MISSOURI
ART,ARTISTS,
And ARTIFACTS
A Fourth Grade Social Studies
Curricular Tour
A Docent Guide to Selected Works from
The Museum of Art and Archaeology
University of Missouri-Columbia
*Not all images are on display in the Museum*
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Museum of Art and Archaeology
University of Missouri-Columbia
1 Pickard Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: 573-882-3591
Fax: 573-884-4039
Website http:/maa.missouri.edu/
Museum Hours
Tuesday – Friday: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday: Noon – 4 p.m.
Closed Mondays, University of Missouri-Columbia Holidays, and
Christmas Day through New Year’s Day
Admission is FREE and open to the public.
The Museum is ADA accessible.
The Museum is a member of AAM – American Association of Museums.
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MISSOURI ART, ARTISTS,
& ARTIFACTS
A Fourth Grade Social Studies Curricular Tour
Works from the Museum’s permanent collection along with items and works from
relevant exhibitions have been organized into a resource book for a Docent tour
focusing on Missouri Grade-Level Expectations for Fourth Grade Social Studies.
What’s included in this guide?
This guide includes images of the relevant art works for this tour. Teaching information
includes detailed descriptions of the objects, background about their historical context,
and discussions of their iconography (symbolic importance), as well as questions
designed to encourage students to look more closely at the work of art and to share
their responses.
Tour Overview
Students step back in time when they walk through the doors of the Museum of Art and
Archaeology to take part in the Fourth Grade Curricular Tour. Students will be
transported back to the world of Thomas Jefferson, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the
Missouri frontier, and the ordeal of the Civil War in Missouri. While we don’t expect
students to live in the past, we do want the past to live in our students.
Statement of Purpose
The purpose of the Fourth Grade Social Studies Curricular Tour is to help students
analyze visual art as an artifact of Missouri life and history. Through careful observation,
listening, and conversation, students will develop critical thinking skills, share
observations, collaborate on multiple solutions to open-ended questions, and practice
respectful sharing of differing opinions.
As a result of this tour the students will be able to:
1. Identify works of art by famous Missouri artists
2. Identify works of art depicting famous Missourians
3. View genre paintings as historical resource material
4. Compare and contrast various landscapes, portraits, and artifacts.
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Tour format
Fourth Grade students from Missouri schools will visit the Museum of Art and
Archaeology for a 30-45 minute tour. Tour stops include the Museum lobby entrance,
European and American Art Gallery, and the Barton Gallery of Modern and
Contemporary Art. They may also visit the Museum of Anthropology on campus.
Grade-Level Expectations
The Fourth Grade Social Studies Curricular Tour supports the Missouri Grade-Level
Expectations by introducing and/or enhancing themes relevant to the Social Studies
curriculum. Various grade-level expectations will be addressed through interaction with
original works of art on display or possibly works pulled from storage. Key concepts
have been highlighted below to demonstrate specific ways in which grade-level
expectations for Fourth Grade Social Studies may be incorporated in a docent-led tour.
Principles of Constitutional Democracy
1. Knowledge of the principles expressed in documents shaping constitutional
democracy in the United States, such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S.
Constitution
Missouri, United States and World History
2a. Knowledge of continuity and change in the history of Missouri, the United States
and the world
A. (1) Knowledge of the ways Missourians have interacted, survived and
progressed from the distant past to present times
* Identify and describe the significance of the individuals from Missouri
who have made contributions to our state and national heritage; examples
include Lewis and Clark, Mary Easton Sibley, John Berry Meacham,
George Washington Carver, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mark Twain, Harry S.
Truman, and Thomas Hart Benton
* Locate and describe settlements in Missouri of people of European and
African heritage
* Summarize the events in westward expansion, including people’s
motivation, their hardships and Missouri as a jumping-off point to the
West
B. (2) Knowledge of the contributions to Missouri history of non-Missourians
* Evaluate the impact of westward expansion on Native Americans in
Missouri
* Describe the contributions of Thomas Jefferson
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* Sequence and describe the importance of: (A) Louisiana Purchase, (B)
Lewis and Clark Expedition; (C) University of Missouri
Elements of Geographical Study and Analysis
5. Knowledge of major elements of geographical study and analysis (such as location,
place, movement and regions) and their relationship to changes in society and the
environment
A. (1) Reading and constructing maps
B. (2) Geography of Missouri and the United States: Location
C. (3) Geography of Missouri and the United States: Place
D. (4) Relationships within places
G. (7) Uses of geography to interpret, explain and predict
* Use geography to interpret the past (e.g., why rivers have played an
important role in human transportation) and predict future consequences
(e.g., what will likely happen if the population of a city increases
considerably)
Tools of Social Science Inquiry
7. Knowledge of the use of tools of social science inquiry (such as surveys, statistics,
maps and documents)
A. (1) Identify, select, use and create appropriate resources for social science
inquiry
* Identify, select and use visual, graphic and auditory aids
* Use and evaluate primary and secondary sources (diaries, letters,
people, interviews, journals and photos)
* Identify and use library and media resources (electronic resources,
dictionaries, encyclopedias, videos, periodicals, atlases, almanacs,
telephone directories, books, and cartoons)
* Identify and create artifacts (building structures and materials, works of
art representative of cultures, fossils, pottery, tools, clothing, musical
instruments)
B. (2) Create maps, timelines, diagrams and cartoons
* Create maps, timelines, diagrams and cartoons to enhance studies in
civics, history, economics and geography
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Suggested Activities
Use the following questions to encourage student discussion about museums:
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4)
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Have you been to a museum before?
If so, when and where?
What do you remember about it?
Why would someone want to visit a museum?
What do you think museums are for?
What kinds of jobs do people do at a museum?
What do you expect to see and do at a museum?
Would you ever go to a museum on your own? Why or why not?
What would make you want to go to a museum?
If you were taking a younger relative to the museum, what Museum
Manners would you review with this person before going?
WORD WALL
Introduce and discuss vocabulary associated with the 4th Grade Social Studies Curricular
Tour. If possible, have each student “claim” a word as their own. Write the words on
index cards in large, legible print. On the back, have them write in the word’s definition.
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K-W-L
What do you KNOW about
museums (or the tour
theme)?
What do you WANT to
know about museums (or
the tour theme)?
What have you LEARNED
about museums (or the
tour theme)?
I-Spy Test
To appreciate art, you need to really observe the work. Are there details about an
object someone else would miss because they are not taking time to look and observe?
Have one student pick an object without identifying it. Using observation skills, the
student should describe the object to the other students. Be sure to include color, size,
texture, and shape. The other students should try to guess the object being observed.
LITERATURE CONNECTION
Suggest picture books or chapters of books related to the theme of your Museum tour.
Don’t forget to discuss the book and its relationship to the art and artifacts visited.
Timeline Activity for Missouri Scene
Directly related to 4th Grade Curriculum
(Timeline cards and rope are located in the storage area. Ask the guard for
access)
1673 – French explorers Marquette and Jolliet were the first Europeans to reach the land that is
now known as Missouri via the Mississippi River.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase from France doubled the size of the United States.
1804 – May – Lewis and Clark started their journey from St. Louis on the Missouri River.
1805 – Missouri was officially incorporated as part of the Territory of Louisiana. The government
began granting Land titles, and more settlers entered the state.
1806 – September – Lewis and Clark returned to St. Louis.
