CRM Bulletin Vol. 8, No

Gilpin BULLETIN Volume 8: Nos. 3 & 4 Cultural Resources Management • A National Park Service Technical Bulletin June-August 1985 Introducing Decorative and Fine Arts This special issue on decorative and and fine arts collections will be tive or fine arts, seems somehow in fine arts was conceived as a way to available. adequate. These objects are viewed draw attention to these very rich, but Because of the site-orientation of its not only for their decorative or not widely known, National Park collections, the National Park Service esthetic value, but also for their con Service collections. The general has some of the most unique decorative textual value. Whether the objects are public as well as decorative and fine and fine arts collections in the United original to the site, or whether they arts specialists are often surprised to States. Whereas many museum col are period pieces similar to those learn that the Service has such exten lections are acquired and displayed originally used there, or whether they sive holdings. solely as examples of style, period, are simply well done reproductions, One-half of the areas in the Na manufacturer, or artist, most Na they are present because of their tional Park System were established tional Park Service collections are relevance to the site. primarily for their historical values. assembled because of their site- The National Park Service has The Service also administers 175 associative value. Although they may developed considerable skill in structures furnished with decorative provide information on style, and assembling, interpreting, and man arts. Its estimated historical collec other such factors, they are viewed, aging collections of site-oriented tions fall somewhere within the range more importantly, in context with decorative and fine arts objects. of 1 million items (excluding histor other objects to interpret persons, Those individuals who are experienced ical archeological items). Many, if events, a process, or a function (see in planning, documenting, acquiring, not most, of these are decorative arts, discussion in this issue by Sarah preserving, displaying, interpreting with fine arts being a fraction of the Olson). and managing these unique collec total. Once the NPS National Catalog To describe site-associated objects, tions share their points of view and of Museum Objects is complete, Ser- such as those in the homes of Harry their experiences in this issue. © vicewide data on the actual size, S. Truman, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Ann Hitchcock scope, and nature of these decorative or Carl Sandburg, merely as decora Chief Curator Our Visual Heritage: SHARING THE FINE ARTS AT SAINT-GAUDENS NATIONAL HISTORICAL SITE John Dryfhout "Thank Heaven, we have at last spanning more than thirty years. some artistic work of permanent Saint Gaudens fused realism and worth done for the government!" So idealism in his creation of major said President Theodore Roosevelt in public monuments such as the Far- 1905 upon receiving his medal by ragut and Sherman monuments in sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens New York City; two heroic figures of (1848-1907). This event comprised Lincoln in Chicago; and the moving one of the highlights of a career in art monument to Robert Shaw and the continued on page 2 "Ceres" panel for the Vanderbilt House, New York, 1881. Plaster models for the ten dollar gold piece and one cent piece of 1907. Visual Heritage . The Art Collections of The National Park continued from page 1 Service—An Overview 54th Regiment of Black Volunteers in Anthony M. Knapp Boston. In this period of great por traiture, Augustus Saint-Gaudens created a series of sixty portraits in The Thomas Hill paintings at tion into proper perspective: bas-relief; a haunting synthesis of Yosemite National Park, the St. The borderline between art and Michaelangelo and Buddhism found Gaudens sculptures at St. Gaudens artifact can sometimes be ex in the Adams Memorial; tributes to National Historic Park, and the tremely narrow and arguably, beauty in the over-life size "Amor Charles Willson Peale portraits at In in the eye of the beholder. Caritas," a winged female figure with dependence National Historic Park Both illuminate our under flowers in a sash at her waist and en- are well known examples of art col standing of the societies that wreathed in her hair; the golden lected by the National Park Service. produced them, and both are "Diana" which turned in the wind 350 Yet, while these and other examples part of the larger heritage of feet above street-level on New York's are known, the exact size, scope, our material culture. Madison Square Garden, lit by great significance, and value of National In addition to fine and decorative Park Service art holdings remain arts, the category of folk arts and unknown. crafts requires definition. A Biblio The definition of an art object graphy on Historical Organization seems rather simple at first. An