Art in Isaac's Life & Today

Photo card with album

For Isaac, an appreciation of fine art was essential for anyone purporting to be an educated person.  One of my favorite passages from his journal is a lengthy conversation he recorded between himself and a young lady.

      In morning dark-eyed 'Belle A' called in and returned loaned book 'Cave on Coloring.'  I  inquired, "Why, have you read it through already?"

     "Yes."

     "Well, could you understand it?"

     "No, not all."

        "How do you like it?"

        "Oh, I don't like such reading."

        "Ah, you must not expect to learn all at once.  Here, I have another small book--'Roebling, Sketching from Nature.'  Maybe this will benefit you more to read.  You must not get discouraged but go on like you had ten years time to learn in.  What other books have you to read?"

       "None."

       "Well, just you keep on slowly reading and form a taste for the Fine Arts.  You will never regret it."  I handed book to her, and she started then for Seminary.  (Isaac's Journal, February 28, 1871)

Stereoscope with viewing cards

At the time this conversation occurred, Isaac was in his mid-20s, a successful young businessman in Rossville, IL, taking notice of attractive females that visited his drugstore but determined to postpone marriage until he was better situated in the manner he had planned for himself.  The conversation seems to show that while it was clear he wished to find an accomplished young lady familiar with the arts and literature, he was still very clumsy in the area of romance.

Isaac collected all kinds of books, and among them were books of art.  His desire to educate himself in the fine arts is reflected in a journal quote from early 1871:  "Received also 'Wonders of Italian Art,' which I wish I could have had long ago, would have assisted my fine Art progress very much.  Consider it a dear little book, as being the cream of Italian Art."

Museum Slab Party Guest

Among his personal art collection were many framed engravings, as well as photographs of artists kept in his card album of artists and authors.  His stereoscope collection included views of famous works of art, and his library had art books such as 'Murrary's Handbooks of Painting,' including Italian, German, Flemish, and Dutch volumes.  I was fortunate to locate a modern facsimile of one of his art books, 'Cuba with Pen & Pencil,' which I purchased for my collection of some other books that had been in Isaac's library, selecting the oldest editions I could find.  On July 3, 1871, he wrote in his journal:  "Received some 1 doz Stereos from Anthony & Co, also some card photos of Sarony & Co, and other mail matter, mostly Photography."

Because Isaac loved art so much and had few, if any, opportunities to see original paintings and drawings, I know that Isaac Werner would have supported having an art museum near enough for him to visit frequently. How I wish I could share with him the news of the new art museum opening in Pratt, KS, this spring! 

Some Board Members at Party

I am fortunate to have been asked to serve on the Museum Board, and the past few months have been busy ones.  The initial art collection, as well as a generous donation that has allowed the new museum to be built without debt, came primarily from Dr. and Mrs. Vernon Filley.  Mrs. Filley, or "Mimi" as she is well known, became interested in art during an elementary school field trip, and that young interest continued after she married.  Dr. Filley established his medical practice as a surgeon in Pratt, KS, and with a second residence in Santa Fe, NM, Mimi became acquainted with artists and gallery owners there.  She began to fulfill her dream of collecting art to donate to a museum for others to enjoy.

Discussing the floor plans 

The Vernon Filley Art Museum is the culmination of her dream.  The photographs in this blog were taken at the museum's "Slab Party," where supporters had the opportunity to see the progress being made on the construction.  Plastic "hard hats" were given to those who came to see the architectural drawings, the list of services and programs the museum will offer, and ask questions of the board members and the architect who were present.

The museum is scheduled to open this spring, and our Founder Campaign, through which donors can contribute at specified levels to be recognized as early supporters on a permanent plaque that will hang in the museum.  Founder donations and pledges may be made until February 15, 2014, when the campaign closes.  Our membership drive will then begin, and plans for the Grand Opening activities are underway!

Discussing future plans! 

It was impressive how early settlers, some still living in sod houses and dugouts, formed Literary Societies and attended Lyceum programs, eager to enjoy opportunities to see trained musicians, actors, and elocutionists, as well as to discuss books, art, and ideas, and to take singing lessons during the winter months when they were not so busy in the fields.  Isaac would certainly have been eager to visit an art museum on his visits to Pratt, and judging from the support shown the Founder Campaign, the volunteers already involved, the curiosity during construction, the interest in art classes and special museum events, and the inquiries about museum memberships, it appears that the current residents of Pratt and the surrounding region are as excited about the museum as he would have been!

I invite everyone to visit www.facebook.com/VernonFilleyArtMuseum and "like" our page, or on Twitter @FilleyArt Museum.

To read more about the museum you may visit our website at www.vernonfilleyartmuseum.org.

Susan's Album

Susan & Anna Beck

My great-grandmother, Susan Beck, taught in one-room country schools  in both Stafford and Pratt Counties.  School terms accommodated the necessity for children to help on the farms, and the fall term usually began in late October.  After a break for the holidays, the spring term resumed until March or early April.  Many of the country school teachers were barely older than their students, young unmarried girls who had been students the previous school year.  Having a mature woman with a high school education as their teacher was considered quite a privilege.