1812 – War of 1812 – Missouri becomes a territory and rapid settlement begins.
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1815 – The treaty between the United States Government and the Osage people was signed in
Portage Des Sioux on the Mississippi River.
1817 – The territory of Missouri applied to Congress for statehood. There was a heated debate
about whether Missouri should join the Union as a slave state or a free state.
1819 – May – The Independence became the first steamer to navigate the Missouri River, from
St. Louis to Chariton, carrying flour, sugar, whiskey, and iron. Thomas Hickman House built in
Franklin, Missouri.
1820 – The Missouri Compromise, created by Henry Clay, allowed Maine to enter the Union as
a free state, while Missouri entered as a slave state.
1821 – August 10 – Missouri became the 24th state in the union.
1822 – The Missouri state star was added to the United States flag.
1825 – The federal government forced western Missouri’s largest native group, the Osage, to
relocate to western Kansas.
Plat for the University of Missouri (1839)
1850’s – Businesses began transporting goods through Missouri by railway.
1857 – The Dred Scott Decision – The United States Supreme Court said Congress could not
prevent slavery from any territory.
1861 – The Civil War (also known as The War between the States) began.
1861 – August - Battle of Wilson’s Creek (near Springfield) - This was a Confederate victory.
1864 – Battle of Westport (near Kansas City) – Union forces were victorious.
1865 – The Civil War ended.
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The Campus
Description: While you are exploring the buildings on historic Francis Quadrangle, stop
in Jefferson's Garden, located on the west side of the Chancellor’s Residence.
Jefferson's Garden is just one of many botanical gardens located on the MU campus,
the first land-grant university west of the Mississippi River in the Louisiana Purchase
territory. It is planted with a variety of flowers found in Mr. Jefferson’s experimental
gardens at Monticello such cardinal flowers, columbine, Virginia bluebells, sweet shrub
and Rose of Sharon, whose seeds were obtained from Monticello. Thomas Jefferson's
original grave marker, donated to the University by Jefferson's family in 1885, is also
located here in the Garden, as well as a bronze sculpture of Mr. Jefferson himself.
Historical background: Leaders of the American Revolution like Thomas Jefferson,
George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin believed that people who engaged in
agriculture, living close to nature, would make the best citizens for the new Republic.
Jefferson even wrote that “people who labor in the earth are God’s chosen people, if
ever he had a chosen people.” His fascination with nature and belief in American
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agriculture strongly influenced his purchase of the Louisiana Territory and sponsorship
of the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery, as he attempted to gain enough land “for
the thousandth generation.” Jefferson himself experimented widely with crops at his
Monticello plantation, and argued that the best thing a person could do was to add a
new plant to American farming (such as the grapes and eggplant he introduced here).
Iconography: Landscape design and botanical gardens like Jefferson’s Garden have
long been recognized as works of art in their own right and part of our cultural heritage.
Tourists still travel widely to see ancient Italian villas and English country estates, both
traditions which influenced Mr. Jefferson’s landscape design for Monticello. In particular,
Enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Jefferson regarded gardens as the ideal
balance between wilderness and human society, what he called “the middle landscape.”
Thomas Jefferson’s Original Tombstone
Description: When the heirs of Thomas Jefferson's made plans to replace his original
(1833) tombstone which had been badly vandalized on the Monticello estate, they
received numerous requests for the historic landmark. The University of Missouri
petitioned and received it because we were the first state university in the Louisiana
Purchase Territory which Thomas Jefferson had acquired from Napoleon in 1803 during
his Presidency. The limestone tombstone arrived at MU in July, 1883 and is now
located to the west of the Chancellor's Residence near the Museum. It is in the shape of
an obelisk (pyramidal form) atop a rectangular base, and recalls Jefferson’s role as
author of the Declaration of Independence, Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom (which
called for freedom of religion), and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Historical Background: While the tombstone he designed notes his authorship of the
Declaration of Independence, his founding of the University of Virginia, and his
responsibility for Virginia's Statute of Religious Freedom, it fails to mention his
presidency. That omission does not mean that his two-term administration lacked
significance. On the contrary, Jefferson's White House tenure marked one of this
country's greatest territorial acquisitions, the Louisiana Purchase. Under his leadership,
the country also fought against interference from Africa's Barbary Coast pirate states in
the American-Mediterranean trade and created the U.S. Marine Corps. Unfortunately,
these successes were overshadowed in his mind by deep popular disapproval of his
disastrous trade embargo, designed to curb British and French infringements on this
country's shipping and promote American manufacturing. Disappointed by the fierce
public outcry to the embargo, Jefferson regarded his presidency as a "splendid misery"
best forgotten. His epitaph therefore concentrated on what Jefferson believed were his
finest contributions to the cause of the American Revolution and of human freedom.
Iconography: Many leaders of the American Revolution like Thomas Jefferson belonged
to a group called the Freemasons. The Masons emphasized science and reason as the
keys to creating a more enlightened and free society, and they looked upon the ancient
builders of the Egyptian pyramids as excellent examples of this approach. The pyramid
symbolized for many of them a very solid, permanent, and basic mathematical form
perfectly suited for creating their ideal new society. You can see this same form on the
back of a dollar bill, along with the Latin phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum (A New Order for
the Ages). Perhaps Thomas Jefferson used it on his tombstone to show that the new
Republic needed political freedom, religious freedom, and education in order to endure.
Bronze sculpture of Thomas Jefferson
Description: Just to the east from Mr. Jefferson’s original tombstone you will find the
bronze sculpture of him on the Francis Quadrangle by George Lundeen. Lundeen was a
Fulbright-Hayes Scholar studying at the Academia de Belle Arte in Florence, Italy. He
achieved the status of full Academician of the National Academy of Design in New York,
which is the highest professional recognition bestowed on visual arts in America. The
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bronze statue, depicting Jefferson involved in writing, was given to the University by the
Jefferson Club and dedicated on the Francis Quadrangle in June 2001.
Historical background: The legislative act that created the University of Missouri in 1839
incorporated some of Jefferson's key ideas on higher education. Jefferson believed that
political independence ultimately depended upon good (virtuous) citizens who had the
knowledge and information needed to make wise decisions for the future. In 1822, he
wrote that "I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied
on for ameliorating the conditions, promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of
man." Therefore, in his Northwest Ordinance for land subdivision (1787) he insisted that
one section of public land be set aside in each new state entering the Union for a (land
grant) university so that higher education would automatically be provided for in the
future.
Iconography: Francis Quadrangle itself reflects Jefferson's own design for the University
of Virginia, in which classical buildings frame a long, green open space at the heart of
what Mr. Jefferson called “an academical village.” This “village” would be made up of
faculty and students working together to create a better future through knowledge and
research. The classical buildings symbolized the knowledge found in ancient history,
while the green, open space symbolized the openness of the American frontier itself.
In addition, the bronze sculpture recalls the bust of Mr. Jefferson created by French
sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. Houdon used this classical style and form to show that
Jefferson belonged to this important classical tradition, which emphasized human
freedom and dignity. Bronze material also symbolizes high value and permanence.
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The Columns
“Rich art thou in classic beauty, Of thy noble past…” University alma mater
Description: The row of six limestone Ionic columns located on Francis Quadrangle just outside
of the Museum of Art & Archaeology have become the symbol of the University of Missouri. The
Columns once supported the portico of Academic Hall, the first building erected on the campus
of the University of Missouri. Limestone for the Columns was obtained from the nearby Hinkson
Creek Valley and was hauled to the building by ox-drawn carts. They are all that remained after
the Great Fire (1892) which destroyed Old Academic Hall.
