Gleaning in Medieval Art A few years ago my longtime Tri-City photographer friend, John Clement, and I found ourselves in the pleasant Hessian village of Schotten, Germany, about forty miles north of Frankfurt, a. M. We were helping to lead a tour of that scenic region and I had special interest in learning about farming […]
![G. Freman, P[eter]P. Bouche (engraver), Boaz Espouseth Ruth From Richard Blome, History of the Holy Bible (London, 1688)](https://franklincountyhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/unnamed-7.jpg)
Early Depictions of Gleaners There is much interest these days in “back to the land” efforts to reconnect folks with country life. It is encouraging to see examples here some rural communities in our area of sufficient revival evident in thriving local schools and main streets. Art historians remind us that life back in “the […]
The pantheon of eminent national artists and authors There is risk in discussing times and trends in art since masters in any age may not conform to prevailing approaches, and certainly change styles subject matter interests over their lifetimes. Moreover, the multicultural experiences of many great artists defy their association with a single country or […]
Literature of The Land In the wake of industrialization and associated currents of social change, the farm novel appeared in the eighteenth century as a distinct genre beginning with works like Patrice Lacomb’s story of French-Canadian country life La Terre Paternelle (1846, later translated into English as The Ancestral Farm). A concurrent European phenomenon led […]
Have you ever seen a McCormick reaper? I couldn’t help but smile at the special childhood memory brought to mind recently when local historian Manton Bailie, lifelong resident and farmer in rural community of Mesa, Washington, showed me some old farm equipment in rusty retirement at this place. When Manton told me about playing on […]
Have you seen the stone bas-relief roundel in Ritzville? Use of agrarian folksayings, recounting tales of Old and New World seasonal farm labors, and harvest work songs are now the domain of cultural historians and ethnologists, but burgeoning interest in such topics is evident in sustainability and food sovereignty movements throughout the world. Recent “Grain […]
Aesthetic understanding through agrarian art and literature remains an essential discipline. Many folks will recognize the colorful flowing Great Depression farm art of Thomas Hart Benton. American regionalist painters like Benton and Marion Greenwood sought to portray the tensions of rural social and economic change wrought by the Great Depression and global farm commodity markets. […]
Bill Murray credits Jules Breton for helping his depression! On a recent train trip through Chicago, I found myself with a couple extra hours between trains at the city’s main railroad terminal. I glanced at a city map and saw that I was only about a ten minute walk from the Chicago Art Institute so […]
What contributed to the validity of agrarian landscapes in art? On numerous occasions in recent months I’ve been reminded how by the names of notable humanitarian groups like Second Harvest and Food for the Hungry that “gleaning” remains a highly relevant endeavor for our time. Although often associated with bygone days, gleaning has never been […]
Pasco’s Liberty Theater By Sarah LeCompte Editor’s Note: The author, who had been curator/director of the Franklin County Historical Society for its first two years of existence, resigned in Mid-December, 1984, to accepts a position in a much larger museum in Stockton, California. She wrote this article just before she left Pasco. Amidst the commercial […]
