Memorial.
The original wing of the museum was dedicated on May 30, 1973. In the early 1980s,
Korczak planned a new wing of the Museum to accommodate the growing collection
of artifacts. He did not live to see his plans realized, instead his wife Ruth Ziolkowski and 7 of their children
made sure the new wing was built. The structure was built in the winter of
1983-84 and funding came in large part from a $60,000 check left in the Crazy
Horse Memorial contribution box in late August of 1983. The contributor said he
was moved by the purpose of Crazy Horse, Korczak, and his family’s great
progress and by the sculptor’s reliance on free enterprise and refusal to take
federal funds
The Ziolkowski Family Life Collection is shown throughout the complex and demonstrates to people of all ages the timeless values of making a promise and keeping it, setting a goal and never giving up, working hard to overcome adversity, and devoting one’s life to something much larger than oneself. There are portraits of the couple and personal effects that tell their life’s story.
The Mountain Carving Gallery shares the amazing history of carving the Mountain. It features the tools Korczak used in the early years of carving, including a ½ size replica of “the bucket” – a wooden basket used with an aerial cable car run by an antique Chevy engine that allowed the sculptor to haul equipment and tools up the Mountain. Displayed in the Mountain Carving Room are the measuring models used to carve the face of Crazy Horse, plasters of Crazy Horse’s face and the detailed pictorial progression of carving the face. They also detail the next phase in the Memorial’s carving which is focused on Crazy Horse’s left hand and arm, the top of Crazy Horse’s head, his hairline, and the horse’s mane. If you stand in just the right spot, you can line up the model of how the finished work will look against the actual mountain sculpture as it is.
Crazy Horse Memorial is
actually a private, nonprofit (they also have a nonprofit college and medical
training center that educates Indians), and twice turned down federal funding
because “they didn’t believe the government would do it right.” Indeed, Mount
Rushmore (which we see on the last day of our bike tour) was never completed
because the federal government stopped funding the project. The entrance fee
($30 per car, 3 or more people, $24 per car two people, $12 per person, $7 per
bicycle or motorcycle) support the continued carving, the Indian Museum of
North America and the Indian University of North America, which assists qualifying
students get their college degrees.
Once again, I am so grateful
that I am not being pushed along with an artificial time limit by the
Wilderness Voyageurs guides, I wander through the vast complex trying to take
it all in. I am utterly fascinated.
I buy postcards for 25c apiece and stamps, sit with a (free) cup of coffee in the cafe and mail them at their tiny post-office. There is an excellent gift shop.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is
open 365 days of the year, with various seasonal offerings.
I’m the last one to leave
the Crazy Horse Memorial, and note that the bike of our sweeper guide for today John
Buehlhorn,
is still on the rack, but
I figure he will see that I have gone and catch up to me, so I get back on the
Mickelson Trail. He catches me again when I don’t realize to get off the trail
at Hill City, where we are on our own for lunch and exploring the town.
Hill City is really
charming and the home of the South Dakota State Railroad Museum, where you can
take a ride on an old-time steam railroad. The shops are really pleasant.
The Wilderness Voyageurs
van is parked there in case anybody needs anything.
The ride to the Crazy Horse Memorial was uphill on the rail trail for 8 miles but going down hill isn’t a picnic because of the loose gravel – but not difficult and totally enjoyable. We ride through train tunnels and over trestles. It is no wonder that the 109-mile long Mickelson Trail, which is a centerpiece of the Wilderness Voyageurs’ tour, is one of 30 rail-trails to have been named to the Hall of Fame by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. We finish this day’s ride at Mystic at the 74.7-mile marker– we’ll ride the remaining miles on another day. Mystic used to be a significant town when the railroad ran here. Now there are just two buildings and four residents.
I notice the sign tacked up at the
shelter: Be Aware: Mountain Lions spotted on the trail toward Rochford within
the last few days.
We are shuttled back to Custer for our
second night’s stay at the Holiday Inn Express (very comfortable, with pool,
game room, WiFi and breakfast), and treated to a marvelous dinner at one of the
finer dining restaurants, the Sage Creek Grill (611 Mount Rushmore Road,
Custer).
