Four aerial views of Springfield, Massachusetts in the 1920s

Here are four aerial views of Springfield, Massachusetts, all probably taken at the same time around the mid-to-late 1920s.  They are from a set of postcards published by the Aerial Service of Hartford, Connecticut.  Above, starting from the southernmost section of the city, we have the Everett Barney mansion, estate, mausoleum and grounds of Forest Park.  The Connecticut River is on the far upper right.

Next, we have the lower State Street area, specifically focused on what the postcard publisher calls The Educational Center, but which we have come to know as The Quadrangle.  The library can be seen, as well as the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, The Springfield Science Museum, and the building which currently houses The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss.  In this photo, the Museum of Fine Arts is absent, as that was not built until the 1930s.  Also absent is the Lyman and Merrie Woods Museum of Springfield History, which was not constructed until 2009.

St. Michael's Cathedral can be spotted, the Springfield Armory, Classical High School, and Springfield Technical High School, which we covered in this previous post.

The next view shows us the city's downtown with Court Square, the City Hall, Campanile, and Symphony Hall prominent in the photo.  The new Memorial Bridge, completed in 1922 spans the Connecticut River on the left.  Horizontal near the top of the photo we have the rail line and train station.  This view gives us a good look at Springfield before Route 91.

Our final view is of the northern section of the city and the expanse of what was the new Springfield Hospital, what would later become the main building of Baystate Medical Center.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Walking tour and talk on The Puritan statue - Springfield, Massachusetts

photo by J.T. Lynch

I'll be leading a walking tour in Springfield, Massachusetts this coming Saturday, September 8th from the Puritan Statue on State Street to Stearns Square, and then to Court Square to discuss Puritans and Artisans.

Sponsored by the Armoury-Quadrangle Civic Association, the walk will be about a mile in distance, and a few centuries in time. We will discuss the sculptor - - Augustus Saint-Gaudens; the foundry craftsman and sculptor who created Springfield's Civil War statue - - Chicopee's Melzar H. Mosman (about whom I'm currently writing a book); about the landscape architect for the first site of the Puritan statue on Stearns Square - Stanford White; about Chester W. Chapin, the descendant who gifted the stature of his ancestor to the city; and about Deacon Samuel Chapin himself, "The Puritan."

Join us at the Springfield Library and Museums visitor's center at 10:30 a.m. 

A Celebration of Mt. Tom - at the MAP Gallery, Easthampton, Massachusetts

Join me in Easthampton at the MAP (Mill Arts Project) Gallery this Saturday, July 14th for a celebration of Mt. Tom in art, natural history, theatre...and ice cream.

I'll be there to meet and greet with my book on theatre on the mountain - Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Join us for --

“The Mountain and Mother Nature”

A father and son exhibit of oil pastels by Ken Gagne and sculptures by Matt Gagne creating an entertaining and thought provoking experience traveling over Mt. Tom witnessing Mother Nature’s power to create, destroy and preserve the beauty of this local resource. 

Opening Reception

Saturday, July 14^th 2018

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

@

The MAP Gallery

in

 The Eastworks Building in Easthampton

Also featuring:

·              Arcadia Sanctuary

·              Jacqueline T. Lynch – local author of  “Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain”

·              Mt. Tom Ice Cream

MAP Gallery in the Eastworks building, 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Easthampton City Arts / Easthampton Cultural Council

Sistine Chapel Artwork Exhibit at the Big E - West Springfield, Massachusetts

 photo by JT Lynch

The best exhibit at the Big E this year is the must-see artwork of Michelangelo.  A show of copies of his restored work on the Sistine Chapel is currently on tour, and the Eastern States Exhibition fairgrounds are the lucky hosts of a smaller version of this exquisite art exhibit.  From the website of the production:

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition

For more information,  follow the exhibit on social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The exhibit is produced by Special Entertainment Events (SEE), a L.A.-based exhibition production company which acquired the worldwide rights to the fresco reproductions. The photographs were taken post-restoration of the ceiling; in some cases, color enhancement was necessary to match the images for consistency.

