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F 521 I48 VOL6 NO1 ( INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MI S S I O N James J. Barnes, Crawfordsville Dianne J. Cartmel, Seymour Statement William E. Ervin, Hartford City Ralph D. Gray, Indianapolis H. Roll McLaughlin, Carmel Ronald Morris, Greenwood Mary M. Mullin, Brookville Kathleen Stiso Mullins, South Bend Alan T. Nolan, Indianapolis, Chairman Larry K. Pitts, Indianapolis William G. Prime, Madison ON A SATURDAY NIGHT IN DECEMBER 1830 A GROUP OF THE Evaline H. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, Vice President Richard S. Simons, Marion, President MOST DISTINGUISHED FIGURES IN INDIANA'S EARLY HISTORY- John Martin Smith, Auburn Theodore L. Steele, Indianapolis INCLUDING JOHN FARNHAM, CALVIN FLETCHER, WILLIAM CONNER, P. R. Sweeney, Vincennes Stanley Warren, Indianapolis, Treasurer Herman B Wells, Bloomington JOHN TIPTON, AND MORE THAN HALF OF THE INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY- ADMINISTRATION MET AT THE MARION COUNTY COURTHOUSE IN INDIANAPOLIS TO FORM Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L. Shoemaker, Assistant Executive Director and Business Manager WHAT BECAME THE INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. THAT GROUP COMPOSED Annabelle J. Jackson, Controller Susan P. Brown, Director Human Resources THE ORGANIZATION'S CONSTITUTION AND DECLARED: Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary DIVISION DIRECTORS Bruce L.Johnson, Library Thomas K. Krasean, Community Relations The objects of the Society shall be the collection of all Thomas A. Mason, Publications Robert M. Taylor Jr., Education materials calculated to shed light on the natural, civil and TRACES OF INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORY political history of Indiana, the promotion of useful knowledge Thomas A. Mason, Executive Editor J. Kent Calder, Managing Editor Megan L. McKee, Editor and the friendly and profitable intercourse of such citizens of Kathleen M. Breen, Editorial Assistant George R. Hanlin, Editorial Assistant the state as are disposed to promote the aforesaid objects. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ray E. Boomhower Douglas E. Clanin Paula J. Corpuz TODAY, WITH MORE THAN 10,000 MEMBERS IN AND BEYOND INDIANA, THE Ruth Dorrel SOCIETY BUILDS ON THIS FOUNDATION. AS THE NEXT CENTURY APPROACHES, PHOTOGRAPHY Stephen J. Fletcher, Curator Visual Collections Kim Charles Ferrill, Photographer IT REAFFIRMS ITS ORIGINAL "OBJECTS" WITHIN THE BROADER CONTEXTS OF Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND WORLD HISTORY AND FOCUSES THEM AS FOLLOWS: EDITORIAL BOARD Richard J. M. Blackett, Indiana University, Bloomington Edward E. Breen, Marion Chronicle-Tribune Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University David E. Dawson, Indianapolis To promote public awareness and appreciation of Indiana Robert L. Gildea, Indianapolis Ralph D. Gray, Indiana University, Indianapolis history, the Indiana Historical Society collects, preserves, Monroe H. Little Jr., Indiana University, Indianapolis James H. Madison, Indiana University, Bloomington interprets, and disseminates documentary and visual evidence Richard S. Simons, Marion Emma Lou Thornbrough, Butler University and supports scholarly research. The Society fosters excellence DESIGN Dean Johnson Design and leadership, historical inquiry, and pleasurable and R. Lloyd Brooks, Art Director Scott Johnson, Mike Schwab, Designers informal exchanges, believing that an understanding of TYPOGRAPHY Weimer Graphics, Inc. the past illuminates the present and gives vision for the future. PRINTING Shepard Poorman Communications Corp. Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History (ISSN 1040-788X) is published quar- terly and distributed as a benefit of membership by the Indiana Historical Society; editorial and executive offices, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3299. Membership categories are Annual $20, Sustaining $30, Contributing $50, and Life $500. Single copies are $5. Second-class postage paid at Indianapolis, Indiana; USPS Number 003-275. Literary contri- butions: A brochure containing information for contributors is available APPROVED BY THE upon request. Traces accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 25 APRIL 1991. submitted without return postage. Indiana newspaper publishers may obtain permission to reprint articles by written request to the Society. The Society will refer requests from other publishers to the author. ©1994 Indiana Historical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3299. Traces is a member of the Conference of Historical Journals. O1 VOLUM E 6 N "The ideal of democratizing art'1 TRACES "Arts and Crafts taste predominates" "Photography as art" WINTER 1994 _3| Editors' Page