FEATURE image: September 1994. Montaña de Oro State Park. San Luis Obispo/Los Osos, CA. 80%
June 1987. Jenner, CA. 868 kbJune 1987. Sonoma Co., CA. 205kbJune 1994. Glacier National Park (Montana). 60%October 1988. U.S.-Mexico border. Behind me is Mexico. Coronado National Memorial, Cochise County, Arizona. Here, at Montezuma’s pass at 6,700 feet, Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (1510-1554) and his conquistadores first set foot in what is now Arizona in 1540 — less than 50 years after Columbus’ discovery of America and 67 years before the founding of Jamestown by the English. 1mb. September 1994. Montaña de Oro State Park. San Luis Obispo/Los Osos, CA. 80%June 1987. St. Teresa of Avila Church, 17120 Bodega Rd., Bodega, California. The church was built by shipbuilders in 1860 on land donated by an Irish-American politician from San Francisco. In 1953 Ansel Adams (1902-1984) photographed the church in black and white. Film director Alfred Hitchock (1899-1980) attended Mass in the church during the filming of “The Birds.” The Bodega schoolhouse immediately behind the church was used by Hitchcock for the schoolhouse scene in the 1963 horror-thriller film. An active schoolhouse in 1963, the church can also be seen in the classic film. 93% 7.89mb
June 2001. Rapidan River near Chancellorsville,VA, The Rapidan River is the largest tributary of the Rappahannock River. These two rivers in the state of Virginia converge just west of the city of Fredericksburg, VA. The Rapidan River was the scene of severe and significant fighting in the Civil War including at Ely’s Ford (August 1862 & April-May 1863), Kelly’s Ford (March 1863), Chancellorsville (May 1863), Brandy Station (June 1863), and the Battle of the Wilderness (May 1864). 75%September 1993. Washington Pass (Diablo Lake), WA. A popular spot, Diablo Lake is one of the scenic bodies of water in Washington Pass which, at over one mile above sea level, is the highest point on the North Cascades Highway in Washington State. On either side of the pass are glacier-carved valleys whose creeks eventually drain into the Columbia River. According to the Pacific Northwest National Parks and Forest Association and the U.S.D.A. Forest Service (Pacific Northwest Region), when the North Cascades Highway opened in 1972 more people could easily access the highest and wildest mountains in the state than ever before. Before 1972 Native Americans, prospectors, trappers, mountaineers and hearty backpackers were the only ones who explored a region that took about four days to cross on horseback. Diablo Lake’s distinctive color is caused by fine rock particles, or “glacial flour,” which refracts light. These particles are created as rocks erode and pour into the lake by wind and glacial streams. 60%.September 1993. Washington Pass, State Route 20, WA. State Route 20, or the North Cascades Highway, cuts through mountain wilderness at Washington Pass. The highway is Washington State’s longest, winding its way over 400 miles traveling from U.S. Route 101 at Discovery Bay on the Olympic Peninsula to the state border with Idaho. 65%September 1993. Washington Pass, Liberty Bell (7720 feet/2353 meters), North Cascades National Park, WA. 80% (10)September 1993. Washington Pass, Pyramid Peak (7182 feet/2189 meters), North Cascades National Park, WA 60%June 1992. Bandon OR. Bandon is a city in Coos County, Oregon. It was named by George Bennet, an Irish peer, who settled nearby in 1873 and named the town after Bandon in Ireland, his hometown. 65%June 1992. Rogue River (Copper Canyon), Agness ORJuly 1991. Mt Rainier National Park, WA. July 13, 1991. Narada Falls, Mt Rainier National Park, WADecember 1987. Hollywood, FL. September 1984. “Degas in the Art Institute of Chicago.” July 19- September 23, 1984 7.84mb 72%September 1989. Harbour Town, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. September 1989. B&B Hosts, Charleston, South Carolina, South Carolina.September 1989. Savannah Theatre, Savannah, Georgia. Standing at 222 Bull Street across from Chippewa Square, a theatre has stood on this site since 1818. The Arte Moderne movie house was built in1948 by Robert E. Collins and Carl E. Helfrich, architects active in Georgia and Florida. It was owned by Weis Theatres who also had a movie house in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 1981 the nearly 1000-seat theatre has changed hands several times. When this photograph was taken in 1989 the theatre was downsized to about 350 seats and owned by the Savannah Theatre Company (STC) and used for live performances. SOURCE: https://visitsavannah.com/profile/chippewa-square/6117 and https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/686. (20)July 1989. John Adams Old House at Peacefield, 135 Adams Street, Quincy, Massachusetts. Home to four generations of the Adams family and the Stone Library. 