40 Famous Iowans - George Catlin

George Catlin’s interest in Native American customs was sparked at a young age. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, he was told stories of the Native Americans on the western frontier by his mother. This ignited an interest which turned into a lifelong career. After a Native American delegation stopped in Philadelphia, Catlin started studying and following what he called the “vanishing race”. Catlin spent his time traveling the west documenting Native Americans and their customs throughout the 1830s. Also during these years, he traveled Europe spending time with Native Americans who remained relatively untouched by European civilization.

From these experiences, Catlin created numerous paintings and published several books. His artwork provides a look into the life of the Native Americans including how they dressed and many of their customs. One of Catlin’s best-known writings was “Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians”.

After his travels, Catlin created a traveling museum where he gave public lectures about his various paintings and shared stories from his own experiences with the tribes. One of his ultimate dreams was to have the U.S. government buy his paintings so his life’s work would be preserved. Today, hundreds of his paintings are on display in museums around the country, including several hundred in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Without George Catlin’s insightful paintings, people today would know much less about Native American dress and customs. This vivid artwork of Native American families and their customs, offers us a great history lesson of the time.

40 Famous Iowans - Benjamin Gue

Gue emigrated to Iowa from Green County, New York when he was 24 years of age. Known for many things, Gue was a well-known newspaper and magazine editor in Fort Dodge and Des Moines, Iowa. In Fort Dodge, Gue was the editor and publisher for Iowa Northwest newspaper for nine years. While in Des Moines, he was the editor and publisher for The Homestead newspaper. Later, he wrote a four-volume series of the history of Iowa from the beginning of the state’s settlement and served as Iowa’s Lieutenant Governor from 1866-1868. He was a farmer, as well as a famous lecturer, and a supporter of the Iowa Agriculture College, later named Iowa State University.

Gue invested much time and energy with the Iowa Agriculture College by signing bills, actively supporting and serving as the college’s President of the Board of Trustees for a period of time. Gue devoted much of his attention to gathering material to create a vivid history of Iowa.

Benjamin Gue was considered one of the most prominent men of the state government. He was one of Iowa’s best and brightest journalists and also proved himself to have great executive ability. Thanks to the writings that Benjamin Gue published of different periods in Iowa’s past, we have a vast resource of historical documentation.

40 Famous Iowans - Marie Dorion

Marie Dorion was the Ioway Indians’ version of Sacajawea. Being the only woman on the expedition from St. Louis to the Oregon Territory, Dorion gained recognition for her courage and endurance during the trip. Her purpose on the trip was to assist a group of American explorers in their exploration. During the expedition, the group experienced much adversity such as starvation, weather and ambush. Dorion brought her family along for the 11-month expedition, including two children, making the hardships for her even more brutal.

In Eastern Oregon, the group was ambushed, losing several members of the party. The ambush, along with starvation and errors in judgment, killed a quarter of the exploration team before reaching their planned destination. However, Dorion and her two children were able to complete the entire journey unscathed. After making it to Astoria, Oregon, she joined another group headed out on a beaver trapping expedition. Coincidentally, again her expedition was attacked, this time killing the entire group except for herself and her two children.

Once the journey ended, Dorion settled with her family in Willamette Valley, Oregon. She remained here until she passed away in 1850. After her death Marie Dorion’s neighbors spoke of her as a very admirable woman.

40 Famous Iowans

Over the next few months, we're undertaking a special project in honor of our 40th Anniversary. Interspersed with our regular entries, we'll focus on 40 Famous Iowans. From the "Sacajawea" of the Ioway Tribe to a man who helped found Iowa State University, we will honor the strength and spirit of these Iowans. With their adventures, discoveries, writings, documents, and more, Living History Farms is able to showcase the great history of Iowa.

New Emeritus Board Is Formed

Thanks to former LHF Board member, Gov. Terry Branstad, and Alice Murray, Living History Farms has started its first Emeritus Board. Gov. Branstad is Chair with Alice as Honorary Co-Chair. The Board’s purpose is to keep the passion alive with continued connection to Living History Farms by past LHF Board members.

The responsibilities of Emeritus Board members are to:

A. Serve as advocates of Living History Farms and its programs;

B. Provide feedback to the Board of Directors and staff;

C. Provide advice and technical expertise to the staff on a project specific basis;

D. Assist in targeting others, whose interest and support are important to the sustainability of Living History Farms,

and

E. Assist and advise the Board of Directors in fund-raising efforts, where appropriate.

Their 2009 Project: assisting in the planning of our 40^th Anniversary.

Current members are: Gov. Branstad, Alice Murray, Garland Carver, Bill Classen, Roger Jacobsen, Ann Jennings, Dean Kleckner, Lee Kline, Marilyn Kollmorgen, Ivan Lyddon, Barb Lykins, Barry Schaffter, and Jacque Stessman.

We look forward to this Board’s involvement.

-- written by Jan, Manager of Volunteer Services

In August I will have been with LHF for 20 years.

These days most people don’t stay at their jobs that long – why have I? Because I honestly can’t think of any place I’d rather be. Now some day, I might leave to join another organization, but it’s not in my thoughts now. Has it been perfect? No, of course not, but even when it wasn’t, it was always interesting and never boring! And, I keep learning every day. I love Living History Farms.

What do I love?

• The people –

Our volunteers:

*The skills, enthusiasm, and devotion you bring to your positions continue to amaze me.

*I’ve observed or been part of many heart-warming experiences as we have helped a volunteer find fulfillment in his or her time here. For example, watching a 13 year old grow up through the volunteer ranks as a Day Camp Jr. Counselor to a historical interpreter, and then maybe return as a college intern. I know we’ve helped develop many teens, and I couldn’t be more proud of our staff for facilitating that.

