ort 0 io NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM board of trustees 2008-2009 daniel M. Cain, President table of contents Perri Petricca, First Vice President Michelle Gillett, Second Vice President steven spielberg, Third Vice President James W. Ireland, Treasurer An American institution Peter Williams, Clerk Reflections on turning 40 3 Clarke bailey Lillian bender Rockwell’s Legacy 5 ruby bridges alice Carter Stories in pictures Catharine b. deely Norman Rockwell and the art of illustration 7 Peter de sève “The best of America” Walter & Mary Jo engels At home in Stockbridge 10 John V. frank dr. Mary Grant Rockwell’s models 11 steven Hirsch A time for transition George & Valerie Kennedy Pamela Kinsey Norman Rockwell and the 196os 12 Mark Krentzman The Rise of a Museum 15 deborah s. McMenamy Wendell Minor 1967-2oo9: the story of a museum 17 anne Morgan duncan Pollock Living legacy thomas L. Pulling A personal tribute to the Rockwell family 22 Cynthia rockwell The Rockwell family 23 Mark selkowitz John spellman A Museum’s muses richard b. Wilcox Honoring Norma Ogden, Jane Fitzpatrick, and Lila Berle 24 Lee Williams Jamie Williamson A National Center for Illustration Art 25 Forty (more) years in the vanguard 27 trustees eMerItI Launching the Rockwell Center for Lila W. berle American Visual Studies 25 Jane P. fitzpatrick Paul Ivory On our walls david Klausmeyer Forty years, 420 illustrators . and counting! 30 Norma G. ogden Toward the 50th Henry H. Williams, Jr. A vision of Norman Rockwell Museum in 2019 32 Laurie Norton Moffatt, director/CEO 4oth anniversary supporters 34 portfolio Image credits xx Volume 23, Issue 3, summer 2009 audrey Manring, Editor Jeremy Clowe, Editorial Assistant Mary Herrmann, toni Kenny, Graphic Design Contact us by e-mail at: [email protected] Portfolio is published by Norman rockwell Museum and is sent free to all members. POSItIoNaL only © 2009 by Norman rockwell Museum all rights reserved. Cover: Credits for photographs and illustrations on the cover and interior pages may be found on page xx. Kids Free Every Day! a gift to families from Country Curtains, Accredited by the American blantyre, and the red Lion Inn. Association of Museums. 40th anniversary portfolio 1 “Norman Rockwell Museum is being recognized for studying and honoring the life, work, and ideals of an icon of American art. The Museum has been the careful curator of the archives, illustrations, and benevolent spirit Norman Rockwell bequeathed to the nation.” National Humanities Medal citation, November 2oo8 2 www.nrm.org An American institution Reflections on turning 40 by Laurie Norton Moffatt From the very first day I set foot in the in Philadelphia, and most of it was Old Corner House in 1977, I knew in storage at the Berkshire Museum. there was something special about Several rooms in the Old Corner the organization that was to become House were installed with his paint- Norman Rockwell Museum. We did ings, hung cheek to jowl, salon style, not call ourselves Norman Rockwell and in May 1969, the doors were Museum then, but it was already opened for business. apparent that that was how our visitors Like the subscribers to the Saturday thought of us and spoke of us, and why Evening Post and other journals who they flocked to us. eagerly awaited Rockwell’s next cover For two summers during college, to arrive in their living rooms, public I presented tours of the galleries— demand drove the growth of the Old intimate, crowded quarters hung with Corner House. The 200-year-old home Norman Rockwell’s nearly life-sized that opened its doors in 1969 with paintings. Twenty-five people to a fewer than 5,000 visitors was, 10 years room, six rooms, often all filled at the later, welcoming 90,000 visitors annu- same time. Rotating like clockwork, ally, with no end to audience appetite lines of people filed to the right in for Rockwell in sight. passing as staff choreographed tours This phenomenon of growth by moving in and out of rooms and up popular demand is uncommon among and down stairways, with more people waiting outside in lines museums. Most museums have a founding benefactor—a collector that sometimes stretched around the block. I had never seen creating a legacy of a lifelong collecting passion, or a wealthy phi- anything like this in a museum, never mind a museum that did lanthropist or municipality who determines that an art museum not even call itself such—and featured an artist my art history will benefit the civic well-being of a community. professors did not deem worthy of teaching and my art history Only four years after the opening of the Old Corner House, texts omitted entirely. I was galvanized, and became committed Norman Rockwell established his Art Collection Trust, placing to championing and redressing the reputation of an artist who his art in the care of the