Wilderness
Voyageurs started out as a rafting adventures company 50 years ago, but has
developed into a wide-ranging outdoors company with an extensive catalog of
biking, rafting, fishing and outdoor
adventures throughout the US and even Cuba, many guided and self-guided bike
itineraries built around rail trails like the Eric Canal in New York, Great
Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania, and Katy Trail in Missouri.
There
are still a few spots left on Wilderness Voyageurs’ Quintessential West Cuba
Bike Tour departing on March 21.
by Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate,
goingplacesfarandnear.com
Philadelphia is a jewel box of unique and spectacular, even life-enhancing attractions, a trove of national treasures of history, heritage, culture that glitters particularly during the holidays. The holiday splendor is eye-catching and warms the heart, but any visitor still has to make time to experience first-hand at least some of these iconic places. I manage to bookend my holiday merrymaking with a mix of art (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens) with history (Independence Hall) with heritage (National Museum of American Jewish History) with science and enlightenment (Philly is the hometown of one of our most enlightened inventors, Ben Franklin), and so I end this visit with the Franklin Institute and can’t wait to come back.
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
You get a taste of what to expect in Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG) as you enter the South Street neighborhood. The creator, Isaiah Zagar, who has lived in the neighborhood since moving there with his wife, Julia, in the late 1960s when it was derelict and blighted, turned trash and broken walls into sparkling mosaic art. Otherwise forbidding narrow alleyways and whole sides of buildings twinkle with the pieces of broken mirrors and glass and humor (you can’t help but smile). But nothing prepares you for the awe you feel when you walk out of the two indoor galleries into the Magic Gardens.
Here is a riot of
handmade tiles, bottles, bicycle wheels, mirrors, international folk art,
recreated into walls, pathways, stairways, layers and levels. There is so much
to explore and discover – not just visually, but emotionally. Woven into the
art are Zagar’s profound, personal sayings, expressions, thoughts, feelings: “I
build this sanctuary to be inhabited by my ideas and my fantasies.” “Imagery
which refuses to stabilize.” “The complexity of various problems. Rewind it.”
It’s called Magic Gardens
even though there are no plants, flowers or trees. But you aren’t here long
before you realize how it nonetheless is a living organic thing, where broken
and discarded trash and objects considered valueless or past their useful life,
get new life, purpose, meaning. And value.
The “magic” is how the objects
are re-animated – an expression of creativity, infusion of imagination. ”The
Garden” grows organically, as if living organism.
“It is one man’s vision,
process, style,” Elisabeth Carter (Lis), a Magic Gardens guide, tells me. “He had
assistants. Most of the smaller figurines and sculpture were made by Mexican
folk artists and couple of local artists, especially the Aguilar family. Others
helped make some of the tiles – including First Lady Michelle Obama (there is a
letter that she sent to the Gardens).
“It is still a work in
progress – new pieces are added – plus it is outdoors, so weather (snow/ice) is
factor. We have a full-time preservation team of thee who maintain, repair, and
document new folk art.
“He’s interested in how
things wear, fade, and change over time – things are constantly changing, new
things added – like a breathing animal.
Zagar brings the art
form of mosaic to a whole different dimension. “Zagar is known for mosaics. He uses things
that others think are trash or have no value. He is inspired by the Hindu God
Shiva – the god of destruction and transformation.”
Zagar, who is 80 years
old now, studied art at the Pratt Institute, Lis says, “but painting wasn’t
fulfilling. He Is bipolar; he used mosaics as mental health therapy. Small,
broken pieces of tile people were throwing away, he found satisfying to build
into something positive and beautiful.”
Lis points me to a small
sculpture which is a self-portrait, depicting the artist with three arms.
There must be thousands
and thousands of objects here. You first see what is in front of you as a
whole, but then your eye goes to sections, narrower and narrower, until you
spend time searching and discovering individual objects. And what you see, what you experience would
always be different – with light, time of day, weather affecting the colors and
textures.
