Making A Historic Difference - Part Two

So last week I warned you I was going to ask you for money. Well, this is it--brace yourselves.

We would really appreciate it if you donated money to our Making A Historic Difference campaign.

(That wasn't so bad, was it?)

Thanks to our many generous supporters, we currently have $230,000 secured towards our $300,000 goal. The Jeffris Foundation granted us $100,000 for interior paint restoration, with the caveat that we must double-match that amount--that is, we need to raise $200,000 on our own to match their grant. Because we are owned by the City of Crawfordsville, the city has agreed to provide $30,000 for our efforts. Many private donors have given us $1,000 or more and will be honored with an engraved brick to be placed in front of the Carriage House. Lots of smaller donations have added up.

We're getting close to reaching our goal--but the last few milestones always seem to be the hardest to reach.

If you are able to give and want to be a part of this exciting effort to restore and preserve Lew's ornate interior decorations, won't you consider donating to the Making A Historic Difference campaign?

We've done our best to make the donation process as easy and painless as possible. You can donate from this blog post using your credit card. Our secure payments are processed through PayPal.

You can also donate by calling us at 765-362-5769 and providing your credit card information over the telephone.

Board Member Jerry Spillane was instrumental in helping us have a video created so you can learn more about the campaign. If you have four minutes, join me, Director Larry Paarlberg, and Jerry for a look around the Study.




It's exciting to be so close to reaching our goal. We hope you're excited too, and that you'll be with us through the whole process of restoring the Study interior to Lew's original vision. 

Making A Historic Difference - Part One

If you're a Crawfordsville local, you may have seen signs around town with a big drawing of the Study and the phrase "Making A Historic Difference." You might be wondering why we're trying to raise $300,000 and what we're going to do with that money. We're going to have a series of posts on our blog about The Making A Historic Difference Campaign so you find out why we're so excited and, hopefully, get excited along with us.

Lew's mural

Ella Kostanzer was raised in Montgomery County and was teaching in Chicago when she visited Lew in his Study on January 1, 1900. She described a fresco painted inside the Study dome. An elaborate work of trompe l'oeil,

"The border around the skylight is handpainted, designed by the owner. It consists of implements of warfare in groups chained together. We see the shield, helmet, sword, bugle, breastplate, etc..." - Ella Kostanzer

Fast forward to 2011. Workers at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum were in the midst of their Study Restoration Project designed to address structural deterioration and water damage inside the Study building. With the Study emptied of artifacts, it was an ideal time to have a paint analysis done.

After analysis by Matthew Mosca of Baltimore, we contacted Brian Fick and Mary Yeager of Acanthus Arts in Indianapolis. Thanks to their hard work, Lew's frescoes were partially uncovered.

That's great, but why are you asking for money?

Well, one of our goals here at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum is to present the Study as close as possible to the way it looked when Lew used it. With very few exceptions, we have accomplished that. One of the exceptions, however, is the interior paint.

Except for the one corner of the interior paint uncovered by Acanthus Arts, the Study is decorated with paint put up in the 1990s. Not only is that historically inaccurate, but it's just not as dramatic as the paint decorations Lew had. We want to bring back the paint conservators and have them uncover all of the interior paint.

On top of that, we can't turn on the lights in the main room of the Study.

Lew had electricity in the building. Crawfordsville was one of the first cities in Indiana to be electrified. Lew was a wealthy man, and he spared no expense in creating this "pleasure house for [his] soul". The main room of his Study had almost 100 light bulbs in it. But the wiring in many places still dates back to the 1890s. No one wants to be responsible for burning down the Study, so we rely on natural light from the skylight. But we'd love to update the wiring so we can light the Study for evening events.

It'll be a lot of work, and it'll take a lot of money. The Jeffris Foundation of Wisconsin has generously awarded us a $100,000 grant, but we have to match that with $200,000 in funds we raise.

So this is where you come in.

We know you're a dedicated supporter of our museum and mission. After all, you read our blog, and you might even be a member of the Lew Wallace Study Preservation Society. But right now we need a little bit more from you.

Yep, you guessed it, I'm about to ask you for money.

But we'll save that for next week. I want you to take some time to browse our website and Flickr account. Take a look at the pictures we have of Lew's amazing interior paint. Read the articles written for this blog in 2011 while the original paint analysis was being done. Then next week, when you're still on a sugar high from Halloween, come back to the blog and we'll talk about how much we've raised so far and how far we have yet to go.

Memento Mori

I frequently have visitors ask me about the little paperweight displayed on a shelf in the Study. Titled Memento Mori, the paperweight depicts a human skull. So why would Lew want to display a skull on his desk?

The phrase "memento mori" is Latin, and means "remember you will die" or "remember you are mortal." It has a connection to the Roman era, when victorious generals were often given a triumph. As the general was being lavished with praise and glory, a servant stood nearby, whispering to him, "Remember, you are mortal." Wouldn't want those generals to get any ideas!

The Victorians embraced the concept of mortality and had a complicated relationship with death. There were strict guidelines about how long mourning should last and how long it should be done. Brooches were made from the braided hair of dead loved ones. Victorians often took photographs of their deceased.

Viewed in that light, Lew's little reminder of his own mortality doesn't seem quite so macabre!

New Curtains for the Study Doors

We’re fortunate here at the museum to have historical photos of the Study--interior and exterior--as well as the Study grounds. Our goal is to present the Study to visitors as it would have been in Lew Wallace’s lifetime. We want visitors to see it the way Lew saw it.

One thing we have learned from our historical photos is that the doors of the Study all had curtains on the inside. You can see his curtains in the picture to the left.

The curtains might have functioned to preserve heat in the winter, to provide privacy, or simply to block out distractions. Whatever the reason Lew had them, we are proud to have reproduction curtains installed as of this week.

