{"id":8342,"date":"2020-01-16T07:49:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T12:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8342"},"modified":"2020-03-03T07:23:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T12:23:50","slug":"small-museums-big-pleasures-south-bend-youngstown-cincinnati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8342","title":{"rendered":"Small Museums, Big Pleasures: South Bend, Youngstown, Cincinnati"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s easy to love The Met, the Smithsonian, Chicago\u2019s Museum of Science and Industry, the Getty, and the nation\u2019s many other Major Museums. But really? Are you always up for eight or nine hours of that? You don\u2019t have to visit one of these demanding (time, energy, and $$) enterprises to have a rewarding museum experience. Smaller, more manageable, typically less crowded museums throughout the country have impressive offerings. Here are east-of-the-Mississippi examples from recent travels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studebaker National Museum, South Bend, Indiana<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, granted, you may have to have a thing about cars to fully appreciate the Studebaker National Museum<\/a>. Old cars, that is (Studebaker stopped manufacturing its vehicles in the 1960s). But an appreciation of history can serve every bit as well. Before it manufactured automobiles, Studebaker produced prize-winning wagons and carriages. On display is the carriage that President and Mrs. Lincoln used for their ill-fated trip to Ford\u2019s Theater. And the carriage used by Indiana native son, President Benjamin Harrison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are early \u201cstation wagons,\u201d carriages designed especially for traveling to and from the train station (luggage outside). Among the farm wagons is a miniature version for children, with a sign reading \u201cPropulsion provided by goat, large dog, or younger sibling.\u201d Aww.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America\u2019s Packard Museum<\/a>, located in a restored Packard dealership in Dayton, Ohio, is equally impressive, carwise, BTW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remembered that the Butler Institute<\/a> <\/em>has Winslow Homer\u2019s famous \u201cSnap the Whip<\/a>,\u201d but I hadn\u2019t recalled that its collection, devoted to works by American artists, includes so many other notable works, as a recent visit revealed. Some of the paintings from the Hudson River School and other mid-19th<\/sup> century artists are truly spectacular. There are some fun contemporary works as well, including a large painting of a dramatic scene from To Have and Have Not.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler\u2014one of the few museums of its caliber that does not charge an admission fee and relies solely on community contributions\u2014has an \u201cAdopt-a-Painting\u201d program in which donors can contribute to the restoration of specific works of art. That\u2019s an exciting possibility, which may intrigue some of the museum\u2019s 100,000 annual visitors. Maybe other museums have programs like this, but they have escaped my notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We visited the Taft Museum of Art<\/a> in 2016 and liked it, but what caught my eye recently was the announcement of an upcoming exhibition (February 8-May 3, 2020) of the works of N.C. Wyeth<\/a>. <\/em>The passionate early 20th<\/sup> century works of the patriarch, N.C., appeal to me more than those of his son Andrew and grandson Jamie. I\u2019m drawn to their swashbuckling energy and storytelling power. The exhibit will include his illustrations for Treasure Island, The Last of the Mohicans (Hawkeye, pictured), and The Boys\u2019 King Arthur<\/em>, as well as standalone works of equal vivacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, I won\u2019t be in Cincinnati during the run of this show, but I hope you will be and that you\u2019ll see it and tell me what you liked best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy to love The Met, the Smithsonian, Chicago\u2019s Museum of Science and Industry, the Getty, and the nation\u2019s many other Major Museums. But really? Are you always up for eight or nine hours of that? You don\u2019t have to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Small Museums, Big Pleasures: South Bend, Youngstown, Cincinnati -- You never know what gems you\u2019ll find when you visit America\u2019s smaller museums. Here are three well worth a stop.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1288,682,266,104,78],"tags":[1687,729],"class_list":["post-8342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-fine-arts","category-history","category-the-morgue","category-travel","tag-studebaker-national-museum","tag-taft-museum-of-art"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2019-12-16-10.29.42-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2ay","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8345,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8342\/revisions\/8345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}