70%. July 1989. Cape Neddick Light, 1879, York, Maine. Seen from Sohier Park, Cape Neddick Light was built in 1879 on a “nubble” of land about a football field apart from the mainland, The light has been in continuous use since the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes and still has it original Fresnel lens. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. As necessity is the mother of invention, the lamp was electrified in 1938 so that its oil-lit lamp didn’t blow out during “Down East” winter storms.July 1989. Ocean Avenue, Kennebunkport, Maine. 50%. July 1989. Branch Street, Boston, Massachusetts. 65%January 1999. San Diego, CA. The California Conservation Corps (CCC) at the end of its work day. The CCC was founded by Gov. Jerry Brown in 1976. It is a pay-as-you-go government agency that gives youth the opportunity to work in a job that is mostly outdoors as well as provides some scholarships. 75% October 2000. Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, San Diego, California. September 1994. Lake Cachuma, CA. Cachuma Lake is a reservoir in the Santa Ynez Valley of central Santa Barbara County, California on the Santa Ynez River along California State Route 154. The artificial lake was created to meet the water needs of this part of California. The Cachuma site for a new dam was formally approved in December 1947 with a referendum endorsing it overwhelmingly in November 1949. The dam began in 1950 and was completed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1953. Lake Cachuma finally spilled in April 1958. The final price tag of the project would amount to over $43 million. 80% see – https://www.independent.com/2017/11/02/history-lake-cachuma/ – retrieved February 20, 2024. October 20, 1992. Chicago. Clinton-Gore Rally, The Democratic ticket for U.S. president and vice president was joined by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tipper Gore. Also on the platform was Democratic Senate candidate, Carol Moseley Braun. All these candidates won their respective races that year. Clinton-Gore served two terms and Moseley Braun who was the first Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate and first female U.S. Senator from Illinois served one term. see – https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4090960/user-clip-clintongore-campaign-speech-1992 – retrieved June 20, 2023.75%June 2000. Olana, the home of artist Frederic Church (1826-1900) and his wife Isabel Mortimer Carnes, a young beauty from Dayton, Ohio, and their four children. Church, a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1860, by then a successful married artist, Church bought 126 acres of farmland on a south-facing hillside near the town of Hudson. The area had been a sketching place he visited in 1840 with his teacher, Thomas Cole (1801-1848). Calling it “the Farm,” the Churches built the Olana mansion between 1870 and 1872. Today Olana is part of 250-acre State Historic Site along the picturesque Hudson River across from Catskill, New York. 65% see – https://www.olana.org/ – retrieved February 19, 2024. December 1998. Chicago. Behind us is the construction site for Millennium Park. Ground was broken in 1997 for the project in a northwest corner of Grant Park and completed in 2004. In 1999 it was announced that Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate (“The Bean”) – a mirrored stainless steel object roughly 66 feet long – would be installed in the park with the expectation that it would attract foot traffic. The Bean was unveiled in 2006. By 2016 Millennium Park was the most-visited site In the Midwest as it boasted more than 13 million visitors that year and generated about 20,000 hospitality jobs. see -https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/millennium-park-midwest-tourism/ – retrieved February 19, 2024. (30)March 1999. Bust of Thomas Edison (1847-1931), Edison/Ford Museum, Fort Meyers, Florida, Completed in 1886, American inventor Edison had his winter home and botanical laboratory in Fort Meyers until his death in 1931. Edison and car manufacturer Henry Ford (1863-1947) lived next door to each other in Florida.May 1989. Sedona, Arizona. 1.14 mb. By way of the leadership of then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt (1978-1987), a 286 acre area of a vast red sandstone canyon was designated as Red Rock State Park. It opened and was dedicated in October 1991. 