 

Records of the Stafford County country schools are incomplete, but the Stafford County History book indicates that Susan taught in the early sod school house in Albano Township.  Susan has a photo album given in appreciation for her teaching in that community, and she may have taught in the school house Isaac helped build.  Pratt County has more complete documentation of its country schools, and those records confirm that Susan taught in townships located on the far north side of Pratt County several terms in the 1890s.  Her daughter, Anna Marie Beck, not only taught in Stafford County schools but also served as Stafford County Superintendent of Schools.

 

As you may remember from prior posts on this blog, Isaac Werner was friendly with the Beck family, loaning books, stereoscope views, and his albums to Aaron and Susan Beck and their children, Royal and Anna.  Unfortunately, Isaac's books, views, albums, and framed prints were sold in his estate sale, and although I suspect some of them might still be found among family antiques in the surrounding communities, I have not located any of Isaac's collections (other than his wonderful journal).

 

Susan Beck's album from grateful parents

Therefore, I am using the album my great-grandmother received from parents of students she taught as an example of what Isaac's albums might have been like.  I have seen many examples of albums from this period, many with velvet covers and most with some type of decoration.  The pages are thick cardboard, on which a card stock type of paper is glued with framed openings to hold photographs or cards of famous people.  Susan's album has two frames on each page positioned vertically.  Other albums have different arrangements of frames and different sizes of frames.

 

Interior pages of Susan's album with a print

Susan's album from the late 1890s or early 1900s holds primarily photographs of family and friends, but Isaac's albums probably held more images of  prominent people.  Although newspapers published sketches of people in the news, we must remember that without movies, television, and the internet, images of important people, historical or living, were not widely available.  In his ongoing quest to better educate himself, Isaac wanted to be familiar with the images of famous people. His journal entry of December 31, 1870 included among the books and engravings he wished to purchase the following:  "Card Photographs of about 150 Authors & Artists."

 

Another entry on February 27, 1871 read: "Started also a small book or memorandum of transitory or present or future wants, such as photographs of certain noted individuals, painting and certain necessary books etc.  By eve had already recorded 3 columns in my small book of such items."  When he acquired the photograph cards he wanted, they were arranged in albums similar to the album in the above photographs.

 

Although Isaac was eager to acquire a better education with his reading and his collections of engravings, stereoscope views, and photograph cards, he was reluctant to reveal to those who might criticize his efforts just what he was doing.  His entry of March 16, 1871 revealed this modesty: "During A.M. as Mr. Hutcheons run in and out several times, and each time found me busy at my desk at something (he knew not what though, filling my large Album with card photographs of Authors), he remarked, 'Well Mr. W.--.  You astonish the natives someday, the way you are always busy at something.'"      

 

Most of Isaac's books, engravings, views, and photograph cards were acquired during the years when he was a prosperous druggist in Rossville, Illinois, but he always believed the money to acquire his collections was wisely spent, and he continued to enjoy them during the hard times of his later years as a homesteader on the Kansas prairie.

Isaac as Photographer

Isaac's interest in photography is mentioned in his journal several times during 1871, and when he sold his drug store business, he considered becoming a photographer--if not a professional then at least an amateur.  With the changes occurring as towns sprung up on the prairie and railroad tracks slashed through the landscape, Isaac dreamed of preserving images of the unspoiled country before it was "ruined" by civilization. 

He believed there would be a particular market for stereoscope views, photographing not only the landscape but also public occasions and seasonal images to be enjoyed at other times of the year.  Stereoscope views consist of a pair of images taken by cameras a few feet apart, with the finished photographs mounted side-by-side on a rectangular cardboard.  Inserted in the adjustable rack of the stereoscope, when the pair of images are viewed through the lenses of the stereoscope, the two photographs merge into a 3-dimensional image.  In a world before television, movies and computers, stereoscopes provided both entertainment and the opportunity to view distant places.

Isaac studied the various types of cameras available, of which there were several, and just as today, the prices varied widely.  Although these cameras were expensive, in comparison to the amounts Isaac had spent on his library, a camera seemed affordable.  However, having sold his business, he may no longer have been in the position to purchase such luxuries, and it is uncertain whether Isaac bought his own camera.

A journal entry during the summer of 1890, two decades after the first entries about photography, it became obvious that Isaac's interest had not disappeared, for he wrote:  "...very anxious to have a series of Negatives taken of my home from several points of view."  The following day he added, "I walked over place with small mirror selecting point of views to photo, some time, making some 30 different interesting views I would like to have taken."

As if fate had heard Isaac's wishes, only four days later at a political rally in Pratt Center, Isaac met Seth Blake, a farmer with an amateur photo outfit.  Blake lived only 7 miles south of Isaac, and they struck up a friendship.  In the following months, Isaac accompanied Blake to several political rallies to photograph the events, and Blake began coming to Isaac's farm to photograph his neighbors, using  Isaac's picturesque farm setting as a back drop.

