Historical Revie^W
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Historical Revie^w The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI COVER DESCRIPTION: The front cover illustration is a reproduc tion of George Caleb Bingham's \4Vi" x 183/4" lithograph en titled Canvassing for A Vote. Lithographed by Claude Regnier in 1853, Canvassing for A Vote was after a painting Missouri's most famous nineteenth-century artist completed in 1852. Known as Canvassing for A Vote or Candidate Electioneering, the painting is now owned by the William Rockhill Nelson Gal lery of Art. One of the election canvasses Bingham executed, this painting illustrated his perception of political life in pre- Civil War Missouri. Bingham died in 1879. In honor of the 100th anniversary of his death, the State Historical Society is exhibiting its col lection of the artist's works in the Society's Art Gallery. Fif teen portraits, one landscape, two genre paintings, four en gravings, two lithographs and a number of drawings comprise the exhibit. An article on the Bingham paintings is included in this REVIEW. The State Historical Society Art Gallery is open to the public 8:00 A.M.-4:30 P.M., Monday-Friday, excepting legal holidays. MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI RICHARDS. BROWNLEE EDITOR MARYK. DAINS ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAMES W. GOODRICH ASSOCIATE EDITOR Copyright © 1979 by the State Historical Society of Missouri Hitt and Lowry Streets, Columbia, Missouri 65201 The MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW (ISSN 0026-6582) is owned by the State Historical Society of Missouri and is published quarterly at 5601 Paris Road, Columbia, Missouri 65201. Send communications, business and editorial correspondence and change of address to the State Historical Society of Missouri, Corner of Hitt and Lowry Streets, Columbia, MO 65201. Second class postage is VOLUME LXXIII paid at Columbia, Missouri. The REVIEW is sent free to all members of The State Historical NUMBER 4 Society of Missouri. Membership dues in the Society are $2.00 a year or $40 for an individual life membership. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. JULY 1979 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of the State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R.S. of Mo., 1969, chapter 183, as revised 1973. OFFICERS 1977-1980 WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton, President RUSSELL V. DYE, Liberty, First Vice President MRS. AVIS TUCKER, Warrensburg, Second Vice President REVEREND JOHNF. BANNON, St. Louis, Third Vice President SHERIDAN A. LOGAN, St. Joseph, Fourth Vice President MRS. VIRGINIA YOUNG, Columbia, Fifth Vice President DR. NOBLE E. CUNNINGHAM, Columbia, Sixth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer RICHARDS. BROWNLEE, Columbia, Director, Secretary and Librarian TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau ELMER ELLIS, Columbia GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1979 JAMES W. BROWN, Harrisonville ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis RICHARD J. CHAMIER, Moberly JOHN K. HULSTON, Springfield ILUS W. DAVIS, Kansas City MRS. MARY BANKS PARRY, Columbia WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton ARVARH STRICKLAND, Columbia Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1980 LEWISE. ATHERTON, Columbia W. W. DALTON, St. Louis ROBERT A. BOWLING, Montgomery City *RICHARD B. FOWLER, Kansas City FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon VICTOR A. GIERKE, Louisiana R. I. COLBORN, Paris MRS. JEAN TYREE HAMILTON, Marshall Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1981 FRANCIS M. BARNES III, St. Louis W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence ROBERT S. DALE, Carthage RONALD L. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe GEORGE MCCUE, St. Louis JOSEPH WEBBER, St. Louis ROBERT M. WHITE, Mexico EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-seven Trustees, the President and the Secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, President of the University of Missouri and Chancellor of the University of Missouri-Columbia constitute the Executive Committee. FINANCE COMMITTEE Five members of the Executive Committee appointed by the President, who by virtue of his office constitutes the sixth member, compose the Finance Committee. WILLIAM AULL III, Lexington, Chairman LEWIS E. ATHERTON, Columbia ELMER ELLIS, Columbia WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville •Deceased NEW SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS The State Historical Society of Missouri is always interested in obtaining new members. For more than seventy years thousands of Missourians who have be longed to the Society have been responsible primarily for building its great research collections and libraries. They have given it the support which makes it the largest organization of its type in the United States. The quest for interested new members goes on continually, and your help is solicited in obtaining them. In every family, and in every community, there are individuals who are sincerely