Historical background: Academic Hall was built between 1840 and 1843 from plans drawn by A.
Stephen Hills, designer of the first Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City (also known as the
City of Jefferson). Old Academic Hall consisted of a domed central section of three stories with
two wings; it housed both educational and administrative facilities. On Jan. 9, 1892, Academic
Hall was destroyed by fire; the Columns were all that remained. In August 1893 the Board of
Curators voted to remove the Columns, considering them not only unsafe but unsightly.
However, supporters of the Columns rallied to their defense (a fight actually broke out), and
after inspection showed the foundations were safe, the Board voted to retain them in December
1893.
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Iconography: The classic Orders of Architecture (see display about the Orders in Cast Gallery)
date back to classical antiquity, and Thomas Jefferson strongly promoted this classical Revival
style for the new Republic. Ionic was chosen for Old Academic Hall because it symbolizes
wisdom. After the Great Fire (1892), some university leaders wanted the old Columns torn down
to make way for the new Francis Quadrangle. Others believed that the Columns symbolized our
connection with the past and fought (literally!) to preserve them. Today incoming freshmen and
graduating seniors pass through the historic Columns to mark the beginning and completion of
their days at the University of Missouri, a very wise tradition that grows richer and more
meaningful with every passing year. In the words of American novelist William Faulkner, “The
past is never really finished. It’s never even really past.”
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Museum Lobby
Dialogue
What kind of artwork is this? (sculpture – threedimensional work that is carved, constructed,
casted or modeled)
Describe this work. (Is it free-standing, relief?)
What tools are needed to create this?
What do you think this woman represents? Why?
Narrative
Sherry Fry (American, 1876-1966)
Ceres, 1921
plaster model for bronze figure on the
Capitol dome, Jefferson City (87.65)
Ceres, the patron goddess of agriculture (and
cereal!), graces the top of the lantern on the Capitol
in Jefferson City, Missouri’s dome. From Sherry
Fry’s Figure on the Dome notation in Capitol
Decoration Commission catalogue, “Her graceful
garments seem in perpetual motion as the breezes
of heaven play about her. … On her left arm she
bears a sheaf of grain. Her right hand extends
forward and downward in perpetual blessing.” His
use of the classical image of Ceres symbolized the
traditional importance of agriculture in Missouri life.
The University of Missouri continues to assist
Missouri agriculture and honor Ceres with programs
supporting Missouri’s growing wine industry,
farmer’s markets, and the experimental Center for
Agroforestry in New Franklin, Missouri, site of the
historic Thomas Hickman House that is now being
restored.
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European and American Gallery
Dialogue
Who commissioned the portrait?
Why was it painted?
Where was it going to be displayed?
Do you think the sitter was pleased with the
finished product?
In the Nelson portrait, what does the pin
symbolize? What does that tell you about life in
Missouri at this historical period?
George Caleb Bingham (American,
1811-1879)
What do the clothes say about the man’s position in
society?
1844-1845
Oil on canvas (2003.5)
Gilbreath-McLorn Museum Fund
Is the portrait realistic or an idealized depiction?
 Realistic – color of clothes, hair…
 Idealized – perfect skin, perfect posture
Portrait of Thomas Withers Nelson,
Describe the colors used. Does Bingham use
warm colors, cool colors, or neutral colors?
How do colors affect the mood of this portrait?
 Warm – fire, sun, people with “sunny”
personalities
 Cool – water, moods of people feeling blue
 Neutral – can be slightly warm and earthy or
cool and impersonal or business-like
What geometric shape does the man’s head and
body form? Why would an artist like George Caleb
Bingham use such forms?
George Caleb Bingham (American,
1811-1879)
Portrait of Judge Francis Marion Black,
ca. 1878
Oil on canvas
The State Historical Society of Missouri
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Narrative
George Caleb Bingham is Missouri’s most famous nineteenth-century painter. He was born in
Virginia in 1811, and moved to Franklin, Missouri in 1819. He began his career as a selftaught portrait painter in 1833 and became successful enough to open a St. Louis studio in
1834 and travel to Europe in 1856. He became famous for his so-called genre paintings of
Missouri life such as The Jolly Flatboatmen and The County Election, showing frontier life
before the Civil War. Bingham lived in Columbia, Missouri at several different times during his
life and was appointed the first Professor of Art at the University of Missouri in 1877.
About the portrait of Thomas Withers Nelson:
Like Bingham and many other Missourians before the Civil War, Thomas Withers Nelson
(1804-1879) was born in Virginia. In 1836 he emigrated from that financially troubled state
and settled in Vermont, Missouri, a small town south of Boonville. In 1837 Nelson married
Mary Gay Wyan, daughter of the wealthy Boonville merchant Jacob Wyan. Nelson moved to
Boonville and Wyan made him a partner in his business. Thomas Withers Nelson built the
magnificent Greek revival house “Forest Hill” in Boonville, MO. Greek Revival was a style
made popular by Thomas Jefferson in his designs for places such as Monticello, Virginia.
George Caleb Bingham was well acquainted with wealthy families like the Wyans and the
Nelsons, painting portraits of several generations of both families. The American frontier
opened up tremendous opportunities for people to acquire (and also lose) new wealth. The
Museum’s portrait was originally paired with a painting of Nelson’s wife, Mary Gay Nelson.
Historians believe that these two portraits were begun when Bingham was in Boonville for a
convention for the Missouri Whig party that took place in 1844. Despite his romantic images
of life on the Missouri frontier, Bingham supported the Whig political platform of national
improvements such as roads, bridges, and better waterways.
About the portrait of Judge Black:
Bingham probably painted this portrait of Judge Francis Marion Black in 1878. Black was born
and educated in Ohio, moving to Kansas City Missouri (where Bingham had a studio) in 1864.
A distinguished lawyer, Black was a member of Missouri’s 1875 Constitutional Convention. In
1884 he was elected justice on the Missouri State Supreme Court, where he served until
1894. After he returned to private practice, Black helped found the Kansas City School of Law.
This portrait is one of many Bingham paintings housed in the State Historical Society of
Missouri. The Society’s galleries are also located here on the University of Missouri campus, at
1020 Lowry Street on the ground floor of Ellis library.
Notes on portraiture:
Historically, portraits conveyed the wealth of the sitter through fashionable costume and
placement amid an imposing setting. Size of completed portrait – life size / bigger/ smaller –
and portion of body portrayed – whole body/ head/ head and upper body – suggested the
financial status of sitter as well. Accessories and props also educated the viewer – material of
clothes, drapery, and furniture, other subjects – people, pets. Point of view – is the observer
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forced to look up at the subject in the painting, see eye to eye? Artists – good artists – often
made sitters look more glamorous, beautiful, self-assured than they actually were. Don’t
smile! A serious expression on the subject’s face gives the appearance of an important leader
– strong, powerful, and courageous. How would this portrait differ if Nelson were smiling?
Creative Response:
If someone were to create a portrait of you, what would you wear? What would be the
background? Describe your expression or mood for the portrait. What size would the portrait
be: life-size, bigger, or smaller? Would your portrait be of the entire body? Just the head?
The head and upper body? Would you include any accessories or objects?
