Monthly Archives: November 2017

Isabel Drake’s Remarkable Photos Show the World of 1900

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A hundred years back and more, there lived in Corning a remarkable family – mother, father, and three daughters – that left its mark on history, without doing anything actually historical. On the other hand, they had a whale of a lot of fun.

*The reason we know them particularly is that Isabel Walker Drake (the mother) was a pioneer in the new age of photography that had been made possible by George Eastman, up in Rochester. She used high-quality equipment (as she could afford to do), including a panorama camera with a pivoting lens. She had a clear eye and a steady hand, and she knew when to grab an interesting shot. Her photos will be the subject of a free Steuben County Historical Society presentation by Charles R. Mitchell (Friday Dec. 1, 4 PM in Bath Fire Hall).

*In addition to her artistry, Mrs. Drake mastered the technical side of photography, developing her own negatives and printing her own photos. Whenever she had a question, she just got on the phone and called Mr. Eastman.

*Mrs. Walker’s father had been a member of Congress, her brother-in-law was an owner of Corning Building Company, and her husband James was an owner of First National Bank on Market Street, so she probably had easy entry into George Eastman’s circle.

*The big brick house at 171 Cedar Street, now part of the arts organization of the same name, was their “starter home.” They later built a much bigger and finer place, next to the T. G. Hawkes mansion, up in the Corning Free Academy neighborhood.

*Just so you get the picture, that home (now gone) had its own schoolroom, stage, and pipe organ (which was later donated to Pulteney Presbyterian Church). Musicales and extravaganzas were part of life in the Drake home. The girls were educated at home, tutored by Professor Borstelmann, who operated the Corning Conservatory of Music. The Langdons of Elmira were among their friends.

*When they weren’t at home they were often out at Drake’s Point on the west side of Keuka Lake. One of the cottages there at the Point is now Lakeside Restaurant. The family arrived by riding the train to Hammondsport, then taking their naphtha launch from there.

*Madge, Dort, and Martha attended Ogontz Academy in Philadelphia… the only school in America with required military drill for girls. Photos show them fishing, sledding, playing baseball, skating, snowshoeing, sparring with boxing gloves, messing about in boats. On at least one occasion they brought a pony up onto the porch (and mother photographed it).

*Mrs. Drake photographed Glenn Curtiss flying the “June Bug,” and Geronimo touring the 1901 Pan-Am. She photographed trips to summer on Block Island, and to visit gold mines out west (including maneuvers by “Buffalo Soldiers”).

*It couldn’t last. They appear to have always spent more than they made, and the panic of 1913 wiped them out. Cousin Sid Cole was killed in World War I. The home and the summer home were lost, the girls went to work, and Mrs. Drake’s five boxes of albums with outstanding photos were rescued decades later by an alert antique hunter who snatched them up for a song, had some of them published in “American Heritage,” and donated them to Corning-Painted Post Historical Society.

*Mary Anne Sprague, who knew the Drake family, said, “They had fun. And they WERE fun.” And so they were. Their photos show it. And they also show our world, as it was so long ago, when no one dreamed of World Wars, and the 1900s still sparkled.

Roberson Shows Dave Higgins Artwork, and It’s a Good Show

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I attended a reception at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton back around 1985, when I was helping lead an evaluation of the city school system, but didn’t get to see much. When we moved to the Southern Tier in 1995, we said we had to go there. And now, more than 30 years after that original brief visit, we finally made it!

*What got us off the dime was an art exhibition of work by David Higgins. We know Dave slightly. Our kids knew him from when they were students at Corning Community College, where he’s a popular teacher. I exhibited a few of his pieces, as part of larger shows, when I was at Curtiss Museum, and he also sometimes shows at Dormann Library, where my wife works.

*But we decided to double our money, and scheduled the trip for when the gathering of a hundred Christmas trees was also available, and the three of us set off on the third Saturday in November for the hundred-mile trip to Binghamton.

*Dave’s exhibit serenely occupies a spacious second-floor gallery (Sears Harkness Hall). Each artwork has enough space to be appreciated on its own, and patrons can circulate freely, but there’s no feeling of emptiness or of excessive space.

*I have been enjoying Dave’s work in various venues for over twenty years, but I hadn’t realized what large canvases he sometimes works in. This gave the first one I encountered, a huge painting of a high-tension pylon, even more impact.

*High-tension pylon? Is this art? David freely states that architecture is a frequent theme in his paintings. If you know Corning, Elmira, or Binghamton, or certain parishes in Louisiana, you may recognize some of the scenes.

*It’s interesting to see how each locale has its own look and personality: Binghamton with its working-class ethnic neighborhoods; smaller Corning; Elmira with its rail arteries; and rural Louisiana, with its cows in the levee, its ancient shacks, and its vivid skies.

*There are also some shadow boxes or dioramas, and numerous much smaller paintings, about 4” by 5”. In some cases a dozen or more are gathered into a single frame, with titles such as June or December. Each painting is a little jewel reflecting the title theme.