MJ The Selridge Pottery of Shortridge High School _«] Utility Embellished by Skilled Robert M. Taylor Jr. Hands :The Arts and Crafts Movement in Indianapolis 30J Liberating the Creative Spirit: Robert M. Taylor Jr. and Barry Shifman China Painters of Indiana Ellen Paul Denker _8J A Magazine "Perilously Fine": Joseph Moore Bowles and 36J The Pictorialism of Modern Art Mary Lyon Taylor Harriet G. Warkel Joan E. Hostetler J2J Truth to Material: l°!The House Beautiful in Janet Payne Bowles, Indianapolis Metalworker Susan Slade Barry Shifman 44J An Aire of Definite Sincerity" UJ Work Worth Doing: Indiana Hickory Furniture Brandt Steele, Ralph Kylloe Designer and Potter 48J Contributors and Barry Shifman Further Reading 22j "Some Special Object": The Arts and Crafts Society of Indianapolis Robert M. Taylor Jr. In a world whose possibilities were just beginning to open up for women, Janet Payne Bowles achieved economic independence and creative fulfillment as a metalworker. E d i t o r s' Page On 18 November 1883 at noon, with the fall of Western Unions New York time ball, Standard Railway Time began in America. The Indianapolis Daily Sentinel reported that day on the significance of the event: "The sun Indiana's best writers and artists Movement in Indianapolis." Though is no longer to boss the job. People— made national reputations and, in the articles that follow deal primarily 55,000,000 people—must now eat, some cases, good livings by catering to with Indianapolis, the stories they tell sleep and work, as well as travel by rail- the preferences of this expanding are indicative of what went on in cities road time" By 1918 Standard Railway group with stories, poems, and paint- throughout the Midwest, such as Time had become federal law, and ings that promoted traditional values, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Dayton, ordinary life in America had altered portrayed rustic scenes, and offered Detroit, Cleveland, and Saint Louis. irrevocably. Historian Thomas J. escape from contemporary social con- Schlereth uses standard time in his ditions. While many readers of Traces book Victorian America: Transformations are familiar with the names and works "The SUN is no longer of Everyday Life, 1876-1915 as a symbol of Indiana's Golden Age writers and of of the "growing quantification, regi- the Hoosier Group painters, the names to boss the job. mentation, homogeneity, and stan- of the artists treated in this issue, who dardization that had crept into many worked in the Arts and Crafts aes- PEOPLE— aspects of everyday life by 1915." The thetic, are perhaps less well known. Arts and Crafts movement that started Herein, one will learn about the lives 55,000,000 people— in England, the home of the Industrial and works of such Hoosiers as editor Revolution, and swept through the and publisher Joseph Moore Bowles, must now eat, United States at the turn of the century metalsmith Janet Payne Bowles, potter was a reaction to these forces. and designer Brandt Steele, photog- SLEEP and WORK, Industrialization introduced rapid rapher Mary Lyon Taylor, and many others. All these artists endeavored to changes into all aspects of American as well as travel life, especially in the realms of busi- recapture the integrity and morality of ness and labor, production and con- preindustrial craftsmanship and to RAILROAD sumption. While a few entrepreneurs counter the standardization of mass by time." amassed huge fortunes, ever increasing culture by creating everyday objects numbers of the growing population that combined beauty and utility. The movement was of brief duration, declining as a result of its own inher- experienced the realities of poverty, This issue was conceived and planned ent contradictions and the changing unemployment, child labor, and social by Robert M. Taylor Jr. of the Indiana tastes of postwar America. It survives unrest. By the early years of the new Historical Society and Barry Shifman in the beautiful objects it produced, century, members of a large and influ- of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Its which are avidly collected today, and ential professional middle class sought publication precedes a number of sig- in the ideal it promoted of the unifica- to turn the clock back by various means. nificant exhibitions on American Arts tion of labor, art, and morality. This Their tastes in literature and art and Crafts that will open at the IMA on ideal retains its currency for the edi- reflected nostalgic longings for sim- 10 April and that are mentioned by tors and designers of Traces. pler and more serene times, and their title in Taylor and Shifman's introduc- homes became sanctified refuges from tory essay, "Utility Embellished by J. KENT CALDER the burdens of progress and civilization. Skilled Hands: The Arts and Crafts Managing