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Dialogue
What do you see in this painting?
Describe what is happening. Is this a calm scene
or busy? Stimulating or restful?
Can we tell what the weather is like? Explain.
Frederick Oakes Sylvester (American
1869-1915)
Mississippi River Loading, 1897
Oil on canvas (81.155)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George Schriever
Many of the lines in this painting are horizontal.
How do horizontal lines affect mood?
 Creates a calming affect
 Creates an equilibrium
What can we perceive of life on the river from this
painting? Why was life on the river so important to
Missouri and Missourians? Is it still important?
Narrative
Frederick Oakes Sylvester was born in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1869. He began his
painting career in Boston, but moved to New Orleans in the 1890s to become director of the
Art Department of Newcomb College. In 1892 he came to St. Louis, where he painted
numerous images of the Mississippi River, often representing modern, industrial life on the
waterway. Later, Sylvester abandoned representing urban life on the Mississippi, and began
to use the river to express a more romantic, personal relationship with nature. The 1897
picture Mississippi River Loading is typical of Sylvester’s earlier images of the river.
Creative Response:
Can you think of somewhere in your community that would make a good landscape drawing
or painting? What kinds of elements (water, hills, trees, rocks, etc.) make it a good choice?
Would you want to create a drawing with lots of textures included, a painting depicting the
colors that you see, or a photograph capturing the essence of that environment? Why?
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The Art Case
Dialogue
What is going on in these paintings?
For each lunette, what is in the foreground?
Background? What is the center of interest?
How are Native Americans depicted?
 Calm, peaceful
 Showing scenes of everyday life
Irving Couse (American, 1866-1936)
Osage Village, 1923-1924
Oil on masonite (87.37)
In what part of Missouri were the Osage mainly
located?
 South central
What do these paintings tell us about everyday life
among the Osage people in regards to the
following:
 Living quarters Cooking Hunting Clothing Roles of adults/roles of children Roles of men/women-
Narrative
In these two studies for lunettes in the Missouri
State Capitol, Couse’s images of Native Americans
are romanticized and sympathetic. The artist based
his reconstruction of an Osage village on his own
observations of Native Americans in New Mexico.
Irving Couse (American, 1866-1936)
He also based the costumes and hairstyles of his
Osage Hunters, 1923-1924
figures on a study of documents and photographs
Oil on masonite (87.39)
related to the Osage in Missouri. (See Appendix 1)
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Dialogue
What is going on in this painting?
How are the Native American people depicted? the
Americans?
Is this a tense moment? How can you tell?
Did the Native Americans understand the terms of
treaty the same way as Chouteau and his men?
How might they have differed?
Walter Ufer (American, 1876-1936)
Chouteau’s Treaty with the Osages,
1923 – 1924
Oil and graphic on canvas (87.46)
Is there balance to this painting?
• Consider symmetrical vs. asymmetrical
balance
Who is leading the treaty negotiations?
(See Appendix 2 for more information)
Narrative
Walter Ufer became one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists and achieved much
distinction as a painter of Pueblo Indian genre. Ufer sometimes portrayed the Indian in genre
scenes, unlike the idealized portrayals of Couse.
Ufer and six other Taos Society of Painters members worked on murals in the Missouri State
Capitol. This study for a large lunette represents the negotiation of the 1815 treaty between
the United States Government and the Osage people. The treaty was signed in the town of
Portage Des Sioux on the Mississippi River, twenty miles northwest of St. Louis. William
Clark, who was governor of the Missouri territory at the time, signed the treaty together with
commissioners Auguste Chouteau and Ninian Edwards. Twenty-four Native Americans
countersigned the document with their “X” marks.
Auguste Chouteau, the son of a French settler, negotiated the treaty. Chouteau grew up
around Missouri’s Osage people and spoke their language fluently. He made a living as a fur
trader, and like many French fur traders often lived and worked among Native Americans.
Iconography: By the Nineteen Twenties, Americans increasingly looked at native Americans
with nostalgia now that fighting on the American frontier had ended. President Theodore
Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act in 1905 to protect Indian burial sites from looting, while
artists like Georgia O’Keefe and writers like Willa Cather treated native Americans as symbols
of America’s romantic frontier past in the face of rapid industrialization and the growth of big
cities like Saint Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. Like Walter Ufer, many of these writers and
artists located themselves in the American Southwest in places such as Taos, New Mexico.
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Newell Convers Wyeth, (American, 1882-1945)
The Battle of Westport, October 23, 1864, ca. 1921
Study for a Missouri State Capitol mural, Jefferson City, Missouri
Oil with pencil and charcoal on canvas
87.30
Description: Newell Convers Wyeth was born in Needham
Massachusetts in 1882. He is one of the most important painterillustrators of the first half of the twentieth century, and the
patriarch of a family of artists that includes his son Andrew Wyeth.
The elder Wyeth specialized in book illustrations as well as large
murals. This painting is a study for a lunette decorating the
Missouri State Capitol building in Jefferson City. The Capitol
Decoration Commission asked Wyeth to paint two murals
representing Civil War battles in Missouri because both the North
and South received strong support in the state during the conflict.
Wyeth was asked to paint both a Confederate victory (The Battle
of Wilson’s Creek), and a Union triumph (The Battle of Westport).
Historical background: The battle is sometimes called the
“Gettysburg of the West.” As at Gettysburg, Confederates
attempted a desperate cavalry charge to overtake Union batteries
positioned along a ridge near Kansas City. Union forces met the
charge, and the seven-hour cavalry fight (a football game is only
three hours long and includes timeouts) was one of the fiercest
conventional battles of the war. Northern forces emerged
victorious in the last major Civil War battle in Missouri.
Iconography: Following the First World War, American public art
like The Battle of Westport emphasized large-scale historical
works and romanticized images created in the Neo-Classical (or
Beaux Arts, from the famous French Academy) style. Enormous
public buildings like our own State Capitol in Jefferson City and
their decorations (such as the Ceres statue you saw earlier)
reminded Americans that we had our own great, classical history
and were becoming the new Roman Empire to replace Europe.
Bingham’s Order No.11 offers another view of the Civil War in
Missouri, one much less romantic but also closer to the reality of
ferocious guerilla warfare that raged across the divided State.
23
Barton Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art
Dialogue
What is going on in this painting?
 Musician is playing bass
 type of music is being played - Jazz
What has the artist repeated?
 Curved shape of the bass and the musician’s
face, curved lines in clothing
 Direction of line – arms holding bass and
playing the instrument, right arm and neck of
bass
 Line – diagonal of position of bass, position
of musician’s stance
What makes this painting realistic? What makes it
unusual?
 Consider proportion of hands, head
Thomas Hart Benton (American,
1889-1975)
Portrait of a Musician, 1949
Casein, egg tempera and oil varnish
on canvas mounted on wood panel
(67.136)
Anonymous Gift
What color style is primarily used:
complementary, monochromatic, or
analogous?
 Complementary colors: opposites on the
color wheel (blue & orange, yellow & violet,
green & red)
 Monochromatic: all shades and tints of one
hue
 Analogous: colors near each other on the
color wheel (ex: red, red-orange, yellow)
What



is the mood of this painting?
Note expression of musician
Note style of clothing
Note colors used
24
Narrative
Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri, in 1889. After studying painting briefly in
Chicago, he traveled to Paris and enrolled in the Académie Julian (1908-1911). He later
claimed that in Paris he “wallowed in every cock-eyed ‘ism’ that came along.” The artist
eventually decided that a representational style best expressed his aesthetic and social
philosophy.