Board member Laura Conners made the reproduction curtains, as well as the curtains over the bookshelves, and they look fantastic. Fabrics were chosen specifically to replicate the drape and weight of the curtains. There are two kinds of velvet that accent the colorful golden brocade. The borders are made of velour.

Visit us at the Study and see our new additions!

Uncovering the Past

It's always thrilling to scrape away the covering of years and unveil more of what General Wallace's surroundings looked like when he lived among them.  The past weeks have offered exciting glimpses into both the interior and exterior of the General's study, through the tireless work of some true professionals.

Brian Fick and Mary Yeager of Acanthus Arts in Indianapolis have been hard at work conserving the beautiful decorative paint in places inside the study, and it's been amazing to watch the original colors begin to blossom.  The anteroom just inside the front door is swathed in deep jewel tones, and the dome now has a wide stripe of original paint uncovered down to the bookcases.  Visitors can now see not only the musical motif in the southeast corner of the dome, but the stylish method by which the paint fades from a deep green to a light silvery tone at the dome.

The colors of the plaster frieze just under the dome are being replicated according to the paint analysis done by Matthew Mosca of Washington D.C. in March.  It's easy to see how brilliant General Wallace's dome would've looked when all of the electric lights were on!

Outside, archaeologists from Weintraut & Associates in Zionsville are working with students from the University of Indianapolis to uncover General Wallace's backyard reflecting pool.  Over weeks of painstaking work, they have found the brick perimeter topped by capstones lying just inches below the surface of the lawn.

Keep an eye on this blog for further developments as we continue to work in restoring General Wallace's "pleasure house for his soul" to its original splendor!

Paint Restoration Continues

Exciting work continues here at the Study as our conservators, Brian Fick and Mary Yeager from Acanthus Arts in Indianapolis, uncover and restore more incredible decorative paint inside the historic building's dome.

Brian is spending his day 30 feet in the air, uncovering layer by layer of paint to get to the original design, described by Ella Kostanzer in 1900 as the "implements of war."  So far, he's uncovered a beautiful musical motif in the corner, featuring a drum flanked by  skin-covered mallets, with a fife and sheets of music behind, accented with laurel leaves.  We believe there might be musical scenes in each of the corners, with more military-themed decoration along the sides of the dome.  Here's a progression of the work so far:

We'll continue to update as the restoration progresses.  Many thanks to the Montgomery County Community Foundation for providing the funds for this fascinating project!

Ella Was Right

Ella Kostanzer visited the General's Study around 1900, and described, among other things, a scene on the domed ceiling that contained "implements of war". Because she is the only one to recount this detail, staff and visitors alike have long hoped she was right but didn't want to rely on her testimony too heavily. Today, a pair of paint conservators arrived on the scene to attempt to expose some of that original design.

Sure enough, there appear to be shields and laurel leaves in a design that incorporates not only the shades of green found in the paint analysis, but also rust colors and silvery grays as well. This is part of a 3-foot-wide path the conservators plan to expose from the skylight to the tops of the bookcases. What a wonderful discovery!

An Industrial Floor for an Industrious Man

If you've visited the Study any time after 1976, you've seen the carpet covering the floor of the main room.

Brightly colored and made to withstand a lot of foot traffic, the carpet made the room warmer and quieter but did not present an authentic appearance.

In historic photos, we can see the concrete floor that Lew Wallace installed in the Study. During colder months, he put down area rugs, and during warmer months he rolled up the rugs and stashed them along the walls. We concluded from this that Wallace did not intend for the floor to be covered completely and so...

...we took out the carpet! As part of the Study Restoration Project, local flooring experts removed the carpet and the sub-floor that it was glued to and revealed Wallace's original concrete floor. Fortunately, that additional flooring made little impact on the concrete, and the Study interior now looks much more like it did when Wallace enjoyed the building. It looks a little "unfinished" or "industrial" to some of us, but it's a step closer to being restored to the appearance Lew Wallace wanted for his Study.

If These Walls Could Talk...

...they would tell us what color they were originally! A grant from the Montgomery County Community Foundation has funded a paint analysis of the Study interior, and specialist Matthew Mosca flew in from Washington, DC, to peel back the layers of paint and tell us what the General's Study looked like when he used the building.


The walls in the inglenook by the fireplace were a dark shade of blue-green - very similar to the current color of the lower parts of the walls.

The walls above the bookcases were a shade of green, as was the plaster frieze molded into the shape of flowers.

The walls in the vestibule were a display of rich jewel tones and gold in a variety of patterns.

The part of the building that may interest the most people, the dome, is proving to be the most difficult. The top layers of paint were not coming off easily, and more analysis needs to be done to ascertain what colors lie underneath. If it's half as interesting as the rest of the building, we are in for a big surprise!

The big question is what do we do with all this information? As the final analysis results show the different shades of different parts of the building, we will see the scope of what it would take to restore the General's Study to its original appearance. Even if it's only one part of the building at a time, we would like for visitors to see the Study as Lew Wallace did!

The General's Study

"You guys changed some things around in here." That has been a common refrain from visitors who return - even if they were here just a year ago! In our continuing efforts to return the Study interior to its appearance ca. 1900, the heyday of Lew Wallace's use of the building, we have rearranged dozens of artifacts, and put out some of Wallace's books that have not been on exhibit in years. Not only does this provide a more immersive experience than ever - it's more like the General just left! - it also gives a window into Wallace's mind. You might expect a literary giant interested in other cultures to own books like The Aeneids of Virgil or the Kalevala, but volumes such as The Science of Wealth and The Art of Living Long suggest a very different, and much more human, dimension.