Midwest Guest

Photo Friday: Calder in Toledo Ohio

Regular readers of Midwest Guest may remember our visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan earlier this year. We wrote about that city’s 40^th anniversary celebration of Alexander Calder’s iconic sculpture, La Grande Vitesse, and its status as a Grand Rapids landmark.

I knew there were a handful of Calder’s major public art pieces in Michigan, but I recently realized that Ohio has a Calder of its own when we visited Toledo.

 

I spotted the bright orange stabile in front of the Toledo Museum of Art and immediately wondered about the piece.

We stopped to wander the Sculpture Garden in front of the museum and discovered that the sculpture was a scale-model of Calder’s 1972-73 Stegosaurus.

 

The larger version of Calder’s Stegosaurus stands in front of the Wadsworth Atheneum, a major art museum in Hartford, Connecticut.

Calder lived in Connecticut for many years, purchasing an old farmhouse in Roxbury in 1933. He began creating the large outdoor sculptures during the 1930s, and became well-known for such work by the time he created Stegosaurus near the end of his life.

The Toledo Museum of Art purchased the intermediate scale model of Calder’s Stegosaurus as the centerpiece for the 21-piece Sculpture Garden surrounding the museum. Museum officials dedicated the outdoor art display in 2001 to celebrate the Museum’s centennial.

 

Toledo’s Stegosaurus, like the larger La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids, anchors its setting with a pop of vibrant color.

The compact size of the Toledo piece makes it seems especially accessible and engaging to me, and we enjoyed taking photos of the work.

 

Read more about our visit to see Calder’s La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids, Michigan and find out more about this fascinating and innovative artist at the Calder Foundation site dedicated to his life and work.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved

Photo Friday

This shot comes from our tour of the Charles W. Morgan, America’s last existing wooden whaling ship, which is now part of historic Mystic Seaport.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2008

Exploring Mystic Seaport

Enjoying a lobster roll sandwich and a beer on a seaside tavern’s patio may seem like a curious way to study history, but it proved to be the perfect way to end our historical adventure at Mystic Seaport.

Schaefer’s Spouter Tavern, named for a tavern in Melville’s Moby Dick and serving a lunch menu reminiscent of fare at a 19^th-century inn, is but one of Mystic Seaport’s village of restored and recreated buildings.

The historical complex at Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport reminded us of Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford in Dearborn Michigan. The Henry Ford, especially in the indoor museum, emphasizes Detroit’s automotive industry, but Mystic Seaport emphasizes New Enlgand’s seafaring background.

Like Greenfield Village, Mystic Seaport hosts a variety of structures illustrating the lives and times of people who lived there. We visited businesses like the doctor’s office and drug store and the village printer, as well as homes where families lived and crafted quilts, woven rugs, blankets and other items.

The jaunty and somewhat wistful sound of an old folk song drew us into the Fishtown Chapel, where an interpreter sang sea shanties while explaining their history aboard the large sailboats. Traditional shanties provided more than entertainment for hard-working sailors. The songs provided rhythm that helped coordinate efforts of workers completing complex team tasks involving a boat’s rigging, which our interpreter illustrated by pulling an imaginary rope as we sang along in time to her efforts.

The seaport somehow survived our singing, and we moved on to tour some of the village’s boatyards and nautical restoration projects.

Mystic Seaport’s Preservation Shipyard includes a spacious mezzanine with the best vantage point from which to watch workers using historic methods and tools to preserve and recreate some of history’s best-known and -loved sea-going vessels.

One of the shipyard’s best-known projects may be a re-creation of the Amistad. The original Amistad schooner served as the scene of a slave revolt. That infamous incident and subsequent Supreme Court case played an important part in the abolitionist movement in the United States and became the subject of a Steven Spielberg film.

The re-created ship varies a bit from the original schooner and is the subject of a display at the shipyard. While the Amistad freedom schooner was not at the shipyard during our visit, we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of it earlier in the week at a brief stop in New Haven, CT.

We stopped by Mystic Seaport’s maritime galleries, where we found a fascinating exhibit about Captain George Comer’s pioneering observations of Hudson Bay Inuit traditions and culture during the early the 20^th century, as well as a collection of beautiful and ornate ship figureheads.

No visit to a seaport would be complete without getting out on the water, would it? A short cruise aboard the coal-fired steamer Sabino showed us the view from the water of many Mystic Seaport landmarks. The Sabino celebrates its centennial in 2008 and is a National Historic Landmark.

Being out on the water was a cool respite during the hot, humid day of our visit. Now it was time to visit the pub and enjoy that lobster roll!

© Dominique King 2008

At Home with History

Getting a sense of how and where people lived is one of the more interesting ways to make history come alive, so we visited several historical homes during our recent trip to Connecticut.

We expected to learn about some of men and women so important in colonial America, but the real surprise was learning more about a person familiar to us because of his ties to Michigan.

Mention William Beaumont to Detroit-area residents and they may tell you about their most recent hospital visit. Local history buffs also know about Beaumont’s time as an Army surgeon in northern Michigan during the 1820s.

I live within several miles of one of William Beaumont Hospital’s campuses. I also know about Beaumont’s pioneering work and experiments in northern Michigan, where his observation of a patient with an open wound created by a musket shot built the basis for much of what we understand about human digestion. It still surprised me to learn Beaumont was born in Connecticut.