In the 1920s and 30s Benton became associated with the American Regionalist movement.
Like his contemporaries, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, Benton often represented the
everyday life of poor and rural people in the Midwest. While many critics labeled the
Regionalists as provincial, the artists themselves often held very progressive and populist
ideals, celebrating the lives of working class people and minorities who were often ignored in
the cultural centers of urban America.
The model for Portrait of a Musician was a jazz bassist who played in a Kansas City nightclub
Benton frequented in the 1940s. Benton was interested in representing African-American
culture in Missouri, and he particularly enjoyed drawing and painting jazz players and folk
musicians. Like Mannerist painters such as Michelangelo and El Greco, Benton employs
sculptural forms, exaggerated gestures and undulating lines to heighten drama. Here he
repeats the curved shape of the bass in the rhythmic contours of the musician’s face, hands
and body. This repetition of S-forms becomes a visual metaphor for the jazz music (which is
characterized by innovative variations on an elemental theme) that the bassist plays.
Creative Response:
If you were going to paint a portrait of someone playing your favorite kind of music, what
would it look like? What kind of lines would you use? What colors would be used most?
Would you make it realistic or abstract? How could you make your painting seem alive?
American Regionalism Exhibition
AMERICAN REGIONALISM: Visions from the Heartland showcases works by such
Missouri artists as Thomas Hart Benton, Frederick E. Shane, and Charles Albert
Morgenthaler, featuring landscapes and portraits representing Missouri life of the
period.
Visions from the Heartland
The American Regionalists were a group of artists whose
paintings, drawings, and prints represented everyday life in
the heart of the United States during the 1920s through the
50s and later. Some of the most important artists associated
with this movement were the Midwestern painters Thomas
Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood.
25
While many East Coast critics branded the Regionalists as
reactionary and provincial, the artists themselves often held
progressive, populist and even socialist ideals. Many of them
felt that modernist art was inaccessible to working class
people, and they hoped to create images that would reflect
and ennoble the lives of the rural poor. By representing the
Midwestern landscape and its inhabitants, Regionalists
celebrated an underclass of people whose lives were often
ignored in the cultural centers of urban America.
Dialogue
What is happening in this print?
What kind of line does Benton seem to use most?
How does that create a sense of unity in his work?
• Consider the repetition of the lines.
When Benton made this print, farming machinery
had been invented and was used. What do you
think is important about the fact that these people
are not using modern machinery?
Thomas Hart Benton (American,
1889-1975)
Planting or Spring Plowing, 1939
Lithograph (81.38)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Ross
What kinds of colors do you imagine would be in
this kind of scene?
• Consider warm, cool, neutral, and earth
tones.
• Consider the moods associated with these
colors.
What kind of mood is created in this scene even
though it is lacking color?
Do you think this work has a message? What do
you think it is?
26
Narrative
Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton has often been called the leading exponent of American
Regionalism. He frequently represented scenes from everyday rural life, and his style is
characterized by sculptural forms, undulating lines, and rhythmic gestures.
By producing lithographs in multiple impressions, Thomas Hart Benton made his images
available to people unable to afford his more expensive paintings. Like many of his prints,
Planting was distributed in an edition of 250 by Associated American Artists (AAA), an
organization founded by New York art dealers, Reeves Lewenthal and Maurice Leiderman in
1934. In the 1930s and 40s, AAA “democratized art” by selling the prints of established
artists, such as Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, through mail order
catalogs and magazine advertisements, usually for five dollars a piece.
In a stump-ridden field a black man plows and a black woman sows seed; trees and small
house in background. The litho is after a painting Planting also of 1939; its location is not
known. Benton writes: “From a drawing made in southern Arkansas in 1938. The man plows,
the woman sows. Common enough scene up to very lately—maybe it is still to be found. Old
ways don’t die easily.”
Creative Response:
Think about an activity that people do today that has been changed or improved by the use
of technology or machinery (writing letters vs. email; traveling via airplane vs. horse, boat, or
train; etc). Why do some people choose to continue doing these activities in the “old
fashioned” way? Are there any activities that you think are better done the “old fashioned”
way? Why or why not?
27
Dialogue
What is the man in this picture doing? What kind of
day is depicted here? What is the weather like?
Point out where you see examples of curving
lines. Do you think these lines contribute to a
natural or organic feeling in the image?
What are some the textures that you imagine are
in this scene?
Why do you think the fence needs mending? What
kinds of forces would cause it to need repair? What
happened to the Missouri landscape in the Thirties?
Thomas Hart Benton (American,
1889-1975)
The Fence Mender, 1940
Lithograph (80.188)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Ross
The artist chose to depict an “everyday” scene
here—there is nothing glorious or monumental
about the man’s activity. Why do you think Thomas
Hart Benton chose to make a print of this kind of
scene?
Narrative
Benton repeatedly depicted rural Americans performing tasks that were required for the daily
upkeep of their farms and/or property. In Fence Mender, a man repairs a barbed wire fence,
a structure that controls the movements of farm animals and serves as a barrier to predators
and trespassers.
In The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, Benton commented on the image:
Common scenes where there are barbed wire fences. This one was found in middle Nebraska in
1939 on the trip where the horses were bought for the French light artillery.
Creative Response:
Can you think of any other works at the Museum of Art and Archaeology that depict
“everyday” events? Why do you think artists choose to show these kinds of activities? How
are these artworks similar to the snapshot photographs that we take of our friends and family
today? How do you think Benton’s prints will be interpreted by people who see them in the
future (100 or 300 years from now)?
28
Dialogue
What are these men doing?
How did the artist use foreground,
middleground, and background to create a
focal point (point of emphasis, where the eye is
drawn first)?
What do you image the weather is like in this
scene? How do you know?
Compare this picture to Planting or Spring Plowing
by the same artist. What are the similarities? What
things are different? Can you tell that they are both
by Thomas Hart Benton? How?
Thomas Hart Benton (American,
1889-1975)
Down the River or The Young
Fisherman, 1939
Lithograph (80.187)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Ross
Narrative
Benton often portrayed inhabitants of rural America participating in popular leisure activities.
In this lithograph, Benton represents a "float" trip, a typical recreational activity for
Missourians. Preliminary drawings for the scene were made while Benton was on a float trip
in the Ozarks. In the foreground, an older man and a boy (Benton's son, T.P. Benton) travel
down a river in a johnboat. The man rows the small boat, while the youth, wearing a large
straw hat, fishes. In the distance, two figures guide their boat down the same winding river.
In The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, Benton explained how the image related to
his own life:Twice yearly, spring and autumn, I have floated these rivers for many years,
fishing, camping out on the sand and gravel bars and just watching the river banks go by.
Creative Response:
What are some of your favorite leisure activities? Are there any that you particularly like to
share with family members? How do they compare to the ones Benton describes?
29
Dialogue
What is happening in this image?
What kind of line does Benton seem to use most?
How does that create a sense of unity in his work?
• Consider the repetition of curving lines
throughout the print.
Where are the implied lines that lead our eye
through the image?
• Consider the contour of the bare tree, the
contour of the leaves of the tree on the right,
the stones in the water, the bush and log in
the lower left corner.