interested in the collection, preservation and dissemination of the his tory of Missouri. Why not nominate these people for membership? Annual dues are only $2.00. Life Memberships $40.00. R ichard 5. Bro wnlee Director and Secretary State Historical Society of Missouri Hitt and Lowry Streets Columbia, Missouri 65201 AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE The editorial staff of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW asks that members of the State Historical So ciety of Missouri, who are moving or have moved to a new location, please inform the Society of changes of address, as soon as possible. To remail a returned issue of the REVIEW under new postal rates is very expensive. In addition to elim inating this costly procedure, the immediate notifica tion of a change of address will enable the member to receive the REVIEW at an earlier date. Changes of address should be sent to: State Historical Society of Missouri Corner of Hitt and Lowry Streets Columbia, Missouri 65201 SOCIETY TO PRESENT AWARDS At the Annual Meeting in October the Society will confer three awards. An engraved citation and a medal lion will be awarded to a member who has given distin guished service to the Society and to the State of Mis souri in the promotion and dissemination of knowledge concerning the history of our region. A second en graved citation and a one-hundred-dollar cash award will be given for the REVIEW article during the calendar year which has contributed most in depth in a scholarly and popular sense to the history of our State. The two- hundred-fifty-dollar Floyd C. Shoemaker History Award will be presented to a Missouri senior high school student who has written the best historical article that relates to Missouri events or personalities. The distinguished member will be selected by a three-member committee appointed by the Society president. One member of the selection committee will serve for two years and two members for one year. No active officers or trustees of the Society, with the excep tion of past presidents, may be nominated for the Dis tinguished Service Award. Nominations should be made in writing to Richard S. Brownlee, director of the Society, any time during the calendar year. The prize- winning article will be selected by three historians ap pointed by the editor of the REVIEW. The selection com mittee will be changed each year with the exception of one member who will be replaced after two years. Articles submitted for the Floyd C. Shoemaker History Award will be judged by the Department of History of the University of Missouri-Columbia. CONTENTS COMMEMORATING GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM: AN EXHIBIT 407 MR. BINGHAM'S TOMBSTONE. By Jean Tyree Hamilton 426 JOHN S. JONES: FARMER, FREIGHTER, FRONTIER PROMOTER. By William B. Claycomb 434 JULIUS STRAUSS AND THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY. By Bonnie Wright 451 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS News in Brief 463 Local Historical Societies 468 Gifts 485 Missouri History in Newspapers 489 Missouri History in Magazines 492 In Memoriam 495 Editorial Policy 497 BOOK REVIEW 498 BOOK NOTES 500 INDEX TO VOLUME LXXIII 505 CALEDONIA METHODIST CHURCH Inside Back Cover Kansas City Public Library Commemorating George Caleb Bingham: An Exhibit Famous portraitist and genre painter George Caleb Bingham has immortalized Missouri's past. Day by day he studied the Missouri riverman, the farmer, the local politician and the frontier villager, reproducing these familiar figures in great genre paintings. His fine portraits included prominent Missourians of his day. These paintings are valued as masterpieces of color and composition in their sensitive portrayal of Missouri frontier life. Born March 20, 1811, in Augusta County, Virginia, Bingham's family moved to the Boone's Lick Country of Central Missouri in 1819. Although apprenticed to a Boonville cabinetmaker at the age of 16, he turned to portrait painting in the 1830s. Lacking formal training, Bingham visited Philadelphia in 1838 where he was briefly exposed to the study of color and works of art. In 1840, he moved to Washington, D.C, where he spent four years painting portraits of prominent political figures. Returning to Missouri in 1844, he began to paint genre pictures of the river, political scenes and frontier life. In 1856, Bingham received a commission to paint full-length portraits of 407 408 Missouri Historical Review Washington and Jefferson for the Missouri State Capitol, and from 1856 to 1859, he proceeded with this work in his Dusseldorf, Ger many, studio. Later he received commissions from the state legislature for portraits of Clay and Jackson. Politics also intrigued Bingham. He was elected to the state legislature in 1848, appointed state treasurer in 1862-1865 and ad jutant general of Missouri in 1875. In 1877 he became professor of Art at the University of Missouri. Bingham died in Kansas City, July 7, 1879. A fine colorist, Bingham used an unusual palette to achieve mood, perspective, light and atmosphere with smokey, sometimes im pressionistic, off-shades and brush work.