object Practices, Documentation of Collec made for esthetic, rather than utilitar tions edited by Frederick L. Rath, Jr. ian purposes, it lends itself to a variety and Merrilyn Rogers O'Connell defines of view points. In his book, Manual this category as follows: "These ob for Smalt Museums, Lawrence Vail jects were produced by artists and Coleman wrote "the arts are conceived craftsmen without formal training by some to be architecture and who worked outside the academic graphic art, namely painting and tradition. They derived their tech drawing. To these major arts the term niques and subjects from experience fine is commonly applied, as though and their works reflect the world in works of fine art were superior to which they lived." Paintings, tomb ceramics, metal work, carvings, stones, scrimshaw, weather vanes, tapestries and lace." As Mr. Coleman figureheads, decoys, tavern signs, points out, the traditional categories quilts and coverlets, ceramics, and of distinction are fine arts and dec decorated furniture all fit into this orative arts, the former including category. paintings, drawings, sculpture, and The National Park Service art col architecture, and often considered to lection includes fine, decorative, and be art created for its own sake. Art in folk art objects, but places more em this category is created primarily for phasis on the associative values of esthetic purposes by persons academic each rather than their esthetic ally trained in the field, while decora qualities. The awesome splendor of tive art ornaments or embellishes an Yosemite National Park attracted the object created primarily for utilitarian attention of landscape painter Thomas purposes, i.e., ceramics, glass, furni Hill, whose work records 19th-century Adams Memorial, 1891, with this ture, metals, textiles, and books. views of the park's landscape, lakes, particular cast dating to 1968. Sometimes there can be difficulty waterfalls, and animal and plant life. distinguishing between fine and The paintings, furniture, and decora decorative art. The chapel doors from tive objects at Independence National carbon arc search lights; and designs the Russian Bishop's House at Sitka Historical Park relate to the events for the United States gold coinage of National Historic Park serve as one and people which shaped this coun 1907, acclaimed as the most hand example. Created to provide a screen try's beginnings. In many of our some ever minted in this country. between the priests and the congrega historic houses, fine arts are used as During his lifetime, Saint-Gaudens tion, they had a primarily utilitarian decorative arts, which provide the devoted himself to the creation of function. However, paintings with fabric for interpreting to our park sculpture. He set new standards for religious themes were applied to the visitors an understanding and ap the awarding of art commissions. His doors before they were transported to preciation for the specific site and collaboration with other professionals Sitka. Although the artist is un for our nation's heritage. in developing plans for the Chicago known, the quality of the paintings World's Columbian Exposition cap In 1976, the Smithsonian Institution emerges from the academic tradition. tured the imagination of the nation, Thus, the doors are an example of published its Directory to the BiCen- and has its legacy in the great plan both fine and decorative art. Jessie for the District of Columbia as well Pesch in his book, The Art of the tennial Inventory of American Paint- as some of the more than 2,200 statues, South, places the question of distinc continued on page 4 monuments, and memorials protected 2 by the National Park Service. After and arboreal specimens displaced his death, his home came to repre sculpture as great treasures in parks Ethnographic and sent, in the words of his wife and gardens. It was not until the 20th Decorative Arts Augusta, "the best possible monu century that museum gardens for the ment to the sculptor and a good thing display of works of art came into Conservation: A for art in this land." Today, Saint- fashion. Gaudens National Historic Site is one The Saint-Gaudens National His Comparison of of the few areas in the National Park toric Site at Cornish, New Hamp Approaches System where the collections are so shire, established by the sculptor's integral to its purpose and preserva family and friends in 1919, is perhaps Gregory Byrne tion that they are a primary reason one of the earliest preservation pro for visiting the park. This infusion of jects of this kind in the country. .a Deteriorating objects in National the built environment, the careful fusion of historic house museum and Park Service museum collections need manipulation of architecture, art and open-air museum. Capitalizing on the to be conserved, but how to accom nature is what makes the combination beginning of tourism, Augusta Homer plish this is often a complex question.

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