1.14mb The author (left), as Communications Director of a national insurance association, was tasked to invite and facilitate the visit of Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt (center) to its annual meeting in May 1989. The former governor and 1988 presidential candidate gave the keynote address at The Registry Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. see – https://azstateparks.com/red-rock/explore/park-history – retrieved February 20, 2024. Fair use. May 1989. Holy Cross Chapel, Sedona, Arizona. It was inspired and commissioned by local rancher and sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude (1899-1988) and dedicated in 1957. Architects for the project were Richard Hein and August K. Strotz of Anshen & Allen. Since the chapel is built on Coconino National Forest land a special use permit was needed which was secured for the project by Senator Barry Goldwater. The construction supervisor was Fred Coukos who built the chapel for $300,000 (about $3.5 million in 2024 dollars) over about 18 months. see- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212538307/marguerite-staude and https://www.chapeloftheholycross.com/history – retrieved February 20, 2014. May 1989. Sedona, Arizona. 1.28mbMay 1989. Tuzigoot National Monument, Yavapai County, Arizona. Tuzigoot which means “crooked creek” in Apache is a 1000 year old pueblo ruin which was home to about 200 Sinagua Native Americans. “If a person wants to build a house on a hill,” the park ranger opined, “it’ll be on a hill.” The complex commands a 360 degree view of the Camp Verde Valley. Sinagua built their dwellings on hills for protection as well as climate – it was breezier and 10 degrees cooler in summer and that much warmer in winter than if their homes were in the valley below. The people could also observe and manage their rich farmland below more effectively from their hilltop domiciles. President Franklin Roosevelt designated Tuzigoot Ruins as a U.S. National Monument on July 25, 1939. 1.86mb Tuzigoot National Monument, Clarkdale, Arizona. The approximately 20×20 foot rooms were inter-connected and accessed by rooftop. Indoors, the people slept, ate, and weaved while they did the rest of their living outdoors. Tuzigoot was not the only such Sinagua complex in the area, June 2001, The gravesite of Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia,New York Democratic Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. “Robert F. Kennedy, 1968 Presidential campaign” by ak245 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.June 1994. Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, California. see- https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/ – retrieved February 21, 2024. June 1994. Richard Nixon Birthplace on the grounds of the presidential library in Yorba Linda, Calif. In 1912 Frank and Hannah Nixon built this farmhouse on their citrus orchard ranch. The future 37th president was born here on January 9, 1913 and grew up in this house until he was 9 years old. 65%June 1994. Gravesite of “Pat” Nixon, First Lady of the U.S. Nixon Presidential Library, Yorba Linda, Calif. (40)“Richard Nixon” by tonynetone is licensed under CC BY 2.0.“PatNixon” by Unknown authorUnknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.June 1994. Gravesite of Richard Milhous Nixon. Nixon had died at 81 years old less than two months before this photograph was taken. At his funeral here at the library on April 27, 1994, five U.S. presidents and their wives attended including Presidents Clinton, G. H. W. Bush, Reagan, Carter and Ford. 1.43mbJune 1994. At the Nixon Library, Yorba Linda, Calif. September 2000. The Mississippi River from the bluffs of Effigy Mounds National Monument near Dubuque, Iowa. It preserves hundreds of prehistoric mounds built by pre-Columbian Mound Builder cultures, mostly in the first millennium CE, during the later part of the Woodland period of pre-Columbian North America. June 2000. Grant’s Tomb, New York City. The classical domed mausoleum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in Morningside Heights was completed in 1897. It was designed by American architect John Hemenway Duncan (1854-1929) and is situated in the middle of Riverside Drive at 122nd Street, adjacent to Riverside Park. Inside this grandiose stone structure are the graves of U.S. Grant, 18th president of the U.S. and his wife, Julia Grant. The most popular man in the 19th century, U.S. Grant served as Commanding General of the U.S. Army and, for a short time, Secretary of War, under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. General Grant brought victory to the Union cause during the Civil War as President Grant worked to bring to the nation a just and peaceful resolution to the war’s aftermath. U.S. Grant. Public Domain. Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), 8th president of the U,S., gravesite, Kinderhook, NY. Van Buren was attorney general and governor of New York, a U.S. senator from New York, and ambassador to England, secretary of state, and vice-president under Andrew Jackson. Though the shortest president of the U.S. at 5’6″ except for James Madison at 5’4″, Van Buren was a shrewd politician whose nickname was “The Little Magician.” Martin Van Buren in a photograph by Mathew B. Brady (1823-1896), c. 1855. Public Domain. see- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/269852June 2000. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) and Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) gravesite, Hyde Park, New York. The Roosevelts. “Franklin and Eleanor (FDR Bio, part 1)” by Tony Fischer Photography is licensed under CC BY 2.0.June 2001. Manassas National Battlefield Park, VA. Monument to Brigadier General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (1824-1863) commissioned by the Virginia Assembly in 1936 and dedicated in August 1940. It had been here on Henry Hill on July 21,1861, in the first months of the Civil War, that Jackson took a stand against the Union advance and received the sobriquet “Stonewall” from his men. 99% 6.82mb see – https://www.nps.gov/places/000/stonewall-jackson-monument.htmJune 2001. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (1824-1863) gravesite, Oak Grove Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia. 75%. After the Confederate general’s eventual death following a “friendly fire” incident at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, his body was taken to Richmond, Virginia, where it was placed in a casket and transported to Lexington, Virginia, where it lay in state at Virginia Military Institute. Before the Civil War, Jackson was a professor of Natural Philosophy (Sciences) and artillery tactics at VMI. He was funeralized at historic Lexington Presbyterian Church, Jackson’s parish, and buried in the family plot at Oak Grove Cemetery. Later his remains were disinterred and reburied beneath this statue. see- https://www.vmi.edu/archives/manuscripts/stonewall-jackson-resources/professor-jackson-at-vmi/ – retrieved February 22, 2024. Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson (1824-1863). Public Domain. June 2001. The West Virginia State Capitol Building in Charleston, West Virginia, is on the Kanawha River. The Lincoln statue by Fred Torrey (1884-1967) was dedicated on the Capitol grounds in June 1974 and is known as “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.” The figure of a brooding ethereal Lincoln is based on a famous poem by Springfield-Ill. poet Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931). The sculptor was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he studied sculpture under Irish-born Charles J. Mulligan (1866-1916) who was head of the sculpture department at the school. Afterwards, Torrey apprenticed under sculptor Lorado Taft (1860-1936). Architect Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) designed the buff limestone structure that was dedicated in 1932. The building houses the legislature and Governor’s offices. Gilbert’s other works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota and Arkansas, the Detroit Public Library, and the Saint Louis Art Museum and Public Library.June 2001. The 293-foot height of the dome of the West Virginia Capitol Building in Charleston, West Virginia, is five feet taller than the dome of the United States Capitol. The dome is covered in copper and gold leaf. The dome was originally gilded by Mack Jenney and Tyler Company. see – https://generalservices.wv.gov/history-of-the-capitol/Pages/default.aspx – retrieved February 22, 2024. June 2001. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. 