For many years my job involved driving to small towns and talking with interesting people. I enjoyed it very much, from learning the back roads to visiting with folks who were proud of their area and what made it unique. Over time I compiled a list of things I wanted to see or do, a list that probably wouldn’t interest many other people (it typically involves historic sites, plaques and tiny museums).
So I took some time this week to stop into a little museum about 20 minutes from any major town. I went to learn more about one of my favorite sculptors, Lorado Taft. Turns out that information takes up just one room in the Lorado Taft Museum (a wily bit of marketing since I would have been less inclined to visit the “history of Elmwood” museum). But I enjoyed learning about his early life in that town and how he contributed to it throughout his life.
Taft contributed major pieces to the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and his very cool Fountain of the Great Lakes stands outside the Art Institute of Chicago. He also sculpted the Alma Mater statue (pictured here) at the University of Illinois, and I resisted the urge to tell the legend of the Alma Mater* to my tour guide, a sweet and spry 92-year-old woman named Alice.
Alice and I are kindred spirits, because we enjoy looking at old pictures, and remembering what furniture was donated in memory of whom, and reading typed index cards about the pioneers who bravely left Connecticut to make this town what it is today. I worry about what will happen when Alice’s volunteering days are done, because she is very knowledgeable and because I doubt there are lot of people lining up to staff the museum.
S
Originally uploaded by nashconf.
Here are the obligatory cute baby photos I previously promised. Everyone spent at least part of Thanksgiving holding Mr. S. He quickly adopted our family tradition: spending the day alternately eating and sleeping. However, he did not participate in the post-feast Battleship playoff.
We love Mr. S.