photo by JT Lynch

The highlights of the frescoes are presented in their original size. This innovative interpretation of the timeless masterpieces can be viewed up close, including The Creation of Adam. It has previously made stops in Montreal, Vienna, Shanghai, Dallas, Munich, and New York.

photo by JT Lynch

On display in the Young Building, we are able to see the master's work close up as we never could at the Vatican in all its majesty in that setting.  The administrators of the fair are to be congratulated and most sincerely thanked for obtaining this exhibit.  More such artistic and cultural displays in the future would be a splendid addition to New England's Great State Fair.

Eugene O'Neill Statue - New London, Connecticut

JT Lynch Photo

The boy sits on the gray boulder by the City Pier, looking out into the harbor. A poignant figure immortalized as a statue, he will forever be a child on this spot.

He is Eugene O’Neill, and the spot is New London, Connecticut. One of America’s finest playwrights, and a Nobel laureate in literature, O’Neill spent his summers here until 1915.  His father, actor James O’Neill, took a house on Pequot Avenue, and called it Monte Cristo Cottage, a few years before Eugene was born in the late 1880s. 

JT Lynch Photo

The figure wears the lace-up boots, the diminutive cap of a child of the late nineteenth century. He is alone, a boy with much on his mind, who perhaps needs the solitude.

Much has been written of Eugene O’Neill’s troubled family—he wrote much of that himself—and there is a seriousness in the expression of the statue that indicates perhaps burdens too heavy for a child to carry, that the man will continue to shoulder the rest of his life.

JT Lynch Photo

It is believed that O’Neill wrote two of his plays here in New London, the rare comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, and the dark tragedy based on his own family, Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Not only did he write them here, but New London is the setting for those stories.

JT Lynch Photo

What is he writing on the pad of paper in his lap?  Is he drawing the boats on the harbor, or as he looks beyond the mouth of the Thames River, does he seem some less bleak future out towards Long Island Sound?

Is he taking notes on his own future?  He is not at play.

JT Lynch Photo

The statue was unveiled in 1988, some 35 years after O’Neill’s death (Monte Cristo Cottage was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971).  The sculptor is Norman Legassie. The image is based on a photograph of young Eugene by Nikolas Mury.

Nikolas Mury Photo

The bronze has tarnished to green, but the compelling, enigmatic expression remains.

JT Lynch Photo

Happy Cartoonists Day

Happy Cartoonists Day!  

Have a look at one happy cartoonist here (my twin brother, John).

Exhibition in memory of Ann Lynch Beebe & Rita Kulig - Massachusetts

The Wilbraham Art League is hosting an art show in memory of Ann Lynch Beebe and Rita Kulig.  An exhibition of the work of these two artists will be held in the Brooks Room at the Wilbraham Public Library.  The opening reception is this coming Sunday, January 4, 2015 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. The exhibit will continue through the month of January.

The Wilbraham Public Library is located at 25 Crane Park Drive, Wilbraham, Massachusetts.  For more information, have a look here at the websites for the Wilbraham Art League, and the Wilbraham Public Library.

Peace Statue - World War I - Chicopee, Massachusetts

Many World War I monuments depicted, not the figures of soldiers as in previous wars, but used images of peace.  The images were mythical, allegorical, because we did not know what peace looked like, but we imaged it must be something beautiful, gentle, and noble.

This statue was sculpted and cast in bronze by Melzar H. Mosman in his Chicopee Bronze Works studio, made especially for his hometown and donated by him.  It stands on Front Street, Chicopee, Massachusetts.  Mosman, himself, was a veteran of the Civil War.  He knew what war was, and he lived the artist's aching determination to create truth, and beauty.

The names of Chicopee's World War I veterans are listed on tablets mounted on the pedestal. The statute is simply called Peace.

For more on Melzar Mosman's work, have a look at this previous post here. I'm currently working on a book about Mosman and his art.