75% (50)June 2008. Thomas Circle and National City Christian Church (1930), Washington D.C. September 2001. Interior, Carpenters’ Hall (1770-1774), Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The two-story brick meeting hall was built for and still privately owned by the Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest extant craft guild. The First Continental Congress met here from September 5 to October 26, 1774, including delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies, such as John Adams (1735-1826) and Samuel Adams (1722-1803) from Massachusetts and George Washington (1732-1799) and Patrick Henry (1736-1799) from Virginia. The First Continental Congress had sent entreaties to King George III (1738-1820) to stop the Intolerable Acts. The Second Continental Congress began meeting in Philadelphia in May 1775. See – https://www.carpentershall.org/ – retrieved February 22, 2024September 1991. Oyster bar, Union Oyster House (1826), Boston MA. The Union Oyster House building was built in 1704 where it was a dress goods store and then a newspaper office. In 1826, it became an Oyster House. The first floor semi-circular oyster bar is original. It is the same bar where Daniel Webster sat and imbibed brandy and oysters. When the wait times for a table are long the bar is a great alternative to immediatley enjoy a repast. The restaurant also dedicated JFK’s favorite booth located in the upstairs dining room that the Kennedy family patronized. 70%. see – https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/massachusetts/articles/a-brief-history-of-union-oyster-house-americas-oldest-operating-restaurant – retrieved February 24, 2024. August 2005. Union Oyster House (1826), Boston, MA.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) gravesite, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Mass. Emerson has been called “the most iconoclastic thinker in nineteenth century America” (Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists, p. 83). A minister by inkling and training, Emerson graduated from Harvard University in 1821 and became an ordained minister in 1829. He abandoned traditional Christianity and writing sermons after his first wife’s death in 1831 and, traveling to England and back, embraced Transcendentalism and writing essays exploring the nature of life and death. These he read aloud to enthusiastic audiences around the country. Emerson published his first book, Nature, in 1836 and a second and third volume of essays in 1841 and 1844. From 1842 to 1844, Emerson was editor of The Dial, a Transcendentalist journal. During his lifetime, Emerson gave thousands of lectures upsetting more than a few with his views on, for example, Native American policy (he wrote against Cherokee removal in the 1830’s) and slavery (he condemned the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and supported abolitionist political candidates in New England).
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1883). Public Domain.
July 1989. Henry D. Thoreau (1817-1862) gravesite, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Mass. Thoreau, a naturalist and Transcendentalist writer, moved into his one-room cabin on Walden Pond in 1845. Thoreau had a close relationship with fellow Transcendentalist philosopher and writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is also buried in this cemetery. Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience published in 1849 argued in favor of citizen disobedience against an unjust state.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Public Domain. July 1989. JFK Library, Columbia Point, Boston, MA. July 1975. U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. Author with longtime Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine. Muskie was then-Senate Budget Committee chair. On that trip I also met Sen. Ted Kennedy who happened to sit right next to me as he gave his presentation in a Senate conference room to a roomful of senators and others. I was with my Dad who had business on the Hill. I wasn’t kidding either when I said I had one of those mid 1970’s disco shirts!July 1991. Port Orford, Oregon. The Port Orford area was inhabited by Kwatami Tututni (Sixes band). In 1543 Spanish explorer Bartolomé Ferrelo (1499-1550) mapped Cape Blanco and it remained the farthest north point on the coastal map until 1778. When British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798) sighted land in 1792 he named it Port Orford. In June 1851 Captain William Tichenor in command of the Seagull pulled into Port Orford and left behind nine men who established a U.S. Army fort. see- https://ndnhistoryresearch.com/2019/03/16/battle-rock-the-first-colonization-on-the-southern-oregon-coast/ – retrieved February 24, 2024. August 2005. Seawall, Baltimore, MD.
FEATURE image: Chicago Loop Synagogue with stained glass window, Let There Be Light (1960) by American Expressionist artist Abraham Rattner (1895-1978). The synagogue was built in 1957 with this wall of stained glass. The colorful and semi-abstract artwork contrasts and complements with the architectural minimalism of the rest of the sanctuary. Text and photographs by John P. Walsh unless otherwise noted.
