Eagle's Nest Art Colony
Encyclopedia
Lorado Taft
Lorado Zadoc Taft was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Taft was born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860 and died in his home studio in Chicago in 1936.-Early years and education:...
on the bluffs flanking the east bank of the Rock River, overlooking Oregon, Illinois
Oregon, Illinois
Oregon is a city located in Ogle County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 3,721, down from 4,060 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Ogle County.- History :...
. The colony was populated by Chicago artists, all members of the Chicago Art Institute or the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
art department, who gathered in Ogle County
Ogle County, Illinois
Ogle County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 53,497, which is an increase of 4.8% from 51,032 in 2000. Its county seat is Oregon, and its largest city is Rochelle...
to escape the summer heat of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. The colony complex has been used as a field campus for Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...
since 66 acres (26.7 ha) of Lowden State Park
Lowden State Park
Lowden State Park is an Illinois state park on in Ogle County, Illinois, United States. The park was named after Governor Frank Orren Lowden. Governor Lowden had served Illinois during World War I. Lowden State Park is home to the Black Hawk Statue, by artist Lorado Taft...
were turned over to the university by the state of Illinois.
History
Lorado Taft
Lorado Zadoc Taft was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Taft was born in Elmwood, Illinois in 1860 and died in his home studio in Chicago in 1936.-Early years and education:...
on the bluffs flanking the east bank of the Rock River, overlooking Oregon, Illinois. The colony was populated by Chicago artists, all members of the Chicago Art Institute or the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
art department, who gathered in Ogle County
Ogle County, Illinois
Ogle County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 53,497, which is an increase of 4.8% from 51,032 in 2000. Its county seat is Oregon, and its largest city is Rochelle...
to escape the summer heat of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
The colony was started by eleven men, all artists, architects and art lovers affiliated with Taft in Chicago. The original members were: Taft, Ralph Clarkson, Oliver Dennett Grover, Charles Francis Browne, Henry B. Fuller, Hamlin Garland
Hamlin Garland
Hannibal Hamlin Garland was an American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his fiction involving hard-working Midwestern farmers.- Biography :...
, Horace Spencer Fiske, James Spencer Dickerson, Allen Bartlit Pond, Irving Kane Pond
Irving Kane Pond
Irving Kane Pond was an American architect, college athlete, and author.Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Pond attended the University of Michigan and received a degree in civil engineering in 1879...
and Clarence Dickerson. The original members first lived in tents at the colony, later, after the association's constitution was written, charter and regular members were allowed to build summer homes.
The group began their search for a summer reprieve from Chicago a few years before the site along the Rock River
Rock River (Illinois)
The Rock River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Illinois. It rises in southeast Wisconsin, in the Theresa Marsh near Theresa, Wisconsin in northeast Dodge County, Wisconsin approximately south of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin...
was chosen. Their first colony, at Bass Lake, Indiana
Bass Lake, Indiana
Bass Lake is a census-designated place in California and North Bend Townships, Starke County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,249 at the 2000 census...
, ended after a malaria outbreak. As the colony founders searched for a home for their colony Chicago attorney and patron of the arts Wallace Heckman purchased the land that would eventually become the Eagle's Nest Colony in 1898. Taft and his peers looked toward Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
after leaving Bass Lake, but Heckman invited the group to his home in Ogle County for the Fourth of July. Heckman offered to let the group set up camp there and they signed a lease for the site the same week. The lease provided 15 acres (6.1 ha) of land for US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1 per year with the stipulation that each colony member give a free lecture or demonstration in the area.
Other famous writers and artists who visited the colony include: James H. Breasted, Charles R. Crane, I.K. Friedman, George Barr McCutcheon
George Barr McCutcheon
George Barr McCutcheon was an American popular novelist and playwright. His best known works include the series of novels set in Graustark, a fictional East European country, Brewster's Millions, a play and several films....
, John T. McCutcheon
John T. McCutcheon
John Tinney McCutcheon was an American newspaper political cartoonist who was known as the "Dean of American Cartoonists"....
, Harriet Monroe
Harriet Monroe
Harriet Monroe was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet and patron of the arts. She is best known as the founding publisher and long-time editor of Poetry Magazine, which made its debut in 1912. As a supporter of the poets Ezra Pound, H. D., T. S...
, William Vaughn Moody
William Vaughn Moody
William Vaughn Moody was a United States dramatist and poet. Author of The Great Divide, first presented under the title of The Sabine Woman at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago on April 12, 1906...
, Elia Peattie, Lucy Fitch Perkins
Lucy Fitch Perkins
Lucy Fitch Perkins was an American children's book author and illustrator, famous for writing the Twins series of books.-Background:...
, Bert Leston Taylor
Bert Leston Taylor
Bert Leston Taylor was an American columnist, humorist, poet, and author.Bert Leston Taylor became a journalist at seventeen, a librettist at twenty-one, and a successfully published author at thirty-five...
