Monday, February 27, 2006

Carnegie reconstruction underway

The remodeling and reconstruction of the future home of the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County is underway. The newer addition that was added to the Carnegie in the late 1970s has been razed, and the Carnegie building -- the former library -- is now in the process of being transformed. It has been a long time since anyone has seen the original ceiling in the Carnegie (ever since the drop ceiling was added years ago), so take a peek now at this sample image if you want a glimpse of what wil be restored.

Preview Shelf -- Bowman's Historical Painting Donated to the Library

The paperwork and research are finished on the newest art in the local history area of the Crawfordsville District Public Library. Michael Bowman has donated his painting of Lew Wallace and grandson Lew, Jr. (son of Henry Lane Wallace) fishing together off the back steps of his Study at the east end of Pike Street. It preserves a memory of the pond the author of Ben Hur placed at the east side of his building which now is an area of sloping grass. Bowman painted the scene from a posed elegant photograph made about 1897 when Lew Jr. was five years old, and shows the prominent huge porthole in the east wall accentuating Wallace's love of this hobby waterhole.

The Bowman painting joins a collection in the research area which also includes an oval photograph of Lew, other pictures showing his home, the pond, and views of him in his study, a group of photos of Crawfordsville Main Street in 1865, and an oil painting of the working Yountsville Woolen Mill by E. S. Wright.

There are four new books about C. S. Lewis. The World According to Narnia is Jonathan Rogers' review of the Christian meaning in the author's beloved chronicles. Further Up & Further In by Bruce Edwards explains the specific concepts in the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Four Loves includes chapters on affection, friendship, eros, and lastly charity, which he says is both the love of God and the selfless love of others. His A Grief Observed he calls a defense against total collapse, a safety valve recognizing that bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love.

Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Othello are single paperbacks in The Annotated Shakespeare collection.

A catalog for a touring exhibition in Andover, MA called Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawkes shows work from the celebrated photography studio active from 1845 to 1862. Subjects are the greatest personalities of the day, private portraits, street scenes, and special places, preserving living history of the time.

Oh What a Slaughter is Larry McMurtry's history of the bloody massacres that marked the settling of the American West. The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life is a photographic epic by FORWARD, the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development, about clitoridectomy and the prevention of infibulation, whose campaign is endorsed by the United Nations. Hidden Child by Isaac Millman documents his experience as one of the Jewish children who were hidden from the Nazis during World War II, often adopting non-Jewish names in order to survive.

In Harvest for Hope, Jane Goodall, the scientist who changed the way we view our relationship with the animal kingdom, studies the food we produce and consume, towards fostering a sustainable society. Naomi Moriyama's secrets of her mother's Tokyo kitchen make up Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat based on the statistic that these women are the world champions of longevity.

Lovesick Blues is Paul Hemphill's biography of Hank Williams, explaining the singer-songwriter's short life from modest beginnings to Grand Ole Opry stardom. Confessions of an Heiress by Paris Hilton is a tongue-in-chic look at life from the perspective of a young woman who has the whole world as her setting. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest American boxer since Joe Louis Pound for Pound, according to Herb Boyd, whose biography tells of Robinson's victory in 125 consecutive fights.