Saturday, July 07, 2012
 
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'Prairie Troubadour' featured in Honest Abe's museum

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[July 07, 2012]  SPRINGFIELD -- "Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all!" Vachel Lindsay wrote in his poem "Lincoln," and a new temporary exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum aims to create some new Lindsay fans.

Original Vachel Lindsay materials are part of an exhibit that runs through Oct. 31 in the waiting area for the museum's "Ghosts of the Library" show. The display, which requires paid museum admission to view, features artwork by and about Lindsay, his published works and other pieces, all from the collections of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

Lindsay's published works on display include "The Golden Book of Springfield" (1920), "The Congo and Other Poems" (1922), and a copy of "The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems" (1920) signed by Vachel Lindsay on March 24, 1922. There is also a copy of his 1907 poem "Her Name is Romance" that contains the dedication "To Lady Jane."

The display includes two original pieces of artwork created by Lindsay. In "Machinery," an undated, watercolor-mixed media piece, Lindsay depicts a scene from his poem of the same name. In the poem, a bird explains to the Queen of Egypt that birds are machinery, for the Queen did not appreciate what birds were capable of accomplishing. The other original work is "The Wedding of the Rose and the Lotus" (1913). The artistic poem was written about the completion of the Panama Canal, and the words to the poem are hand-printed along both sides of the painting.

The exhibit also includes an undated painting by Lilian Scalzo, an art instructor at Springfield Junior College, titled "Dragons, Dragons" that depicts Lindsay reciting "The Chinese Nightingale."

Visitors are also encouraged to visit the nearby Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site at 603 S. Fifth St. in Springfield. The home is the birthplace and longtime residence of poet, author and artist Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, 1879-1931. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for free public tours.

Lindsay was born Nov. 10, 1879, to Dr. Vachel Thomas Lindsay and Catharine Frazee Lindsay. He graduated from Springfield High School and studied at Hiram College in Ohio, the Chicago Art Institute and the New York School of Art.

Lindsay made three famous walking tours of the United States in 1906, 1908 and 1912, covering more than 2,800 miles. On these journeys, Lindsay traded poems for food and shelter, earning him the title of "The Prairie Troubadour."

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Lindsay was catapulted to fame with the 1913 publication of his poem "General William Booth Enters into Heaven." Two years later his poem "The Wedding of the Rose and the Lotus," calling for tolerance between Western and Eastern cultures, was printed by the United States secretary of the interior and sent to both houses of Congress in connection with the opening of the Panama Canal.

Lindsay called himself a "Rhymer-Designer" and created drawings to accompany his poems. He was a leading voice in the American "New Poetry" movement, with a total published work of some 20 volumes of poetry and prose. Lindsay and other major poets and artists of his day championed a new language to express new subjects, such as civil liberties, civic excellence, and humanitarian and aesthetic values. He wrote poems of vehement protest against spiritual and environmental blight.

Lindsay's Springfield home was his creative center, and he returned there many times during his career. He cited his hometown and state more than 500 times in his publications. "The things most worth while are one's own hearth and neighborhood," said Lindsay.

Lindsay also enjoyed the respect of his colleagues. Sinclair Lewis called Lindsay "one of our few great poets, a power and a glory in the land." Author, poet and Illinois native Carl Sandburg said, "I rate (his poems) among the supremely great American poems."

For more information about programs and exhibits at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, visit www.presidentlincoln.org.

[Text from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]

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