Maine Antique Digest April 2015

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38-C Maine Antique Digest, April 2015
- BOOK REVIEW -
Kodachrome Memory: American
Pictures 1972-1990 by Nathan
Benn (powerHouse Books, 2013,
168 pp., hardbound, $50 plus S/H
from powerHouse Books, [www.
or [212]
604-9074).
Kodachrome Memory is a
visual delight. Nathan Benn spent
almost two decades as a photog-
rapher for National Geographic
and another decade rediscov-
ering, evaluating, and editing
his archive of around 350,000
unpublished images. The result
is this lasting memory book that
“celebrates the significance of
American regional diversity as
it was 30 or 40 years ago, before
the advent of Internet culture and
before the country became one
vast strip mall stretching from sea
to sea.”
The full-page photographs cre-
ate intriguing stand-alone stories,
as there are no descriptions or
captions other than the location
and year (and occasionally the
subject). Most photos are placed
alone, opposite blankwhite pages.
Many photographs were taken
in Florida, where Benn grew
up, and other Deep South areas.
Images from the Midwest, Pitts-
burgh, Vermont, and other dispa-
rate places are also included. The
scenes are disparate as well, from
people—old and young (includ-
ing what is perhaps a baby pag-
eant lineup) and anonymous—to
scenes pretty and rustic.
There’s a photo of a storefront,
another of railroad tracks, and
another of a big house surrounded
by a flood. Two scenes highlight
farming: one of cows milling
about underneath a clothesline of
wind-blown sheets outside a fac-
tory-like building that has shed
much of its white paint, and one
of what can best be described as
a watermelon “patch,” with large
ripe watermelons that may have
been recently unloaded from the
truck partially seen in the image.
There are informal photographs
of Fred McFeely Rogers (“Mr.
Rogers”) relaxing with a cat and
of Tennessee Williams rubbing
his eyes. Another scene is of the
Mammy’s Cupboard restaurant
in Natchez, Mississippi, as iden-
tified in Richard Buckley’s intro-
ductory essay,
A few photographs share a
spread, thoughtfully placed in
juxtapositions that create a more
powerful narrative. These include
a photo of a little girl in a white
Pastures Green & Dark Satanic
Mills: The British Passion for
Landscape by Tim Barringer and
Oliver Fairclough (American
Federation of Arts, in association
with D Giles Limited, 2015, 232
pp., hardbound, $59.95 plus S/H
from D Giles Limited, [www.
British landscape painting is
the focus of this book, which was
published in conjunction with a
2015-16 traveling exhibition of
works from Amgueddfa Cym-
ru-National Museum Wales. The
title of the book and exhibition
was inspired by William Blake,
who in his introduction to Milton
(1804-10) contrasted “England’s
green and pleasant land” with
the Industrial Revolution’s “dark
satanic mills.”
The catalog begins with a
thought-provoking essay by
Tim Barringer of Yale Univer-
sity that traces the British pas-
sion for landscape art from the
“arcadian visions” of the 18th
century, through the “sponta-
neity of ‘impressions’ by J.M.W.
Turner and his contemporaries,”
to the nostalgia of mid-20th-
century Neo-Romantics, and to
the “environmentally conscious
land art of the present day.” In
another essay Oliver Fairclough
of Amgueddfa Cymru-National
Museum Wales explores “Wales
and the Evolution of Landscape
Art in Britain.” As Fairclough
points out, Wales has played
a key role in the development
of landscape art in Britain. The
“great natural beauty” of Wales
has inspired artists from Brit-
ain and beyond, and Wales has
“bred great artists,” including
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782),
known as the “father of English
painting.”
The catalog reproduces in
color and briefly discusses 88
works from the Welsh muse-
um’s collection. The works are
arranged in roughly chronologi-
cal order, allowing the reader to
see the progression that Barrin-
ger addresses in his introductory
In Search of Nampeyo: The
Early Years, 1875-1892 by Steve
Elmore (Spirit Bird Press, 2015,
217 pp., softbound, $50 plus S/H
from .
com] or [505] 995-9677).
For 25 years, Steve Elmore of
Santa Fe, New Mexico, an art-
ist and dealer in Native Amer-
ican art, has researched the life
and work of Hopi-Tewa pot-
ter Nampeyo (c. 1856-1942).
Elmore has closely examined
the Keam collection of Hopi
pottery at Harvard University’s
Peabody Museum of Archaeol-
ogy and Ethnology, has studied
photographs of Nampeyo and
her work, has talked with liv-
ing potters, including some of
Nampeyo’s descendants, and
has reviewed historical literature
about Nampeyo. In this book
Elmore focuses on Nampeyo’s
early years, including her child-
hood, her training, her develop-
ment as an artist, and her role in
the Sikyatki revival.