Thomas Hart Benton (American,
1889-1975)
Shallow Creek, 1939
Lithograph (X-90)
What kinds of colors do you imagine would be in
this kind of scene?
• Consider warm, cool, neutral, and earth
tones.
What is the focal point of this image? What did
the artist do to create that emphasis?
• Consider “framing” elements like trees.
Narrative
A stream, flowing from the right side in the foreground to the center of the background, is
flanked by rocks and trees and is crossed by a bridge at a distance. A young boy (Benton’s
son) wades across an Ozark stream holding up his overall legs.
Creative Response:
Imagine that you lived in New York City during the 1930s. You had never been to the
Midwest region and saw this print by Thomas Hart Benton. What ideas would you have about
this part of the country?
30
Dialogue
What is going on in this print?
Benton uses a lot of curvy lines in his work.
Where are the lines most obvious?
• Smoke from train, contour lines of cows,
bushes, horizon line
What is the focal point of this work? How do you
know?
• Dark area of smoke, area of action with cows
and figure.
Thomas Hart Benton (American,
1889-1975)
Slow Train Through Arkansas, 1941
Lithograph on paper (98.46)
Gift of Robert M. Barton
What do you think the mood is? How has the artist
created a mood in this image? How is this mood
different from the mood in Shallow Creek?
• Consider how the artist has created a mood
of calm and tranquility in Shallow Creek
versus the action and chaos of this print.
There is a combination of modern machinery and
old fashioned farming in this image. Do you think
that the artist was trying to communicate a
message in this work, or was he just showing a
common mishap in the Midwest?
Do you think this really happened?
Narrative
This lithograph was printed in black ink. A locomotive with billowing black smoke is stopped
on railroad track in the left half of the composition. A man on the right waves off three cows,
which block the tracks. This print is based on a painting of the same title executed in 1929.
Creative Response:
Imagine you saw this event when it happened. Write a letter to a distant friend or relative
describing what happened. What kinds of descriptive language would you use to explain the
details of the event? Would you convey that this was a humorous event or a serious one?
31
Dialogue
What is the subject of this landscape painting?
Is this painting style realistic or abstract?
• Realistic art imitates objects as closely as
possible to the way they look in the world.
• Abstract art is not realistic. Usually forms are
still recognizable, but they are simplified and
the artist focuses on formal elements such as
color, line or shape.
Charles Albert Morgenthaler
(American, 1893-1980)
Dinner Bell in the Missouri Ozarks,
1955
Oil on canvas (84.12)
Given in memory of Mr. And Mrs.
William Randolph Benson by Margaret
B. Matson and Caroline B. Pearman
What do you think this artist felt was important
about showing the Missouri?
• Consider the choice of architecture (houses
and barns versus the capitol building).
Narrative
Born in Hallsville, Missouri, Charles Morgenthaler received his art education at the University
of Missouri and the Art Institute of Chicago. He later moved to Saint Louis where he became
a successful illustrator and mural painter. Dinner Bell in the Missouri Ozarks is a good
example of Regionalist painting from the 1950’s. Morgenthaler represents the modest lifestyle
of rural Missourians. Humans harmoniously interact with nature and animals in the Ozark
landscape. Everyday life is celebrated, as farm workers and family members rush home to
enjoy a midday meal.
Wind-blown clouds move over farm buildings (left) and house (right) as woman rings bell and
men wash face and hands for dinner. Boy and dog rush up path toward house. Excited
movement in farm ducks and in blowing clothes on line.
Creative Response:
Think about the difference between the way that this painting was made compared to the
way Thomas Hart Benton’s prints were made. There are many prints of Benton’s work and
there is only one of this painting. If you were an artist, which was would you prefer to work?
Many people could have your prints for an affordable price, but the one painting might end
up being more valuable.
32
Suggested Post-visit Activities
The activities listed below complement multiple areas of the curriculum. Some can
easily be incorporated into the tour time while at the Museum of Art & Archaeology.
TIMELINE REVIEW
After reviewing the works you discussed at the Museum of Art and Archaeology, create
a timeline of the works, noting the eras these works represent.
MAP MANIA I
Look up where these artifacts were found, or where the artists were born or reside.
How far did you “travel” on your visit to the Museum?
MINI MUSEUMS
Ask students what they would include in their own personal museum of Missouri life
and history. What would they name their museum?
DISCUSSION
After the Curriculur Tour, discuss students’ reactions to the works of art. Did your
impression of Missouri life and history change after seeing the artwork in the Museum?
In what ways?
JOURNALING PROMPTS
•
•
•
•
•
At the Museum of Art and Archaeology, I heard the story of …… who/that …..
My favorite artwork/artifact at the Museum of Art and Archaeology was….
because….
Something interesting I learned during the visit was …
I was most surprised to find out ….
I would like to learn more about…
REFLECT WITH PANTOMIME
Have students choose one artwork they viewed and pantomime the motions used in
creating the work of art. Other students can ask yes or no questions of the pantomime
to determine the work of art (determine minimum of 8 before stating artist or artwork).
Questioning students demonstrate their retained knowledge based on questions asked.
The pantomime demonstrates retained knowledge through pantomime and when
answering questions. This activity is a useful assessment tool for kinesthetic learners.
WEB-BASED ACTIVITIES
The web resources below are ideal for enriching topics related to your museum tour,
researching and exploring new topics, and for developing and refining new concepts.
33
WEBQUEST
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/
WebQuests - A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the
information used by learners is drawn from the Web. The WebQuests on these pages
have been developed as cooperative learning activities. Student groups may be
presented with a problem to solve, a scenario, or a topic to examine in depth. Work
begins with every student examining some common background material(s). Then each
student in a group takes on a role and becomes an expert on his/her topic. Once
students have carried out their research, they come back to their groups and teach
their peers what they have learned. The group then reflects on this material and
together, completes a task that includes all roles and perspectives.
GLOSSARY
American Regionalism—The work of a small group of North American Artists of the
1930s and 1940s who concentrated on rural Midwestern subject matter and rejected
most forms of European influence. Leading members of the group were Thomas Hart
Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry. Many of the artists concerned were
closely connected with the WPA - Works Progress Administration. (The historical and
artistic significance of Franklin Roosevelt's WPA art was its attempt to free U.S. culture
from domination by European viewpoints, to explore the roots of American cultural
identity, and to bridge the abyss that chronically exists between much of the American
public and the world of art.)
American Scene Painting—American figurative painting of the 1920s and 1930s,
committed to a realistic depiction of contemporary American life, mostly small-town and
rural rather than big-city subjects. It found much of its subject matter in the rural
Midwest.
Background—In a scene or an artwork, the part that looks farther away or behind
other parts
Balance – A principle of design that describes the arrangement of parts of an artwork.
An artwork that is balanced seems to have equal visual weight or interest in all areas. It
seems stable.
Center of Interest—The main, or first, thing you notice in an artwork. Can also be
called “focal point.”
Color



—
Primary – red, yellow, blue (cannot be made by mixing)
Secondary – orange (red + blue), purple (red + blue), green (blue + yellow)
Complimentary Colors- Colors that are opposite from each other on the color
wheel. Pairs of colors, such as red and green, yellow and violet, or orange and
blue
34





Analogous-three colors next to one another on the color wheel
Monochromatic-one color and its tints and shades
Warm colors -reds, oranges, yellows
Cool colors - blues, greens and violets
Neutral colors - grays, black and white
Composition—The combination of elements in a painting or other work of art so that
they seem satisfactory to the artist. Or, more loosely, a painting, relief, or sculptured
group, especially if it contains a large number of different elements.