Among the neighbors Isaac recorded as having been photographed at his farm were the William Campbell family, Fracks, Frank Curtis team and women, William Blanch family, Graff and Penrose in buggy, Carr team and wagon, Sadie and children, Mrs. Henn and family, Miss Anna Carr and Miss Balser, Mrs. Ross, McHenry team, and numerous other photographs of boys on horses and groups that were not specifically identified.  The hard times had reduced the farms of many neighbors to abject poverty, and I suspect there are many photographs in family albums with Isaac's prosperous farm and beautiful tree groves in the background, assumed by descendants to be their ancestors' farms.  I have yet to locate any photographs of such family groups, nor the historically valuable images of political rallies and parades that Blake and Isaac took.  Neither have I found the photographs of Isaac's farm, his 3-horse cultivator, nor the co-operative potato patch, all of which are mentioned in his journal.

The cameras of that time were cumbersome and heavy; yet, Isaac describes in his journal the day he climbed into the top of his big cottonwood tree with one of Blake's cameras in an attempt to photograph an elevated view of his farm.  Imagine Isaac, at the age of forty-five, perched high in a cottonwood tree!  He concluded that the wind in the tree caused too much swaying to get a good image, and he climbed down without getting his photograph.

I remain hopeful that some of these photographs still exist for me to find.  Seth Blake did not develop his own dry plate negatives, which were developed by a studio in Pratt (probably Logan's) and by Miss Shira in St. John, so some of Isaac and Blake's photographs may appear on mounting cardboard bearing the logo or address of these or other studios.

I also know that Isaac sat for two different studio portraits of himself in 1890 and 1891, taken at Logan and Shira's studios.  He recorded having sent studio portraits to his siblings, as well as some photographs of his farm, but if they still exist, I have not located them.

I have made the most surprising discoveries in doing research for the book, so I continue to hope that I may yet find one of Isaac's photographs!

Isaac's Library

I immediately formed a kinship with Isaac because of our common love for books. When Isaac's Journal begins in December of 1870, he is a druggist in Rossville, Illinois, in his mid-twenties. He is prospering, with every bit of money he can set aside spent on books, views for his stereoscope, and portrait cards of famous people that he kept in albums. He had a curious mind that he wanted to fill with the writings of great authors, pictures of the world, and images of important people, and he was determined to build his collections, despite being criticized by some of his less literary friends. About the money he spent, he wrote in his Journal: "Some get rid of a good deal [of money] in horses and buggies, great many in whisky, and how many on women? Ike [Isaac] fools good deal away in Books and Views and Pictures." That is not to suggest that Isaac wasn't keeping his eyes open for a well-educated young lady. He tried charming one young miss by loaning her some of his art books, and he paid particular attention to a bright young bookkeeper at Henderson & Lee's store, the first female employed in that position in town. He was also quite interested in a young woman who played chess and appreciated music, but unfortunately for Isaac, none of these relationships matured into a romance.

From his successful business he had assets he could have invested or loaned at profitable rates of interest, but instead he continued to buy books, explaining in his Journal: "How interesting and delightful such reading is and the daily increase in familiarity with such noble literary monuments. When I think back over all my best investments yet made, what I done [sic] in good Books I must consider the Master stroke of all. What a permanent and ever increasing value does such an investment bring..."

These words were written when he was young, but even during the hard times as a homesteader on the Kansas prairie, he treasured his books and added to his library occasionally. Most of the later additions were of a practical nature and often pamphlets rather than beautifully bound volumes, but he never doubted the value of books. Isaac would have agreed completely with Barbara Tuchman, who wrote, "Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."

Many of the books in Isaac's library are still read today--Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, Gibbon's History of the Roman Empire, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Cervantes's Don Quixote, monthly issues of "Scientific American" which he had bound. He also collected books of art, philosophy, engineering, law, economics, political theory, logic, travel, and languages. He had reference books about Shakespeare, the Bible, and Dictionaries of words, authors, and artists. Among them all, he seemed to love Shakespeare best. I can picture Isaac sitting in his early dugout, before he had built his house and still lacking a horse to ride to the nearest town, reading Shakespeare by lamplight.

I was so curious about the books Isaac read that I went to some of my favorite used book websites and ordered the oldest editions I could find of titles he had mentioned. I guess you might say that Isaac and I formed a book club! Pictured are the following: Progress & Poverty by Henry George, Twain's Innocents Abroad, A Comprehensive Dictionary of Organ Stops, Classical Antiquities, Cuba with Pen & Pencil, Theory of Spencerian Penmanship, Bain's Logic: Deductive & Inductive, Cooper's Justinian, and The Culture Demanded by Modern Life. The books on art and travel that I would have particularly enjoyed could not be found, but the sampling I read impressed me with Isaac's thirst for knowledge. Surely you can understand why I must tell the story of this remarkable man!

[The stereoscope and views in the photograph belonged to my ancestors. I do know from Isaac's Journal, however, that he visited my great grandparents, Aaron & Susan Beck, and shared his stereoscope views with them.