*Seeing how we have become a “home” to so many volunteers. To hear how much LHF means to our volunteers is so rewarding.

Our employee staff:

*You are some of the most unique people I’ve ever met. You’re interesting, well read, funny, creative, intelligent, and passionate about your time here.

*The satisfaction I receive working with you to create successful experiences for our volunteers, which also helps LHF be successful.

• How beautiful our property is – sometimes when walking to Walnut Hill from my office to visit a volunteer or staff I walk through the large expanse of land by the Flynn House and enjoy the serenity, smell the flowers, and fill my lungs with the fresh air. I’ll often stop and just stand there for a minute or so as I appreciate that I work at such a beautiful place.
• Watching us grow over the years into a world-class museum.
• Knowing that our mission is true and so worthy.
• How we tell the story – I’ve always been a history “nut”. I was a history major at ISU a million years ago. It’s a dream come true for me to work here.

One time after having gotten a soda at “Rosie’s” and walking back towards the office, I heard the sound of the schoolhouse bell. Then I realized no, that wasn’t what it was. So I stopped and listened. It was the steady ring of the Blacksmith hammering something on the anvil. I am reminded how far that sound travels, and it also reinforced that we really do offer visitors the sights, sounds, and smells of history. I hope you’ll understand when I say it gave me goose bumps.

• Knowing we are a positive influence in our world.

I want to thank all the volunteers and staff over the years that have made my professional life here such a joy. I’ll be forever grateful.  A special thank you to Nancy Wente, my mentor and friend.

-- written by Jan, Manager of Volunteer Services

Spencerian Art at the Farms

This past April, LHF had the privilege of hosting a master Spencerian penman, Mr. Michael Sull of Mission, Kansas. We are deeply grateful to the Atlantic Bottling Company for their generous grant making Michael’s visit to LHF possible. Michael Sull is one of the few remaining links to the grand pen masters of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Sull travels all over the world to teach Spencerian writing and hosts a venerated writing retreat in Ohio every year.

A long time calligrapher, Michael discovered Spencerian writing when he met an elderly master penman, then in his nineties. This gentleman was one of the last living men trained at an actual Spencerian penmanship school. Michael’s work with this gentleman gave him the ability to preserve and pass on the Spencerian writing technique.

Spencerian handwriting is a beautiful cursive writing style popular in the mid-19th century. It was developed by Platt Rogers Spencer in 1848 and was the first truly American writing style. Up to the 1840s, Americans took their writing style from English Copperplate. Copperplate was used in business especially and had no tolerance for self-expression. Every penman strove to look just like every other penman. Spencer felt Americans needed to break with this formal writing. Inspired by the Great Lakes in his native area of Ohio, Spencer took his cues from the curves found in nature. He observed that nothing in nature is truly straight. Everything has curves, from ripples in water to fluttering leaves in the wind. He incorporated this concept into cursive writing. He felt handwriting should flow and be an expression of an individual, just as nature does not create two exact copies of anything, writing should not be rigid and exact. Spencer designed his handwriting style to make writing easy and elegant. His students adapted the basic principles and created elaborate art pieces by flourishing and extending the curves.

Spencer spent his life traveling and teaching his style of handwriting. His sons published the Spencerian Key to Practical Penmanship in 1866. The Coca-Cola logo is written in this style of script. The Spencerian style was popular into the early twentieth century. At that time, Austin Palmer, one of Spencer’s students, made changes to the Spencerian style and published his own book. This “Palmer Method” became the standard for handwriting education in elementary schools.

Mr. Sull’s visit provided LHF staff an opportunity to learn about this vanishing art form. Michael began with a presentation about the history of Spencerian writing to 24 of LHF's staff and volunteers. Through slides and actual artifacts, Mr. Sull shared the story of how Spencerian writing came to be, flourished, changed, and survived.

Sull was willing to share his truly amazing collection of period writing examples, including many given to him by families of the venerated penmen—even some pieces done by Spencer himself. Following the evening presentation, Sull taught a two-day workshop attended by 19 members of LHF's staff.

We learned the basics of Spencerian philosophy, each of the letters, and how to do flourishes—an ornamental drawing form based on the Spencerian technique. We definitely came to respect the practice needed to create this beautiful handwriting. The first day was spent on how to properly hold the pen, angle the paper, dip in the ink, the basic curves, and the lower case letters. Day two was then spent on the upper case letters (many of which have more than one possible way to write them) and flourishes.

By the end of the workshop each staff member felt a sense of accomplishment and also had a very nice example of their name written by Mr. Sull for them. In the 19th century, master penmen would leave a sample for their student, typically their name, to look at and practice. Mr. Sull left each of us our name in fine script to marvel at and practice. It was fascinating to watch Michael write.

He didn’t seem to have any preplanning in his designs and effortlessly we watched our names, birds, quill pens, wheat shafts and flowers appear on the page like magic. Only at LHF can you watch a man write a Spencerian flourished letter “M” on a board and hear an entire room of people gasp in amazement.

We felt so fortunate to learn the real style from a real master. Many sites are planning on incorporating the Spencerian practices into their site activity, especially at the School house, Flynn Home and 1900 Farm. The letters and writing of the past has been missed at our historic sites and we are very excited about adding it back in.

As much as we appreciated him, Michael Sull actually wrote a thank you letter to LHF, in Spencerian of course, expressing his appreciation for the opportunity to come and work with us. He feels that "Living History Farms is a marvelous, magical place- it seems that the past comes alive because the past never left- time has stood still and 'the past' is still the present." He also says, "Please continue your daily (yes! - daily) practice."

--- Written by Janet & Melinda