, Nellie Walker
Nellie Walker
Nellie Verne Walker , was an American sculptor best known for her statue of James Harlan in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol, Washington D.C.-Early years:...
, and Donald Peattie.
Taft campus
Leslie A. Holmes proposed a "field campus" for Northern Illinois Teachers College in his inaugural address as president in 1948. On August 7, 1951 Illinois Governor Adlai E. Stevenson II signed a bill into law which transferred ownership of a 66 acres (26.7 ha) section of Lowden State ParkLowden State Park
Lowden State Park is an Illinois state park on in Ogle County, Illinois, United States. The park was named after Governor Frank Orren Lowden. Governor Lowden had served Illinois during World War I. Lowden State Park is home to the Black Hawk Statue, by artist Lorado Taft...
to the college, now Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...
(NIU). The land encompassed the former 15 acres (6.1 ha) site of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony and its buildings, the Black Hawk Statue was not included in the land transfer. The campus was named after Lorado Taft and is now known as the NIU Lorado Taft Field Campus.
The buildings of the art colony, long neglected, were restored under the supervision of Paul Harrison, a professor at the college. By 1954 work was completed on the Browne House, Poley Hall (also known as the Camp House), and the Taft House. Harrison then served as field campus director from 1954–65. In October 1965 the campus was augmented by the addition of 71 acres (28.7 ha).
Studios
Taft's original studioStudio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
at the colony was a converted barn northwest of the present day Director's House. A small wooden building, the studio had a highly sloped roof which allowed large figures to be built inside. A skylight poured natural light into Taft's work area, and a concrete porch on its exterior. The first working models of the Black Hawk Statue were created inside the studio. Taft's original studio is no longer extant and the present-day craft shop was built on its site.
Ralph Clarkson had a small wooden studio at the colony as well. Clarkson's studio was located about 100 feet (30.5 m) northeast of the Taft House and was well fenestrated
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
, with many windows on three of its four facades. Clarkson painted several portraits in the studio including the likenesses of Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison
Carter Harrison, Sr.
Carter Henry Harrison, Sr. was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois from 1879 until 1887; he was subsequently elected to a fifth term in 1893 but was assassinated before completing his term. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives...
, and University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
President Harry Pratt Judson
Harry Pratt Judson
Harry Pratt Judson was a U.S. educator and historian, born at Jamestown, N. Y., and educated at Williams College , where he was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity...
.
Fiske, Clarkson, and Grover Cottages
Grover Cottage is no longer extant, though the stone fireplace still stands in the location of the original building. Construction on the cottage of painter Oliver Dennett Grover was completed in 1902. The building, a permanent structure of stucco with a shingled roof, stood southeast of the Camp House. It was erected in 1902. The cottage was sometimes occupied by others when the Grovers were not present. Elia Peattie penned her story "The Girl From Grand Detour" inside Grover Cottage in 1908.Dickerson Cottage and house
The original Dickerson Cottage was constructed in 1898 in the location of the present-day Dickerson House. Dickerson completed the construction with the help of a local builder and the finished product was intended to be a one-room building with a partition as the only interior division. The building was expanded in 1908 when a new porch, living room, kitchen and bathroom were added.Poley House
The Poley House, varyingly known as Camp House and, more recently, Poley Hall, is a classroom meeting space and houses a bird viewing porch at the Lorado Taft Campus. Original construction was completed on the Allen and Irving Pond designed building in 1902. Bricks above the large, 25 by fireplaceFireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
were emblazoned with the art colony motto, a quote taken from Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
.
Browne Cottage
Charles Francis Browne Cottage is located east of the camp house. The building, which boasted the colony's only flight of stairs, had stone added to the exterior by Browne.Major works at Eagle's Nest
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
made her only visit to Oregon, Illinois. Walking along the east bank of the Rock River during her visit, she noticed the natural spring at the base of the bluff. She dubbed the spring "Ganymede Spring", and later sat down beneath the Eagle's Nest Tree, and penned her famous poem "Ganymede to His Eagle". An island at the center of the Rock River across from the eventual colony was named Margaret Fuller Island in her honor.
Southeast of the former location of Taft's studio is the 1905 sculpture The Funeral Procession. The piece was the collaborative work of six of Taft's students who had taken up residence at the colony for the summer. The assignment required each student to create a human figure but left the subject of the sculpture to their collective choice. The end result is a piece with six human figures carrying a casket
Casket
A casket, or jewelry box is a term for a container that is usually larger than a box, and smaller than a chest, and in the past was typically decorated...
on their shoulders.
Standing prominently on Eagle's Nest Bluff is Lorado Taft's famed Black Hawk Statue
Black Hawk Statue
The Black Hawk Statue, or The Eternal Indian, is a sculpture by Lorado Taft located in Lowden State Park which is near the city of Oregon, Illinois. The statue is perched over the Rock River on a 77 foot bluff overlooking the city.-History:...