You have to walk through
at least twice: the first time is very sensory, overload. The second time, you
can focus more. You walk through an alley of art, curved paths, you see things
differently from every angle, every step. Like a Japanese Garden, you cannot see
the whole thing at once, and you don’t know what to expect beyond. It’s a carnival of art, a riot of color, texture, shapes and
subjects that dazzle the eye and the brain and stir the heart.
“Zagar has devoted
himself to beautifying the South Street neighborhood since the late 1960s, when
he moved to the area with his wife, Julia. The couple helped spur the
revitalization of the area by renovating derelict buildings and adding
colorful mosaics on both private and public walls. The Zagars, teamed with
other artists and activists, transformed the neighborhood into a prosperous
artistic haven and successfully led protests against the addition of a new
highway that would have eliminated South Street. This period of artistic
rebirth was coined the ‘South Street Renaissance.’ After the street was saved,
Zagar continued creating mosaic murals, resulting in hundreds of public
artworks over the next five decades.
“In 1991, Zagar started
working on the vacant lots located near his studio at 1020 South Street. He
first mosaicked the buildings on either side of the property, then spent years
sculpting multi-layer walls out of found objects. In 2004, the
Boston-based owner of the lots discovered Zagar’s installation and decided to
sell the land, calling for the work to be dismantled. Unwilling to witness the
destruction of the now-beloved neighborhood art environment, the community
rushed to support the artist. His creation, newly titled Philadelphia’s Magic
Gardens, quickly became incorporated as a nonprofit organization with the
intention of preserving the artwork at the PMG site and throughout the
South Street region. Zagar was then able to develop the site even further;
excavating tunnels and grottos.”
Philadelphia Magic
Gardens opened to the public in 2008, giving visitors the opportunity to
participate in tours, art activities, hands-on interpretive experiences,
workshops, concerts, exhibitions, and more.
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens is open
Wednesday-Monday, 11 am – 6 pm, closed Tuesdays. (1020 South Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19147, 215-733-0390, www.phillymagicgardens.org)
I continue my walk to
the Franklin Institute, all the while coming upon the fantastic public art
throughout the city – magnificent murals that decorate buildings, that reflect
and speak to that particular neighborhood and inspire with their beauty and
their message. No doubt a public art movement inspired by Isaiah Zagar.
There is also
Philadelphia’s “Museum Without Walls” of sculptures and art work throughout the
city (an audio tour is available, www.museumwithoutwallsaudio.org, 215-399-9000).
Franklin Institute
As you enter Franklin
Institute. beneath a giant moon there is a sensational lighted statue of
America’s first scientist and Philadelphia’s Favorite Founding Father, Ben
Franklin, who inspired the institute’s founding in 1824. During the course of a
few hours, I travel to outer space in search of life; walk through a human
heart; tangle in neurons of the human brain; visit one of the earliest steam
engines; and try to unravel the mystery (to me, anyway) of electricity.
“If you wish to make an
apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe,” Carl Sagan said,
the quote opening the movie in the Fels Planetarium, one of the first ever
built, that dates from 1933.
Founded in honor of America’s first scientist,
Benjamin Franklin, The Franklin Institute is one of the oldest and premier
centers of science education and development in the country. Today, the
Institute continues its dedication to public education and fostering a passion
for science by offering new and exciting access to science and technology in
ways that would dazzle and delight its namesake.
Everything about the Franklin Institute is
designed to engage, immerse, interact.
I climb through a heart at Franklin Institute (c) Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.comClimbing through a heart at Franklin Institute (c) Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
This is exemplified in the special exhibition on
view through April 12, 2020, the world-premiere exhibition of “The Worst Case
Scenario Survival Experience,”
based on the best-selling survival handbook series. The exhibit
showcases strategies of survival and elements of escape in the form of a
hands-on, minds-on logical series of immersive challenges providing the
essential instructions for surviving unexpected but possible real-life
scenarios with countless moments of excitement and levity throughout.