Engraving—The process of making a design on a hard surface by inscribing it with a
point.
Foreground —In a scene or picture, the part that seems near or close to you.
Form—Real form: An object with three dimensions: height, width and depth.
Implied form: An object that appears to have three dimensions.
George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879)—A Missouri artist who is celebrated for his
genre scenes representing everyday life in mid-nineteenth century Missouri.
Harlem Renaissance — 1920-1940 – A name of a period and a group of artists who
lived and worked in Harlem, New York City. They used a variety of art forms to express
their lives as African Americans.
Idealistic —Art that presents the subject in its most perfect form
Landscape—A work of art that shows outdoor scenery, particularly natural scenes
such as lakes, rivers, mountains, and valleys.
Lines—The path of a moving point. A line can vary in length, width, direction,
curvature and color. Line can be two-dimensional (a pencil line on a paper), threedimensional (wire) or implied.
Lithograph—A print made by drawing on fine-grained porous limestone or on a zinc
plate with greasy material, then wetting the stone or plate and applying greasy ink,
which will adhere only to the drawn lines. Dampened paper is applied to the stone and
is rubbed over with a special press to make the final print.
Lunette—A semicircular space, often a window, or the area of a wall between a
rectangular window and the vault above it. Lunettes also appear at the tops of large
altarpieces. Lunettes are often filled with paintings or mosaics, such as those in the
Sistine Chapel.
35
Middle Ground—The space that appears to lie between the foreground and the
background of a work of art
Mural—A painting made directly on a wall or fastened permanently to a wall.
Point of View—The angle from which the viewer sees an object or a scene.
Portrait—A likeness of a person, especially showing the face. Portraits, however, can
be abstracted, showing the components of a person or one’s personality and then
assigning those characteristics to a particular person.
Realistic—Art that portrays a familiar subject with lifelike colors, textures, shadows,
and proportions
Repeated—A design with parts that are used over and over again in a regular or
planned way, usually to create a visual rhythm or harmony.
Shape—A closed line or flat area. (Can be either geometric or free/organic)
Geometric: Shapes that have rules (circle, square, triangle, rectangle)
Free/Organic: Shapes without names or rules.
Space—The distance across and between things.
Study—A detailed representation of some part of a figure or composition, or of the
composition as a whole, made so that the artist can be sure of getting it right in the
finished work.
Texture— Real texture: The way something feels. Implied texture: The way
something looks like it would feel.
Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975)—Born in Neosho, Missouri, Benton often
represented the everyday life of the poor and rural people of Missouri. He is well known
for his murals in the House lounge of the Missouri State Capitol Building in Jefferson
City. Benton was very politically involved, as his father was a US Congressman and his
great uncle, for whom he was named, was a Missouri senator.
Value—the range from light to dark.
Woodcut — A type of relief printing in which areas of the wood block are carved away;
ink is put on the raised surface and it is printed onto paper when pressure is applied.
For the definitions of other terms, see:

Edward Lucie-Smith. The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms. 2nd ed.
New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
36

Laura H. Chapman. Art: Images and Ideas. Worcester, Massachusetts: Davis
Publications, Inc, 1992.
Further Reading And Classroom Resources
Website Resources
Lewis and Clark Across Missouri (http://lewisclark.geog.missouri.edu/links.shtml)
This terrific resource includes maps of the campsites from 1803-1804 and 1806,
virtual landmarks, most of the links listed below:
The National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Council – www.lewisandclark200.org
The National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Website
PBS Online - Lewis and Clark – www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/
PBS web site dedicated to the Ken Burns film, Lewis and Clark: The Journey of
the Corps of Discovery
Westward Expansion – www.americanwest.com/pages/wexpansi.htm
Includes maps of Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804, Santa Fe Trail 1821, Oregon
Trail 1835 and Pony Express Route 1860
National Geographic's Lewis and Clark website –
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisclark/
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0418_020419_lewisclark.html
An interactive website that allows the viewer to re-live the Lewis and Clark
expedition.
Discovering Lewis and Clark – www.lewis-clark.org/
An impressive website that documents the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Corps of Discovery Opera – www.corpsofdiscovery.missouri.edu
The nations” first musical drama featuring the Lewis and Clark expedition,
commissioned for the national bicentennial of that journey
The Journals of Lewis and Clark –
The Journals of Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark Internet Archive – www.lcarchive.org
Huge listing of Lewis and Clark information on the Internet
Discovery Expedition of St. Charles – www.lewisandclark.net
This site is dedicated to living history---bringing the story of Lewis and Clark alive
through river-based reenactments, with replicas of their boats as a center point.
Fort Clatsop National Memorial
Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition experienced mixed emotions when
they reached their goal near the present site of Fort Columbia Historical State
Park. They were elated at having accomplished their mission.
Lewis and Clark in Idaho – www.idptv.state.id.us/lc/index.html
37
National Historic Landmarks, National Park Service – www2.cr.nps.gov/nhl/
This site has a searchable database of Historic Landmarks (you can list all Lewis
and Clark sites, for example).
Pony Express
Ranked among the most remarkable feats to come out of the 1860 American
West, the Pony Express was in service from April 1860 to November 1861. Its
primary mission was to deliver mail and news between St. Joseph, Missouri, and
San Francisco, California.
Other Lewis and Clark websites:
http://www.nps.gov/jeff/LewisClark2/HomePage/HomePage.htm
http://www.lewis-clark.org/index.htm
http://www.lewisandclark200.com/index.phtml
http://lewisclark.geog.missouri.edu/index.shtml
http://www.lcarchive.org/
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/index.html
http://www.visitmo.com/lewisandclark/calendar.cfm
Book Resources
The Lewis and Clark Trail: Then and Now by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Photographs by
William Muñoz, Dutton Children’s Books, New York, © 2002
The Journals of Lewis and Clark edited by Frank Bergon, Penguin Books, © 1989
Missouri: Adventures in Time and Place, Macmillan McGraw-Hill, New York, © 1998
38
APPENDIX 1
The Osage: http://www.nps.gov/fosc/osage.htm
Warriors of the Woods and Prairies
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Osage Indians roamed a
vast domain in the heart of North America. Although the Osage
were a proud and powerful tribe, they could not withstand the
pressure of European civilization. Soon after French fur trappers
established contact with the Osages in the 1670s, their way of life
began to change. By 1872, encroachment from American settlers forced the Osages to
relinquish most of their remaining ancestral homelands and relocate to their present
reservation in Oklahoma.
Children of the Middle Waters
A spiritual people, the Osage Indians were excellent hunters and fierce warriors. Their
religious beliefs were based on Wah-kon-tah, the great mystery spirit or power. In one
creation legend, the Osages believed that the People of the Sky (Tzi-sho) met with the
People of the Land (Hun-Kah) to form one tribe, the Children of the Middle Waters (Niu-ko'n-ska). Living in semipermanent villages primarily along the Osage River, the
Osage Indians roamed the land between three great rivers, the Missouri to the north,
the Mississippi to the east, and the Arkansas to the south. Their western boundary
stretched into the windswept plains where they hunted buffalo.