Chicago Loop Synagogue was a midcareer project for a pair of leading Chicago Jewish architects of Modernism — Jerrold Loebl (1899–1978) and Norman Schlossman (1901– 1990). Loeble was a son of Hungarian immigrants and Schlossman was the grandson of immigrants from Germany. Both graduated from the Armour Institute (today’s Illinois Institute of Technology) and became partners in 1925. The third partner changed over the decades and in 2024 the firm is Loebl, Schlossman, & Hackl. Following World War II, the firm was Loebl, Schlossman & Bennett and the team created influential examples of Chicago’s mid-century Modernism. Richard Marsh Bennett (1907-1996) had been chairman of the Yale Architecture Department and stayed with the firm until 1974 when he returned to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The architectural firm’s designs included Weiss Memorial Hospital (4646 N Marine Drive) and The Darien (3100 N. Lake Shore Drive ) also built in the 1950s.
The Ten Commandments meet the visitors in the foyer upon entering synagogue. For the Jews, the Ten Commandments (found in the Bible in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 6-21) are a special set of spiritual laws that the LORD Himself wrote on two stone tablets (luchot) that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. In the Scriptures these laws are called the “Aseret Ha Devarim,” the “ten words” or “ten utterances.” In rabbinical writings, they are usually referred to as “Aseret Ha Dibrot,” and in Christian theological writings they are called the Decalogue which is derived from the Greek name “dekalogos” (“ten statements”) found in the Septuagint (Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 10:4), which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name. To the Jews the Torah has a total of 613 commandments which includes the ten from the Decalogue. See – https://www.the-ten-commandments.org/the-ten-commandments.html – retrieved December 4, 2023).
Chicago Loop Synagogue. “Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.The limestone blocks of the North wall are cut at an angle to evoke the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem.The Holy Ark is made by Israeli sculptor and ceramicist Henri Azaz (1923-2008). Jutting into the prayer space from the far-left corner of the window, Rattner incorporated the ark that would house the Torah scrolls. He surrounded it with flames – integrated into the glass – leaping up and out, drawing attention to the presence of God in the very heart of the sanctuary. “Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.The House of Worship is 3 floors, 450 seats, 6 Torahs, and a 40-foot-tall stained-glass window that fills the Eastern façade and the congregation with filtered sunlight. The Chicago Loop Synagogue was founded in 1929 to serve the religious needs of those whose business activities brought them downtown.“Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Visitors to the Chicago Loop Synagogue are guided by one of its members.
Abraham Rattner, the Expressionist artist of the wall-filling colorful stained-glass window was born in Poughkeepsie, New York to a Russian-Jewish father and a Romanian-Jewish mother. Rattner studied to be architect, but turned to painting studying at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Rattner served as a camouflage artist in France during World War I and, after the war, joined many of “the Lost Generation” that writer and critic Gertrude Stein spoke about when referencing the post- war Ernest Hemingway and many others who lived in Europe, mainly Paris, in the 1920s. Rattner lived in Paris for 20 years, from 1920 until late 1939 where, during that extensive time period, he met Claude Monet (1840-1926). To avoid the coming Nazi invasion of France, Rattner and his wife Bettina Bedwell (1889-1947), a journalist and fashion illustrator from Nebraska who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and who married in 1924, returned to America, where they lived in New York City. Rattner was known for his rich use of color and abstraction in his artwork and whose subject matter often had to do with religion. In the post-World War II era he taught at several schools, including New York’s The New School (1947–55) and at Yale University (1952-1953). In 1949 Rattner married Esther Gentle (1899 – 1991), an artist and art dealer, and was a friend of writer Henry Miller (1891-1980) who wrote about their friendship in 1968 in A Word About Abraham Rattner.