Learn
how to jump from a moving train car, pick a lock, escape from quicksand,
survive an avalanche, and more in the thirteen challenges that fill the
Survival Gymnasium, which offers step by step instructions, expert advice, and
the training to build the worst-case survival skills.
Tools
for extreme survival, including counterintuitive uses for everyday items are on
display, plus graphics that share how to identify anxiety and fear within the
body and uncover how stress, physical exhaustion, and disorientation can make
an activity, like surviving, more challenging.
Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating founded The
Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the
Mechanic Arts in 1824. The Franklin
Institute science museum opened to the public on January 1, 1934, calling
itself a “Wonderland of Science,” and was one of the first museums in
the nation to offer a hands-on approach to learning about the physical world. It
has been expanded over the years to contain more than 400,000 square feet of
exhibit space, two auditoriums, and the Tuttleman IMAX
Theater – becoming the most
visited museum in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a top-five tourist destination
in the City of Philadelphia, and one of the leading science centers in the
country.
Learn hands-on about machines and technology, like a steam locomotive at Franklin Institute, Philadelphia (c) Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.
The Institute also operates the Fels Planetarium, the second oldest planetarium
in the Western Hemisphere. The Institute is home to the Benjamin
Franklin National Memorial, which was fully restored in 2010 and
which is open free to the public. It is one of just a handful of national
memorials in the custody of a private institution.
The
new 53,000-square-foot Nicholas and Athena Karabots Pavilion which opened in
June 2014, houses a STEM education and conference center, a climate-controlled
traveling exhibition gallery, and (an amazing) new permanent exhibit Your Brain, in which
visitors can explore neuroscience and their own senses.
Franklin Institute, 222 North 20th
St., 215-448-1200, www.fi.edu.
Staying at The Roost
East Market apartment hotel really enabled us to be part of the city, most
of what we wanted to see within walking distance. It’s not hyperbole to say the
comfort of a fully-equipped, gorgeously furnished apartment meets luxury
amenities of a boutique hotel. All of the apartments feature
full-size kitchens with cookware and utensils (I especially love not having to
go out for breakfast) and king size beds. A third-floor is
devoted to guest amenities including a well-equipped 24-hour fitness center,
magnificent and comfortable lounge areas and library, a huge demo kitchen, a
private screening room, an outside, 20-meter heated lap pool, barbecue area,
landscaped terrace, community vegetable garden;
and bike-share program. There is also 24-hour front desk and concierge,
security (you need your card to access the elevator and public areas); and
direct access to a parking garage. They
even arrange dog-walking and grocery delivery services. (The Roost East Market, 1199 Ludlow
Street Philadelphia, PA 19107, 844-697-6678, https://myroost.com/philadelphia/east-market/).
A Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package includes overnight free parking and perks, and is bookable at Greater Philadelphia’s official visitor website, visitphilly.com, 800-537-7676 where you can explore things to do, upcoming events, themed itineraries and hotel packages.
by
Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
Philadelphia is a jewel box of unique and spectacular, even life-enhancing attractions, a trove of national treasures of history, heritage, culture that glitters particularly during the holidays. The holiday splendor is eye-catching and warms the heart, but any visitor still has to make time to experience first-hand at least some of these iconic places. I manage to bookend my holiday merrymaking with a mix of art (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Magic Gardens) with history (Independence Hall) with heritage (National Museum of American Jewish History) with science and enlightenment (Philly is the hometown of one of our most enlightened inventors, Ben Franklin, and so I end this visit with the Franklin Institute.
Independence Hall
I’m out of The Roost
East Market apartment hotel at 8:30 am for a delightful 15 minute walk down
Market Street to the Independence Hall Visitor Center to get a timed ticket for
a tour of Independence Hall. They start distributing tickets at 8:30 am and I
get a ticket for the first tour, 9:20 am (the ticket is free; you can pay $1
for advance reservations online, www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/independencehalltickets.htm). That gives me enough time to watch a short
film in the Visitor Center and visit the “Great Essentials” exhibit of original
printed copies of the three founding documents signed here at Independence
Hall: the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and
Constitution. Another interesting artifact: the Syng
inkstand, believed to be the silver inkstand in which the 56 Founding Fathers
dipped their quills to “mutually pledge their lives, their fortunes and
their sacred honor” in the cause of independence.
