Samuel F B Morse - Inventor & Artist

As I've been debating on where to go over Spring Break with Alex, one of my thoughts was a return trip to Washington DC! We both loved it, we were comfortable getting around on our own, and there is so much more to see! One place we didn't see was the National Gallery of Art, and they currently have a special exhibition of Morse's painting, The Best of the Louvre.

We studied Morse way back in 2006, but the books we read about him only covered the telegraph. I hadn't realized that he was a painter before an inventor - or if I'd read that fact, I'd forgotten it. He was also a Christian who described his life work by saying, "'It is His work. “Not unto us, but to Thy Name, O Lord, be all the praise.” (Answers in Genesis has a great article about him here.)

The painting, The Best of the Louvre, showcases many pieces of art that were actually in the Louvre though they were not all in the same room. (Can you find the Mona Lisa?) In the center of the the painting you can see Morse looking over the shoulder of his daughter who is painting. Also pictured, in the left, is his friend and author, James Fenimore Cooper pictured with Cooper's wife and daughter.

In an interview with NPR's Susan Stamberg, author David McCullough said, ""It was an extremely ambitious undertaking because many of the paintings that he was copying were hung very high up. And so he had to build a movable platform, or scaffold, that he wheeled about the galleries of the Louvre to reach his subjects. And he and the movable scaffold became a tourist attraction themselves"

As to why the painting was created, David McCullough said, "There were no museums here, as yet, in the 1830s, and no color representations of paintings, so he was going to bring the culture of Europe — mainly the Renaissance Italian masterpieces in the Louvre collection — back to the United States for the benefit of his countrymen." (Quotes from the NPR site.)

As we also look forward to our trip to France this summer, I am really enjoying this painting! And, I'm looking forward to reading McCullough's new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. It is the story of Americans, from the year 1830 to 1900, who went to Paris to excel in their work - whether they were artists, authors, doctors, politians, etc.

P.S. Another great site about Morse and his art is found at the Terra Foundation for American Art website. www.terraamericanart.org under "collections".

Birdman of Alcatraz

In preparing for our trip to San Francisco and the Monterey Bay area, my brother suggested we watch Birdman of Alcatraz. The 1962 film stars Burt Lancaster and was filmed while the birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud, was still living and imprisoned. He was in prison from 1909 until his death in 1963.

The film tells his amazing story and only about the last third takes place at Alcatraz. Much of the film describes how he became an expert on birds and their diseases, with only a 3rd grade education. I was amazed at Robert Stroud's level of dedication and learning while imprisoned. What an amazing story! And, there is a lot of "nature" woven into the story... you even get to watch a canary hatch! (And, though Alex and I really enjoyed it, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. It does get violent at times and there are other parts you might want to monitor.)

MoMA Collection Online... and Our Next Trip...

We will be headed on our next trip soon... to New York City! One of our stops will be the Museum of Modern Art. Today, I was doing some research on some of the artists and pieces of art work that we'll see and I came across a link to MoMA on Barb's blog. I am using the site to print out some of the artwork we'll see and I'll be making a matching game.

But, YOU might enjoy this MoMA site to review art on your own! (I enjoyed 'testing' myself to see how much I've learned the past few years... I did pretty good! I'll be testing Alex next week.) You can go to the "Browse the Collection Online" section  and use the "browse filter" button to select "highlights." This button shows some of their most famous pieces of art! (Note: You might want to browse this site without your child as you never know what you'll come across!) You can also create your own account and make your own set of "collected works." This is what I'll be showing Alex instead of risking running into something I'd rather her not see. I think this would be a great review for anyone who has been studying artists.

(Photos are of 2 projects we did in the past relating to artists at MoMA: Jasper Johns and Picasso. Other artists we've studied that we hope to see artwork by include: Warhol, Lichtenstein, Nevelson, and Chagall.)

Day 1: George Washinton Carver Nat'l Monument

Our next unplanned stop was the George Washington Carver National Monument.


We didn't even realize it from the site's name, but this was the actual site where he was born and lived as a young boy!


There were so many activities to do inside. And, we didn't even have time to watch the video. The activity above was to use words and pictures to tell a story. Alexandra's story: "One day I was reading the newspaper and I read the George Washington Carver had died and he was a hero. He was kind, he was an artist, and he taught people about growing peanuts."

I had never seen how peanuts were grown. Pretty neat!

Besides being an artist, a musician, and all the work he did in botany and science... these are some of the actual needleworks he created!

This was an exhibit showing some "Carver developed products from A to Z."

We once again braved the 40 degree weather to take a walk out to the site of the one-room log cabin where George spent his infancy with his mother and brother. The actual home is gone, but through archaelogical discoveries, they have found the exact location of the cabin. I was amazed at the small size of this home for 3! Here's what the sign said: "George Washington Carver was born a slave on the Carver farm. After losing his mother and father in separate trajedies, he was reared as a foster child by Moses and Susan Carver. The replica (above) shows the exact location of the original one-room log cabin where George spent his infancy with his mother Mary and brother Jim.

A sickly child throughtout his youth, George later wrote, 'My body was very feeble and it was a constant warfare between life and death to see who would gain the mastery.'"

It was getting late and so cold, that we couldn't make the walk out to where George lived with his foster parents, the Carvers. But, here is a statue of young George. I was in awe when I realized these are the very woods where George played and learned about nature and started to love flowers. This is also the woods were his mother was taken from him. He was an incredible person and I am so glad we visited the place where his life started.

A sign near here said: "Day after day, I spent in the woods alone in order to collect my floral beauties, and put them in my little garden I had hidden in brush not far from the house, as it was considered foolishness in the neighborhood to waste time on flowers."