fledgling museum. Two years later, he spoke eloquently to millions of people. added his studio and its contents to the Trust. As crowds contin- ued to grow, the Board of Trustees faced the daunting challenge A museum built by popular demand of providing for the collection’s permanent care and accommodat- ing Rockwell’s devoted public. In 1980, the Board voted to either Norman Rockwell did not create his own museum, nor was expand or build a new home for Norman Rockwell’s collection. the Old Corner House founded to be a museum dedicated to And thus the nation’s most popular artist, who rose from the Norman Rockwell. Rather, founding mothers Norma Ogden, ranks of the nation’s most democratic visual art form, the art of Patricia Deely, and Rosamond Sherwood, working in the time- illustration, came to have his own museum through the force of honored tradition of civic responsibility and community philan- fervent public demand. thropy, led an effort to save the historic home. Norman and Molly Rockwell were among the town’s citizens who joined the under- Norman Rockwell, the people’s artist taking. When the Board was looking for programs and exhibi- tions for the house museum, which would include displays from The people’s artist, Norman Rockwell transcended and trans- the Stockbridge Historical Society, Rockwell generously asked, formed his field, and struck a profound chord with his audience. “Would you like to hang some of my pictures?” Norman Rockwell became a household name by the 1940s. His artwork had recently been returned to him from Curtis He held his first job as an illustrator and art editor at age 18, Publishing Company, publisher of the Saturday Evening Post painted his first Post cover at 22, and was a nationally known 40th anniversary portfolio 3 An American institution four freedoms, 1942 figure by the age of 30. During his 65 years of painting, he became entirely different from their elders. These “digital natives” social- more popularly known than Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, ize, organize, work, and play online. The Internet today is the and Jackson Pollock combined. He reached a public who revered Saturday Evening Post of yesterday, only more so: it’s the ultimate him through four generations, chronicling two world wars and mass delivery tool of information for a mass audience. The pos- the advent of radio, telephone, television, automobiles, electric- sibilities for experiencing illustration art—a form intended for ity, airplanes, and space flight. His career spanned one of the mass distribution and popular audiences—are exciting and limit- most eventful periods in American history to date. less in our digital world. Rockwell’s images were ubiquitous. They convey our human- As Norman Rockwell Museum looks ahead to the next 40 ity, as well as our national ideals of freedom, democracy, equal- years, we envision an inspired, updated return to the mass dis- ity, tolerance, and common decency. In the 21st century no less semination of illustration art. It’s already begun. The Internet is than the 20th, he is an American institution. a portal for the Museum’s many audiences: often our first point Norman Rockwell Museum has welcomed 5,000,000 visitors of contact with visitors who come on-site; the medium through across its threshold in Stockbridge, and reaches as many visitors which illustrators whose work we have exhibited share their through its traveling exhibition program of Rockwell’s work and thoughts and images; the place where educators download cur- that of other distinguished American illustrators. Wherever we ricula and students come to research term papers; the tool used present Rockwell’s art, in Stockbridge or at museums around the by researchers who will soon be able to access the Museum’s full country and world, people gather, conversation springs up, and collections and archive through ProjectNORMAN or study the communities form. Visiting Norman Rockwell Museum is not rich legacy of illustration art through the Rockwell Center for a quiet experience. People talk in the galleries, sharing reminis- American Visual Studies; a source of community for Rockwell cences and personal stories, pointing out details, and chuckling models and fans who enjoyed a brush with the artist’s life. over Rockwell’s humor. The only hush comes when people fall Norman Rockwell Museum is well poised to create and silent in reverence for a particular ideal depicted in an image. deliver all of these experiences to its many, many communities of friends and patrons. In whatever medium people encounter Creating community in the digital age us, we will remain a gathering place for inspiration, reflection, and enjoyment—seeking always to match the satisfaction and joy The world of the print periodical, which brought Rockwell’s work that a good Rockwell painting delivers.