We gather in a room and
learn that we have come from throughout the United States and the world.
“Government as we recognize it, was invented inside Independence Hall,” the
Ranger tells us.
The building, in
Georgian style architecture which manifested symmetry and order, is on the
original site; the foundation was laid in 1732, the year George Washington was
born. The founders, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, would have called the
building the Pennsylvania State House. All three branches of colonial
government were housed here.
“Delegates representing
13 diverse colonies, speaking with a variety of accents, met here, who would
have been more familiar with London than Philadelphia. What united them was how
disturbed they were how the King and Parliament was treating the colonists. It
was the end of the French & Indian War (The Seven Years War), which gave
the British victory and control over most of North America, but the Crown
imposed new taxes to pay for the war.
We are ushered into a
room that would have served as Pennsylvania’s highest court.
“The Magna Carta spelled
out the rights of British citizens – no man above law; trial by jury of peers;
attorneys would be gathered at one table and colonists could gather and watch
the trial. Colonists inherited numerous rights.” But grievances grew – taxation
without representation – and the colonists saw their rights being whittled away
by the British crown.
We enter the very room
where the Continental Congress brought together delegates from 13 free and
independent states. “We don’t know for sure but we think they were probably
seated by geographic area.” As they gathered to consider their grievances with
the crown, shots were fired at Lexington and at Concord, “the shots heard ‘round
the world.” The War for Independence officially began.
July 8 1776, the bell in
the steeple announced the first reading of Independence. (You can see the
Liberty Bell with its famous crack now housed in its own pavilion.)
The visit, coming at
such an auspicious time in American history, is like going back to ground zero
of the founding:
At the start, colonists
were deeply divided. The delegates met for a year before Thomas Jefferson
penned the words, “All men are created equal endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
“That was one of the
most profound and inspiring statements in human history. That government
derives just power from the consent of the governed,” he said.
The War for Independence
lasted eight years – France and Spain aided; the Dutch provided financial
support. But the War for Independence also was a civil war that divided
communities and even families. Ben Franklin’s own son, Sir William, was the
Royal Governor of New Jersey, and remained a loyalist. He left America for
England. (You can also visit the marvelous Ben Franklin Museum, housed below
where his house would have been.)
The powerful words, “All
men created equal” presented a paradox, even to the Founding Fathers, many of
whom were slave owners from states where the economy derived from slavery.
Despite Abigail Adams’ exhortation to husband John Adams to “Remember the
ladies,” women’s rights were not even a consideration. “The Declaration is a
document of promise,” the Ranger reflects. “Lincoln mentioned the Declaration
of Independence in his Gettysburg Address; suffragettes Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Frederick Douglass & Martin Luther King Jr. all drew on the
Declaration. We are exhausted from becoming independent, but work had just
begun.”
The Articles of
Confederation which set up the United States’ first government “was more like
treaty of 13 independent countries, with 13 armies, 13 currencies. In less than
four months, it was replaced with a central government under the Constitution.”
We see the chair used by
George Washington, which has carved into it a rising sun. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton argued and debated
over making of three co-equal branches of government; they compromised over
representation of large and small states; compromised over the power and
function of the presidency.
“George Washington
called it the ‘miracle in Philadelphia.’ But they knew they could not predict
the future. So the Constitution was designed to change, with provision to amend
it.”
The tour takes about a
half-hour, and I am trying to pack a lot into one day. I decide to forgo a tour
of Congress Hall and the Liberty Bell to race over to the National Museum of
American Jewish History because I spot a banner showcasing the special exhibit,
“Notorious RBG” which is only on view through Jan. 12. Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of my heroes.
Notorious RBG at NMAJH
“Notorious RBG: The
Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” at the National Museum of American
Jewish History (NMAJH) is the first-ever
museum retrospective of the Supreme Court Justice-turned-pop-culture-icon. The
special exhibition traces a career that traveled from trailblazer to
pop-culture icon, exploring the roots of her precedent-setting role on the
nation’s highest court, as well as her varied roles as a student, life partner,
mother, change-making lawyer, judge, and women’s rights pioneer.