*Dave frequently adds something incongruous to a painting… a fantasy character, or a chair that recurs often (and is actually in the show). Sometimes artists do this just whimsically, for the fun of it. Other times they want to introduce an element of incongruity, or destabilization, in order to challenge the viewer.

*Well, as a P.T.S.D. person I provide my own destabilization – expertly! (Practice, practice, practice.) I enjoy the paintings with the oddities, but I like even more the ones that stay rooted in reality. Painting realistically is challenging in the age of photography. David manages to paint realistically, but to do so in a way that moves beyond what a photograph would show. When an artist manages that… as Dave so often does… the framed canvas becomes a door opened into another world of emotion and experience. I especially loved the night scene in Binghamton; the yellow house in snow; and the larger version of Cows on the Levee.

*As for the Christmas trees – yeah! A hundred trees or so, many of them in the 1904 mansion. One space near Sears Harkness Hall is an “international forest,” representing the many ethnic groups that have made their home in the Binghamton area.

*And then – the model trains! Already famed for its layout, Roberson (mainly through its volunteers) recently spent two years TRIPLING the layout’s size. It captures something of Binghamton and its neighbors in the 1950s, and those who know the area will recognize much, from the IBM buildings to individual local stores. There’s even a drive-in movie theater, showing clips from “High Noon,” “Godzilla,” and other ‘fifties fare.

*There was more we could have seen, but we contented ourselves with a good start to our Christmas season and headed home, taking in a late lunch at the Blue Dolphin. A good November day.

“At This Festive Season;” Gifts That Matter

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At Christmas time, which is also the end of most people’s tax year, many people turn their thoughts to giving… not just gifts to loved ones, but gifts to the community at large.
*If you have a church connection, a Christmas gift to the church might be fitting, or a gift to some church-connected helping agency, such as Catholic Charities, Mennonite Disaster Service, or United Methodist Committee on Relief.
*The Southern Tier Food Bank does outstanding work in helping provide for the hungry right here where we live. I give throughout the year. Milly’s Pantry in Penn Yan also does a tremendous job.
*Kiva Microfunds (or Kiva.org) provides a way to support microloans to emerging entrepreneurs around the world. About 80% of these loans go to women (and about 98% are repaid). Loans to women are one of the most effective ways to change lives and change communities, and we took steps a year or two back to do so through Kiva.
*I gave two gallons of blood before Addison’s Disease disqualified me at the age of 54. But right from the time they were infants we took our sons with us to the blood bank, and they both started giving as soon as they turned 18. BLOOD DONATIONS SAVE LIVES. What could you do that’s better than that? And at this time of year the need is especially great. Donors get over-busy, or catch a cold or flu, while snow and ice and sheer volume of traffic make for more road accidents, pushing demand up just when supply goes down. “At this festive season,” blood is needed even more. Check with the Red Cross. (Did you know that Clara Barton formed the first American Red Cross chapter in Dansville? Giving blood celebrates our local history!)
*When it’s cold, little animals die. The Finger Lakes SPCA in Bath, Chemung County SPCA near Elmira, and sister chapters all around bring them in, make them warm, and let them live. They could use your help.
*With the new administration in Washington, official assaults on the environment have risen. I have a long-standing membership with the National Audubon Society. Consider joining Audubon or one of the other big organizations fighting for our earth and our future: Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, Earthwatch, and more.
*Hate groups are celebrating Christmas by ramping up their activities. Think about supporting the Southern Poverty Law Center, NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union, Anti-Defamation League, or another nationwide group fighting against bigotry.
*Imagine what it would be like being hospitalized over this season, or having hospitalized loved ones. Such services as Fisher House and Ronald McDonald House stay on the job, and always have too much job to do. Gifts help.
*Charles Dickens, who knew grinding childhood poverty first-hand, wrote, “At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.  Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, remembering his life in a concentration camp, wrote, “When you’re cold, don’t expect sympathy from someone who’s warm.” We can all do better than that. Christmas isn’t the only time we give. But we rarely find a better reminder.
*(This blog first appeared in last year’s Christmas season, and has been lightly edited.)

Our Constitutional Crisis

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This isn’t about who you wanted to win the last election, and it isn’t about how you like the people now in power. It’s for people on both sides, and it’s about the constitutional crisis that threatens our way of life.

*Donald Trump became president… legally and constitutionally… despite being rejected by the voters. As such, he has the right to pursue his goals and policies, BUT… he needs to face the reality that the voters rejected them. They made their decision clear: no border wall, no Muslim ban, no Obamacare repeal.

*Republicans likewise control the senate, 52 votes to 48. BUT those 48 Democratic and independent senators actually represent twenty million MORE people than the 52 Republican senators do.