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The colors and design elements of this 31 x 40-foot glass artwork signify God’s relationship with the cosmos, humanity, and the Jewish people. After two years working on conceptual and design schemes, the artist Abraham Rattner spent a year fabricating the window – a presentation of cool blues and warm red and yellows studded with purples that take on shapes of planets, trees, Hebrew letters and the Israelite tribes. It was made in Paris’s 15th arrondissement at Atelier Barillet, the house and workshop of master glassmaker Louis Barillet (1880-1948). The artwork was the subject of a 1976 exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a 1978 exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The window was made to fit inside the prayer space for which it was created. To create the stained glass work, Rattner drew inspiration from the opening passages of Genesis, honing in on the hidden meanings of the words “And there was light” to channel cosmic creative energies of the Divine.
The Tree of Life (above) is also visaged as the Menorah and is identified with the light of innermost perception – the spirit; thought; ideas; life; and of knowledge. This Primal Light, God’s light, radiates outward, extending and expanding throughout the universe.
The Menorah (above) poetically conceived as a tree of life and of light. The Menorah is the classic symbol of Judaism.
The Star of David (above right) and the palm branch used on the Succot harvest festival.
The shofur or ram’s horn (above) is an ancient instrument used on High Holidays to call the people to repentance. In close proximity to the shofur is the etrog which is a fruit of the Holy Land which expresses earth’s bounty as well as the overflowing love of a human being’s heart for God.
A view of the sanctuary from its balcony. The near perfect beauty of the Chicago Loop Synagogue is self-evident. The prayer room on the first floor is used for daily prayer and other gatherings.
Chicago Churches and Synagogues: An Architectural Pilgrimage, George Lane, S.J., and Algimantas Kezys, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1981,pp. 202-203.
AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 74.
FEATURE image: Aeolian Skinner organ, sanctuary, 10/2015 6.27mb. Text and Photographs by John P. Walsh.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, c. 1890. The First Presbyterian of Evanston church building was designed in 1895 by architect Daniel Burnham (1846-1912) who lived in Evanston.The sanctuary seats over 1,000 worshippers. It has a vaulted roof with Nordic-style timber trusses for support instead of major columns that might obstruct views as well as retains an inclusive worship space. “PA02.2018 – 101” by Presbytery of Chicago is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Music is enhanced by First Presbyterian Church of Evanston’s Aeolian Skinner organ, portions of which date to the 1890s, and is one of Chicago’s finest organs. Wall-filling arched stained-glass windows tell Old and New Testament stories. 10/2015 6.81mbFirst Presbyterian Church, 1427 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL One of the historic church’s dramatic wall-filling stained-glass windows.10/2015 7.79mb 80%Creation of Adam; Fall of Adam and Eve; Expulsion from the Garden; Priest Aaron and brother of Moses; three angelic visitors to Abraham; the story of Moses. 10/ 2015 7.87mb 90%Burt J. Denman, born in Toledo, Ohio, was an engineering graduate of the University of Michigan who was vice president and general manager of the United Light Power Company. Denman was for a while a leading Methodist layman and trustee of Northwestern University. 10/2015 2.76mbFrom Raymond Park, stained glass window and limestone walls. 10/2015 5.35 mbKing Solomon. 10/2015 7.81mb 98%Adjacent to Raymond Park, the 1895 Gothic Renaissance building is made of Lemont limestone with a tile roof and 120-foot-tall bell tower with open belfry. Raymond Park, which is part of the Evanston parks system, is named for Rev. Dr. Miner Raymond (1811-1897). Rev. Miner Raymond was born in New York City and began his career as a cobbler. Following his matriculation at Methodist Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, Raymond became a teacher at the school starting in 1833 and its principal from 1848 to 1864. In 1837 he married Elizabeth Henderson in Webster, Massachusetts, and they had 8 children together. In 1864 Rev. Miner Raymond with his family relocated to Illinois where he became professor of systematic theology at Garrett Biblical Institute in Chicago. In 1884 he received his LL.D. from Northwestern University. Mrs. Raymond died in 1877 and the widower married Isabella (Hill) Binney in 1879 though she died after 1880. Dr. Rev. Miner Raymond died in 1897 and is buried in historic Rosehill Cemetery. “First Presbyterian Church of Evanston” by Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