Take a photo with “Notorious RBG”, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after seeing the exhibit at the National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia.
Even though I had seen
the excellent “Notorious RBG” documentary and the superb “On the Basis of Sex”
film (written by her nephew) which formed the basis of the exhibit (photos,
home movies), there was still so much to learn, and the artifacts, and
explanations.
The second woman—and
the first Jewish woman—to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg
acquired the “Notorious RBG” moniker after a series of fiery, record-breaking
dissents she gave from the Supreme Court bench in 2013 around the Voting Rights
Act. Then-NYU law student Shana Knizhnik was inspired to create the Notorious RBG tumblr,
referencing rap star Notorious B.I.G. (In homage to Notorious B.I.G., the
exhibition section titles are inspired by his lyrics.)
Based on the New
York Times best-selling book of the same name by Knizhnik and Irin
Carmon, the visually rich and entertaining exhibition explores RBG’s legacy
through archival photographs and documents, historical artifacts, contemporary
art, media stations, and gallery interactives. It presents not only the
Justice’s writings, opinions, and interviews, but also the whimsical yet
powerful world of Notorious RBG memes, fan art, and parody – from a cartoon
action figure named Wrath Hover Ginsbot to renderings of the Justice’s likeness
on t-shirts, nail decals, and even as tattoos. (Clearly, Justice Ginsburg has
always had a sense of humor, which was at the essence of her long-time
relationship with her husband, Marty).
NMAJH’s location on Independence Mall provides an ideal backdrop for exploring Justice Ginsburg’s story and the circumstances that brought her to the Court. It places the Justice’s story at the very location where the United States was founded and the US Constitution established the Supreme Court. In fact, just diagonally across from NMAJH is the National Constitution Center (constitutioncenter.org).
Established in 1976, the National Museum of
American Jewish History is the only museum in the nation dedicated exclusively
to exploring and interpreting the American Jewish experience, going back 360
years. NMAJH, a Smithsonian Affiliate,
was originally founded by the members of historic Congregation Mikveh Israel,
which was established in 1740 and known as the “Synagogue of the American
Revolution”.
The National Museum of American
Jews is a revelation to me – beginning with why it is “National”: it is the
only museum of its kind in the nation. That’s why.
I have seen parts of the story in
other venues – notably Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island
(www.tourosynagogue.org), the Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida;
Ellis Island and the Jewish Museum in New York City– but none presented such a
comprehensive unfolding of the epic Jewish experience in America that dates
back nearly as far as the Puritans in Plymouth (though Jews first settled in
the New World since Columbus).
Its exhibits and galleries, the
artifacts and commentary brilliantly presented to express complex concepts –
the sweep of history, in effect – but taken down to very personal levels of a
person, with a face, a name and a genealogy.
It comes down to legitimacy – much as the museums
which speak to the Jewish people’s history in Israel – and the illegitimate
notion of the United States founded as a Christian nation. Non-Christians were
part of this country’s founding and the Founders, who were humanists,
globalists and men of the Enlightenment – among them George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and Ben Franklin – were not only tolerant of other religions but
open-minded about philosophies. But what is painfully clear are the strains of
anti-Semitism and racism that have persisted throughout American history
despite George Washington’s assurances to the Touro congregation (“To Bigotry
No Sanction,”), despite the Bill of Rights and the Naturalization Act of 1790
which bar the establishment of religion, an issue as relevant as today’s
headlines.
There are four floors which wrap around a huge atrium,
each floor devoted to a different era and theme. The displays, including
multi-media , interactive stations, and artifacts, are well presented to convey
complex, even nuanced concepts, intertwining real people with places,
historical events and cultural movements. In some instances, it is the sheer
numbers that impress: “Foundations of Freedom: 1654-1880” (Do most Americans
realize that Jews were already settled in the New World colonies from 1654?);
“Innovation & Expansion” is part of the timeline of Jews in America
usually ignored entirely, but Jews were very much a part of the Westward
expansion and the march to the Industrial Revolution; “Dreams of Freedom:
1880-1945”, chronicling the migration of millions of immigrants who came to the
United States beginning in the late 19th century who profoundly reshaped the
American Jewish community and the nation as a whole; and Choices and Challenges of
Freedom: 1945 – Today.