The simple white house in quiet Lebanon, Connecticut gave no hint of Beaumont’s interesting life or his time spent in several Midwestern locations before ending his career as a civilian doctor in St. Louis, Missouri.

Nathan Hale’s career and life was considerably shorter than Beaumont’s, but he surely experienced a full lifetime of adventure and drama before his 1776 execution as a spy at age 21.

Young Nathan grew up in Coventry, Connecticut before going to Yale College and becoming a teacher. His teaching career ended as he became a military officer during what became America’s Revolutionary War.

He volunteered to spy behind British lines. Captured in New York, he confessed his role as a spy and the British Army hanged him.

We learned about Hale’s life at the Nathan Hale Homestead. Hale grew up on the homestead property, although his family completed the large red house currently standing there after his death.

Hale’s pre-execution declaration that “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country” earned him enduring fame as a patriot and eventual naming as Connecticut’s official State Hero.

Connecticut also recognizes the courage of Prudence Crandall as the official State Heroine.

The Rhode Island-born Quaker moved with her family to Canterbury, Connecticut. She attended a Friends’ school in Rhode Island and taught elsewhere in Connecticut before returning to Canterbury and opening a school for young women in 1832.

Women found little in the way of academic opportunities at the time, especially when it came to more advanced studies. Educational opportunities for young African-American women were even scarcer.

Young Sarah Harris, an aspiring teacher and daughter of a free African-American farmer, sought admission to Crandall’s school. Crandall admitted Harris as a student in 1833. Connecticut responded by passing a law restricting and nearly outlawing the teaching of African-Americans. Protests, harassment and violence led to closing the school and to Crandall moving out of the state.

Years later, Crandall received an official apology from Connecticut and a small yearly pension.

Today, the pale yellow Canterbury house stands as testament to Crandall’s courage and houses a chronicle of some of the early efforts in progressive educational reform.

© Dominique King 2008

Daniel Rust House is a gem

George Freeman wondered if the young man asking for his daughter’s hand in marriage was worthy of her. He asked to see the ring, and then carefully etched her proposed initials with it into a glass window pane in an upstairs bedroom of his home. He now knew the diamond was a real gem, and gave permission to his daughter to marry her young man.

That early 20^th century story is just one of many tales Daniel Rust House innkeepers Cathy Mitchell and Germaine Salvatore shared with us as we checked into the Mary Rose room at their bed & breakfast in Coventry, Connecticut.

Daniel Rust and George Freeman are just two of a long succession of owners who occupied the home, originally built as a small Cape Cod style structure in 1731.

By 1748, wealthy farmer Jehiel Rose purchased the house and added on to it. Our spacious bedroom bears his wife Mary’s name.

By 1800, the home became the Bird-in-Hand Inn and experienced fluctuating fortunes before our gregarious innkeepers, Germaine and Cathy, purchased it in 2007.

The pair revitalized the inn, furnishing it with antiques, restoring the grounds and gardens, pampering guests and welcoming them as part of the family.

The Daniel Rust House sits on a fairly busy highway, but the small-town setting and expansive back yard offers guests a serene retreat with deer and fox regularly visiting the grounds and a wooded walking trail leading out from the inn’s yard.

The history surrounding the inn and Coventry countryside drew us to book the Daniel Rust House for five days, but the warmly welcoming atmosphere created by Cathy and Germaine really sold us on this gem of a bed & breakfast.

…and the breakfasts!

Germaine’s breakfasts started with a fresh fruit course like melon or peach soup, mango pudding or fruit parfaits. Next came a hearty helping of pumpkin pancakes, blueberry pancakes made with fresh berries from a neighbor’s yard or pancakes stuffed with raspberries. Cathy often whipped up an egg dish like eggs scrambled with fresh pesto or eggs combined with mozzarella, ham and dill.

A different set of vintage china served as the setting for the morning breakfast show, which sent us rolling out of the dining room with no need to eat until dinnertime…if even then!

When we did venture out for a full dinner at the Altnaveigh in nearby Storrs, that inn’s owner jokingly told us to let Germaine know their lunch business was suffering because Daniel Rust guests were never hungry for lunch!

The Altnaveigh is, unfortunately, no longer open as of 2020

Cathy and Germaine recommended the Altnaveigh for dinner and made reservations for us. The Altnaveigh, an inn and restaurant housed in a restored 1730s home, was a romantic spot and perfect place for a special dinner.

Evenings at the Daniel Rust House offer guests the option of relaxing in their rooms, or joining Cathy, Germaine and other guests in the common areas. One evening, we sat in front of the keeping room’s fireplace chatting with our innkeepers while enjoying the company of one of the inn’s canine guests.

With an extensive background in dog grooming and care, Cathy and Germaine offer accommodations for well-behaved dogs, as well as daycare and grooming services. One dog visited with owners in town for an athletic event at the University of Connecticut one day we stayed at Daniel Rust House.

We visited nearby attractions like the university, the Nathan Hale Homestead and the Prudence Crandall Museum. Mystic Seaport was an easy day trip.

My only complaint is that Coventry isn’t closer to Michigan so visiting Cathy and Germaine would be a possible weekend destination for us.

© Dominique King 2008 (updated 2020)