Elmore believes that
Nampeyo’s art transcends her
Hopi culture and that she should
be classified as an early Mod-
ernist artist. He recognizes that
the “modern art establishment
does not know how to properly
include Nampeyo.” She was
trained as a traditional potter,
but “she evolved into a unique
artist using modern marketing
techniques to sell her work to
a new Euro-American audi-
ence.” According to Elmore,
Nampeyo’s “unique position as
an early successful American
woman modern artist merits her
a special place in art museums,
yet she is not well represented
in major art museums and does
not have a museum of her own.”
Elmore’s insights into the early
life and work of Nampeyo help
explain why one collector and
author refers to her as “the
Picasso of the Southwest.”
Heroes for All Time: Connecti-
cut Civil War Soldiers Tell Their
Stories by Dione Longley and
Buck Zaidel (Wesleyan Univer-
sity Press, 2015, 328 pp., hard-
bound, $55 plus S/H from Wes-
leyan University Press, [www.
This well-organized, well-re-
searched, and well-written book
tells the experiences of Con-
Pleasure & Profit: 100 Les-
sons for Building and Selling
a Collection of Rare Coins by
Robert W. Shippee (Whitman
Publishing, LLC, 2014, 316 pp.,
softbound, $9.95 from Whitman
Publishing, LLC,
man.com] or [800] 546-2995).
Robert Shippee began collect-
ing coins as a child but devel-
oped a more serious attitude as an
adult. Here he shares his knowl-
edge in an easygoing writing
style by laying bare his collecting
mistakes and victories. When he
became a serious collector, he
made a collecting goal of acquir-
ing each design of all U.S. coins
issued from the U.S. Mint starting
in 1793. He named his collection
“Waccabuc” (we won’t take away
the pleasure of reading for your-
self the story behind that name)
Books
Received
by M.A.D. Staff
These are brief reviews of
books recently sent to us.
We have included ordering
information for publishers that
accept mail, phone, or on-line
orders. For other publishers, your
local bookstore or a mail-order
house is the place to look.
dress with a pink ribbon stepping
out of a pristine home opposite a
scene of six children, an elderly
gentleman, and someone doing
the wash on an unpainted, worn
porch—a study in cultural con-
trasts to be sure. Other two-page
spreads reproduce groups of
Benn’s slides, and, as smaller
images, they are as engaging as
the large photographs.
Two separate essays by Richard
Buckley and Paul Farber high-
light Benn’s work for National
Geographic and evaluate the
photographs artistically and as
a way to preserve not only pho-
tography but the fading dynamic
differences of a culture in transi-
tion. The demise of Kodachrome
is discussed in the essay by Paul
Farber. Discover herein not only
the medium of Kodachrome but
images of an America that has
largely disappeared.
essay. The text accompanying
the illustrations was written by
staff members of Amgueddfa
Cymru-National Museum Wales
and provides insights into the
artists and their subjects. The
bibliography offers suggestions
for further reading on the broad
topic as well as specific refer-
ences used in preparing each cat-
alog entry.
The exhibit is at the Norton
Museum of Art in West Palm
Beach, Florida, through April 5.
From there it will travel to the
Frick Art and Historical Center
in Pittsburgh, the Utah Museum
of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City,
and the Princeton University Art
Museum in Princeton, New Jer-
sey. The majority of the works
will be on view at all four loca-
tions. Works that will be only at
one or two of the locations are so
indicated in the catalog.
and went on to make a healthy
profit when he sold the whole
collection in 2007.
It was surprising to find the
flyleaf photograph of a golfer
lining up to take a shot; one must
read on to see what a book on
coins has to do with golf. Ship-
pee writes that he loves golf
as much as he loves collecting
coins and hopes that at least his
golfing friends will appreciate
the book as an “attractive pic-
ture book.” He has combined
his love for both activities in this
book with photos of golf greens
and balls and golf-themed design
elements, and he even makes
connections between collecting
coins and playing golf.
In addition to golfing tales,
Shippee relates his coin collect-
ing memories and gives advice
on collecting. He comments on
each coin in his collection, pro-
vides a “lesson” on each, and
has a chart that lists each coin’s
cost, its sale price, the percent-
age gain or loss, and its “hold-
ing period”—no hiding the truth
here. The photos of the coins and
the auction descriptions are cour-
tesy of Stack’s Bowers Galleries.
With this book, Shippee hopes
to help serious collectors avoid
the mistakes he made and hopes
that advanced collectors will
find parallels with their own col-
lecting experiences.
necticut soldiers of the Civil
War. Using first-person accounts
from diaries, letters, and other
sources (all documented), the
authors have let those in the war
tell the story of the war, from
enlistment to mustering out and
the major battles in between.
By focusing on the soldiers’
own words, not only does the
book relate the intricacies and
challenges of military life and
battles, but it also shows emo-
tions—fear, excitement, hope,
anger—that will carry readers
into the fervor of patriotism, the
heat of battle, and the dejection
of momentary defeat. Period
photographs and captions high-
light personal stories, supported
by maps, artifacts, and broad-
sides. This engaging historical
book should be dog-eared by
historians, collectors, and Civil
War enthusiasts from reading
and rereading it.
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