NMAJH , 101 South Independence Mall East at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets, www.NMAJH.org 215.923.3811.
Next: More
Philadelphia Treasures: Magic Gardens, Franklin Institute
A Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package includes
overnight free parking and perks, and is bookable at Greater
Philadelphia’s official visitor website, visitphilly.com, 800-537-7676 where you can explore things to do, upcoming
events, themed itineraries and hotel packages.
by
Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
Philadelphia is a jewel box of unique and spectacular, even life-enhancing attractions, a trove of national treasures of history, heritage, culture that glitters particularly during the holidays. The holiday splendor is eye-catching and warms the heart, but any visitor still has to make time to experience first-hand at least some of these iconic places. I manage to bookend my holiday merrymaking with a mix of art (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Magic Gardens) with history (Independence Hall) with heritage (National Museum of American Jewish History) with science and enlightenment (Philly is the hometown of one of our most enlightened inventors, Ben Franklin, and so I end this visit with the Franklin Institute.
We spare no time once we drop our luggage
at The Roost East Market, park the car in the garage, but grab an Uber to race
over to The Barnes Foundation. The Barnes Collection is one of the world’s
greatest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist
paintings, with especially rich holdings in Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and
Picasso. Assembled by Dr. Albert C. Barnes between 1912 and 1951, the
collection also includes important examples of African art, Native American
pottery and jewelry, Pennsylvania German furniture, American avant-garde
painting, and wrought-iron metalwork. In fact, we are told, Dr. Barnes has the
greatest collection of Renoir anywhere – 181 of them acquired by Dr. Barnes
between 1921 and 1942 that you actually see (as opposed to museums that keep
most of their collections in storage). Plus 69 by Paul Cézanne; 59 by Henri Matisse; 46 by Pablo Picasso;
21 by Chaim Soutine; 18 by Henri Rousseau and the list goes on and on, as
you walk from gallery to gallery to gallery.
The building complex is new, but the
gallery rooms re-create the rooms and how Dr. Barnes displayed his art,
intentionally juxtaposing masterworks by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and
Pablo Picasso next to ordinary household objects – a door hinge, a spatula, a
yarn spinner; a French medieval sculpture displayed with a Navajo textile;
African folk art with Modigliani and Cubists. Dr. Barnes called these dense
groupings of objects from different cultures, time periods and media his
“ensembles.” He meticulously crafted the ensembles to draw out visual similarities
– even the source of inspiration. He meant them as teaching tools, essential to
the educational program Dr. Barnes developed in the 1920s.
“He believed you could
as likely learn about how to do surgery wandering through a hospital as art
wandering through a gallery – you have to be taught how to see, what to look
for,” a docent explains. “He wanted people to appreciate how culture influences
art.” She adds, “He wasn’t an artist himself.” In fact, she relates, 10 years
ago, Central High School (Dr. Barnes grew up in a working class family in
Philadelphia), came across his school books. “He got A’s in everything but
art.”
A very recognizable Van Gogh, “The Postman,”, on view at The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (c) Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
At the Barnes, you experience these
masterworks in the most intimate manner, as if visiting a home (albeit a
mansion). We are exceptionally lucky to visit when the museum is not at all
crowded (actually we are there until closing) – I even get to have some of the
art completely to myself. It is very comfortable to view – many of the rooms
(and they seem to go on forever, one after another) are small and there is
seating in each one, with guides to the artwork at hand. But you should try to
take a docent tour. At one point, the docent pulls up a photo of Henry
Matisse, sitting on the very bench and gazing at his own painting in that very
room.