Osage Lifestyle
The Osage way of life depended on hunting, since deer and bison provided food ,
clothing, and other essentials for them. Before leaving on the summer hunt (one of
three annual hunts), the Osage planted vegetables such as corn, beans and pumpkins.
In August, they returned to harvest their untended crops, and then left for an autumn
hunt. Although only the men hunted, the women did the work of butchering and
preparing the meat, and tanning the hides.
Descriptions of the Osages
George Catlin
The famous Indian artist, George Catlin, captured several Osage Indians on canvas at
Fort Gibson in 1834. He stated: "The Osages have been formerly, and until quite
recently, a powerful and warlike tribe: carrying all their arms fearlessly through to all
these realms; and ready to cope with foes of any kind that they were liable to meet. At
present, the case is quite different; they have been repeatedly moved and jostled
along, …" He noted that despite their reduction in numbers caused by every tribal
39
move, war and smallpox, the Osages waged war on the Pawnee and Comanche.
Catlin believed the Osages " to be the tallest race of men in
North America, either red or white skins; there being few
indeed of the men at their full growth, who are less than six
feet in stature, and very many of them six and a half, and
others seven feet." One of the most distinguished warriors
that the artist painted was Tal-lee, who Catlin described as a
"handsome and high-minded gentleman of the wild woods
and prairies." Equipped with a lance in his hand, a shield on
his arm, and a bow and quiver on his back, Tal-lee presented
a "fair specimen of the Osage figure and dress."
Louis Cortambert
In 1836, Louis Cortambert, a French writer, observed that the
Osage men " carefully pull the hairs from their faces, even
their eyebrows, and shave their heads, leaving on the top a
tuft of hair, which terminates in back in a pigtail."
Victor Tixier
In 1840, a young Frenchman named Victor Tixier described the Osages: "The men are
tall and perfectly proportioned. They have at the same time all the physical qualities
which denote skill and strength combined with graceful movements." The Osages loved
to decorate themselves, often suspending beads and bones from their ears and
tattooing their bodies, Tixler observed: "Their ears, slit by knives, grow to be enormous,
and they hang low under the weight of the ornaments with which they are laden."
Osage Relocation
The ancestral home of the Osages was part of the immense Louisiana Purchase that the
United States acquired in 1803. Missouri achieved statehood in 1821, and soon after
over 5,000 Osages were removed west to the Indian Territory. Other Indian tribes from
the eastern U.S. were also relocated west of the Missouri and Arkansas boundaries.
Federal troops were stationed in this "Permanent Indian Territory" to keep the peace.
After Kansas opened for settlement in 1854, many Indian tribes were again relocated.
In 1872, the Osages moved to their present reservation.
Like other tribes, their ancestral way of life was not compatible with the white man's
way of life.
40
Suggested Reading
•
A History of the Osage People, by Louis F. Burns.
•
The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters, by John Joseph Matthews.
•
Osage Life and Legends, by Robert Liebert
•
North American Indians (Vols. 1 and 2), by George Catlin
•
Tixler's Travels on the Osage Prairies, by John Francis McDermott
•
The Imperial Osages, by Gilbert C. Din and A.B. Nasatir.
Related Sites
•
The Osage Nation: http://www.osagetribe.com/
•
Osage :
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/osage.html
•
Historic Native Americans: The Osage Indians :
http://www.uark.edu/depts/contact/osage.html
41
APPENDIX 2
I ndian Affairs: Law s and Treaties.
Vol. II (Treaties) in part. Compiled and edited by
Charles J. Kappler.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904.
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/osa0119.htm
TREATY WITH THE OSAGE, 1815.
Sept. 12, 1815. | 7 Stat., 133. | Ratified Dec. 26, 1815.
Vol. II, Pages 119-120 | Page 120
Vol. II, Page Images | Page 119 | Page 120
Margin Notes:
Injuries, etc., forgiven.
Perpetual peace and friendship.
Former treaties recognized and confirmed.
A treaty of peace and friendship, made and concluded between William Clark,
Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Chouteau, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the
United States of America, on the part and behalf of the said States, of the one
part; and the undersigned King, Chiefs, and Warriors, of the Great and Little
Osage Tribes or Nations, on the part and behalf of their said Tribes or Nations, of
the other part.
The parties being desirous of re-establishing peace and friendship between the
United States and the said tribes or nations, and of being placed in all things,
and in every respect, on the same footing upon which they stood before the war,
have agreed to the following articles:
ARTICLE 1.
Every injury, or act of hostility, by one or either of the contracting parties against the
other, shall be mutually forgiven and forgot.
[*120]
42
ART. 2.
There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between all the citizens of the United
States of America and all the individuals composing the said Osage tribes or nations.
ART. 3.
The contracting parties, in the sincerity of mutual friendship recognize, re-establish, and
confirm, all and every treaty, contract, and agreement, heretofore concluded between
the United States and the said Osage tribes or nations.
In witness whereof, the said William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Chouteau,
commissioners as aforesaid, and the king, chiefs, and warriors of the said tribes or
nations have hereunto subscribed their names and affixed their seals, this twelfth day
of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, and of
the independence of the United States the fortieth.
Wm. Clark, [L. S.]
Ninian Edwards, [L. S.]
Auguste Chouteau, [L. S.]
Teshuhimga, or white hair, his x mark, [L. S.]
Caygaywachepeche, or the bad chief, his x mark, [L. S.]
Couchestawasta, or the one who sees far, his x mark, [L. S.]
Gradamnsa, or iron kite, his x mark, [L. S.]
Mahsa, his x mark, [L. S.]
Wanougpacha, or he who fears not, his x mark, [L. S.]
Hurate, the piper bird, his x mark, [L. S.]
Wasabatougga, big bear, his x mark, [L. S.]
Nekagahre, he who beats the men, his x mark, [L. S.]
Mekewatanega, he who carries the sun, his x mark, [L. S.]
Nangawahagea, his x mark, [L. S.]
Kemanha, the wind racer of the Arkinsaw band, his x mark, [L. S.]
The Little Osages:
Caggatanagga, the great chief, his x mark, [L. S.]
Nechoumanu, the walking rain, his x mark, [L. S.]
Watashinga, he who has done little, his x mark, [L. S.]
Nehujamega, without ears, his x mark, [L. S.]
Ososhingga, the little point, his x mark, [L. S.]
Akidatangga, the big soldier, his x mark, [L. S.]
Wabesongge, his x mark, [L. S.]
Nehreegnegawachepecha, his x mark, [L. S.]
Grecnachee, he who arrives, his x mark, [L. S.]
Wahadanoe, of the Missouri tribe, his x mark, [L. S.]
Asooga, the little horn, his x mark, [L. S.]
Mathagrhra, the cutter, his x mark, [L. S.]
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Done at Portage des Sioux, in the presence of—
R. Wash, secretary of the commission,
Thomas Levers, lieutenant colonel, commanding First Regiment, I. T.,
P. Chouteau, agent Osages,
T. Paul, C. C. T.,
James B. Moore, captain.
Samuel Whiteside, captain.
Jno. W. Johnson, United States, factor and Indian agent,
Maurice Blondeaux.
Samuel Solomon,
Noel Mograine,
Interpreters.
P. L. Chouteau,
Daniel Converse, third lieutenant.
Produced by the Oklahoma State University Library
Generous support provided by The Coca-Cola Foundation, Atlanta, GA
URL: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/
Comments to: [email protected]
Revised 3/19/08