*In the case of the White House, installing the loser is a fallacy in our ridiculous electoral college system, and could be fixed before our next presidential election. In the case of the senate, the issue comes from an unamendable clause in the constitution, giving each state two senators… so that Alaska, Wyoming, and Vermont among them get six senators out of the hundred, even though not one of those states has as many people as Monroe County, New York.

*The crisis comes not because the president and members of Congress are legally using their power and authority. It comes because they are doing it in such a way as to run roughshod over the voters.

*Trump, for instance, might have approached his new office by saying, “I recognize that most of you selected Clinton to be your president, but by our constitution the job goes to me. I am going to perform my job, and I hope to win your support. I’m not going to change my principles… but I realize that I have a lot of listening to do, and I want to work together with you.”

*Had such an approach been taken, even opponents would have been cautiously willing to give him latitude. Instead, the president and Congressional leaders have chosen to govern as a minority regime, disdaining the voice of the people.

*In time, of course, they must each again submit their performance to the voters, and abide by the results. The grave danger is that many voters will give up altogether… deciding that the American way just doesn’t work, and democracy isn’t worth the trouble. Three times in this century they’ve gotten the president they chose, and two times they’ve gotten the president they rejected. (This is just slightly better than a coin toss, which would cost a whale of a lot less.)

*In 2001 and in 2017 the rejected presidents came in as conquerors, rather than coming in with humility. Voters are losing heart, concluding that our system actually works to THWART democracy. If they give up, then the American system that Lincoln and Washington struggled for has failed.

*We can all work to forestall future failures by abolishing the electoral college, and letting democracy have its way for good or ill. But our leaders, representing a minority but serving on behalf of all, need to turn to the nation with open hearts, open ears, and open minds. Once they’ve done that, they can make the decisions they chose. UNTIL they’ve done that, they are battering the spirit of democracy out of our people.

The Bronze Bear: A Trip to Geneseo

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I used to work in Geneseo, back in 1995 – part-time on the Lake and Valley Clarion weekly newspaper of glorious memory. I liked the town. One day I walked down to the courthouse and sat on the steps to eat my lunch. The sun’s heat reflected up from the stone, making me drowsy. From down on the flat I heard a biplane revving up, then stepping into the air, then saw it stitching slowly across the view like a dragonfly, engine humming away. With the place and the warmth and the sight and the sound and the drowsiness, for a few seconds I slipped into the still-peaceful summer of 1939.

*Geneseo’s the county seat and a courthouse town. It’s also a college town, home to SUNY Geneseo, which started out as a normal school in 1871 and became a state liberal arts college in 1948.

*Towns have their waves of ups and downs, thanks in part to local, regional, national, and world economic vagaries. I have to say that the town looks better now than it did when I worked there. There’s more business on the Main Street, and almost all the business fronts sparkle – they’ve been cared for, and made to look good, and that rather recently. Even the parking meters are new, attractive, and easily functional (take THAT, Corning!).

*The whole downtown area is on the National Register of Historic Places, but it also has the far rarer designation of National Historic Landmark. There are 90,000 Register sites, and 2500 Historic Landmarks. The only others in the seven-county area are Newtown Battlefield and the Lamoka archaeological site.

*Main Street is good strolling: flat, straight, level, and plenty of good sightlines. Westward the land slopes down (into the university); buildings on the west side of Main have rear parking that’s often a full story lower than the front door. You also soon encounter a rise eastward, deeper into the (very large) historic district.

*The courthouse anchors the north end of Main Street, with attractive old homes stretching southward, shaded by large lovely trees. If you needed to, you could orient yourself by the tall stone spire on the Episcopal church.

*Geneseo would be a different place without the Big Tree Inn, part of which goes back to 1833. Renovated and expanded for a hotel in 1886, it has welcomed travelers ever since.

*Also historical is the bronze bear, surmounting an old fountain right in the center of the intersection at the midpoint of Main. It has been known for the bear to be whimsically decorated (sometimes under cover of darkness), but he (she?) endures right athwart the way because the through routes are now a few blocks south or west, leaving Main Street busy, but not frantic.

*Those who know Geneseo from of old are always pleased to learn that Sundance Books still thrives at its crowded-yet-welcoming space. There’s also a comic book store on Main Street, and peering through the windows I see that it’s current, but I have literally never yet found it open. (I only visit three or four times a year.)

*Walk eastward on Center Street and you’ll come to the Wadsworth Library, hugging the slope and meting out parking space so as to use all of its real estate to maximum benefit. Built in 1867 (!) and expanded since then, it wears its old-fashioned mantle of wood, brick, and glass with an up-to-date flair. And a few steps away, also on Center Street, is the Livingston County Historical Society Museum.

*If you need chain stores and chain food, they’re five minutes away on Route 20A. If you want a modern university, it’s just a few steps downhill. Otherwise you can stroll, stride, or drift through the historic district… stopping in the shops, getting coffee or baked goods, and maybe even slipping into 1939.