In every room, you are astonished to see art that is amazingly familiar – because they are so famous: Georges Seurat’s “Models” (the basis for “Sunday in the Park with George”); Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Postman”; Paul Cezanne’s “The Card Players”; Edouard Manet “Laundry”; Pablo Picasso “Acrobat and Young Harlequin”, and a plethora of Renoirs – so many, you get a sugar high. Every gallery takes your breath away, and for that moment, the art, the masterpiece, is yours.
And then there are the surprises – the art and artists you “meet” for
the first time. I fall in love with a Van Gogh country scene I have never seen
before.
There is a wonderful painting of Dr. Albert Barnes (1872-1951) by
Giorgio de Chirico (1926), which makes you wonder more about who he was to have
assembled such an astonishing collection. Dr. Barnes was born and raised in
working-class Philadelphia, earned a medical degree from the University of
Pennsylvania and went on to study chemistry in Germany. After starting his own
business and making a fortune in pharmaceuticals, he began collecting art.
“Dr. Barnes believed that art had the power to improve minds and
transform lives,” the notes read. “In 1922, he established the Barnes
Foundation as a school for learning how to see and appreciate art. He had a
gallery built in Merion, a suburb of Philadelphia, to house his growing
collection. He held classes in the gallery so that students could learn
directly from the artworks.”
In 2012, the collection was moved to Philadelphia, to a building
designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architecture. The collection gallery
replicates the original gallery building in Merion.
The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130, 215-278-7000, www.barnesfoundation.org.
From here, we go to a family gathering at the mega-popular Zahav Restaurant (the Uber driver can’t believe we are getting in there since lines are usually around the block), an award-winning restaurant which elevates Israeli cuisine to gourmet status. The small plates menu is designed for diners to sample the variety of cultural influences on Israeli cuisine, from Eastern Europe to North Africa, from Persia to the Mediterranean. “Creamy, nutty hummuses, sizzling skewers of meat grilled over hardwood charcoal, and laffa breadar, the soul of Zahav, baked to order in a wood-fired Taboon.” (237 Saint James Place, 215-625-8800, zahavrestaurant.com).
My
holiday happenings (see:
Holiday Happenings Give
Visitors to Philadelphia Even More to Enjoy) are bookended by visits to several of Philadelphia’s
incomparable sites and attractions. Next: Independence Hall (you need to get a timed
ticket, either walk up for free or in advance online for $1 fee, www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/independencehalltickets.htm); a fabulous exhibit
devoted to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Notorious RBG) at
the National Museum of American
Jewish History, located within the Independence Hall area
(thru Jan. 12, at 5th & Market, mnajh.org, 215-923-3811); Philadelphia Magic Gardens (doesn’t
need any holiday embellishments, 1020 South St., 215-733-0390, phillymagicgardens.org);and Franklin
Institute (222 North 20th St., 215-448-1200, www.fi.edu), before having to pull myself away from Philadelphia.
Staying at The Roost
East Market apartment hotel really enabled us to be part of the city, most
of what we wanted to see within walking distance. It’s not hyperbole to say the
comfort of a fully-equipped, gorgeously furnished apartment meets luxury
amenities of a boutique hotel. All of the apartments feature
full-size kitchens with cookware and utensils (I especially love not having to
go out for breakfast) and king size beds. A third-floor is
devoted to guest amenities including a well-equipped 24-hour fitness center,
magnificent and comfortable lounge areas and library, a huge demo kitchen, a
private screening room, an outside, 20-meter heated lap pool, barbecue area,
landscaped terrace, community vegetable garden;
and bike-share program. There is also 24-hour front desk and concierge,
security (you need your card to access the elevator and public areas); and
direct access to a parking garage. They
even arrange dog-walking and grocery delivery services. (The Roost East Market, 1199 Ludlow
Street Philadelphia, PA 19107, 844-697-6678, https://myroost.com/philadelphia/east-market/).
A Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package includes
overnight free parking and perks, and is bookable at Greater
Philadelphia’s official visitor website, visitphilly.com, 800-537-7676 where you can explore things to do, upcoming
events, themed itineraries and hotel packages.