; the bluff is now part of Lowden State Park. The statue was created by Lorado Taft, beginning in 1908. Taft at first created smaller studies of what would become the statue. The statue itself was dedicated in 1911, Taft noted at the dedication that the statue seemed to have grown out of the ground. The statue stands 125 feet (38.1 m) above the Rock River, though its height only accounts for 48 feet (14.6 m) of that. Black Hawk weighs in at 536,770 pounds and is said to be the second largest concrete monolithic statue in the world.
Ganymede Spring
Ganymede Spring, or Ganymede's Spring, is located along a path near the east bank of the Rock River at the base of Eagle's Nest Bluff, about 0.25 miles (402.3 m) north of the Black Hawk Statue. The natural spring, which originates in the limestone beneath Fond du Lac, WisconsinFond du Lac, Wisconsin
Fond du Lac is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The name is French for bottom of the lake, for it is located at the bottom of Lake Winnebago. The population was 42,203 at the 2000 census...
, supplied the colony with water for cooking, drinking and for use in their swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
s. One pool was at the base of the spring and the other was located where the present-day NIU parking lot is found. The original pool at the base of the spring can still be seen when the water level on the Rock River is low. Originally, from 1898–1902 water was transported up the hill by horse and wagon. By 1902 a large pump was installed, though it took two attempts, and a water tower
Water tower
A water tower or elevated water tower is a large elevated drinking water storage container constructed to hold a water supply at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system....
dispensed water to the various buildings.
Influence
Oregon Public Library
The Oregon Public Library is located in Oregon, Illinois, United States, the county seat of Ogle County. The building is a public library that was constructed in 1909. Prior to 1909, Oregon's library was housed in different buildings, none of which were designed to house a library. The library was...
, a Carnegie library
Carnegie library
A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems...
building, heavily influenced by the presence of the art colony. It was the Ponds' association with the Eagle's Nest Art Colony that led them to design the library. Even before the library was built, members of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony were pushing for the new building to include a second-story art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
. The building was constructed after an Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
grant approval, and its first use came in October 1908 by Leon A. Malkielski, a colony member, for an exhibition of 100 paintings. The library proper did not begin providing its services until 1909. Hamlin Garland, a 1921 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
recipient for literature, spoke at the Oregon library while he was a member of the Eagle's Nest Colony. The second floor art gallery on the second floor of the library building was not formally dedicated until July 4, 1918. This marked the beginning of the library's permanent collection, which started with additions from members of the Eagle's Nest Colony.
The Soldiers' Monument (Oregon, Illinois)
The Soldiers' Monument is a memorial consisting of three statues, one in bronze and two in marble by sculptor Lorado Taft, grouped around an exedra designed by the architectural firm of Pond and Pond. It is located in Oregon, Illinois, the county seat of Ogle County, Illinois. It was dedicated in...
is a Taft created sculpture that stands on the public square of the Old Ogle County Courthouse in Oregon. Taft's oversized Classical
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
female figure stands with her arms outstretched, clutching laurel wreath
Laurel wreath
A laurel wreath is a circular wreath made of interlocking branches and leaves of the bay laurel , an aromatic broadleaf evergreen. In Greek mythology, Apollo is represented wearing a laurel wreath on his head...
s. Behind her is an exedra
Exedra
In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess or plinth, often crowned by a semi-dome, which is sometimes set into a building's facade. The original Greek sense was applied to a room that opened onto a stoa, ringed with curved high-backed stone benches, a suitable place for a philosophical...
which was designed by colony members and architects Pond and Pond. The exedra extends around the installation and to either side of the female sculpture are built in benches. Above the benches are bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
plaques honoring veterans of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, above the individual war plaques is bronze plating that reads, "Ogle County Honors Her Sons." Flanking the dominant sculpture are two soldiers atop pedestals, one facing north and the other facing south.
The Fish Boys, or Dolphin Fountain, is another Taft work located in Oregon. The fountain consists of two boys kneeling on the edge of a pool of water, each holding a large fish. Water from the mouths of the fish pours into the shallow pool. The figures were originally cast in bronze and designed as part of the Fountain of the Great Lakes
Fountain of the Great Lakes
Fountain of the Great Lakes or Spirit of the Great Lakes Fountain is an allegorical sculpture by Lorado Taft in the Art Institute of Chicago South Stanley McCormick Memorial Court south of the Art Institute of Chicago Building in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United...
in Chicago. The Oregon Fish Boys are a blend of concrete, quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
and pebbles from the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
. The fountain is located in Oregon's Mix Park.
External links
- Lorado Taft Field Campus, Northern Illinois UniversityNorthern Illinois UniversityNorthern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...
- Lowden State Park, Illinois Department of Natural ResourcesIllinois Department of Natural ResourcesThe Illinois Department of Natural Resources is a cabinet-level department of the state government of Illinois. It is headquartered in the state capital of Springfield...