Not A Game of Marbles

North Clarendon, Vermont
Iroquois Land Family Camping

Today was busy and diverse.  Our first stop in Rutland was the Norman Rockwell Museum. 

Truthfully, when I walked in the door, I wanted to forget it. I know how much Bill appreciates any form of art.  The lady told us that these were the original covers of magazines.  

As we entered, the exhibit commenced with 1910's illustrated magazine covers.  

 There were a lot of Boy's Life drawings. 

 This painting had 57 mistakes in it.  It was used on an April Fool's Day cover.  Can you see the cat tail on the dog?

It was like traveling through history to view these.  

The illustration cover pages were arranged in chronological order.

This one was published in October of 1924.

Norman Rockwell painted this cover in 26 hours.  It was the fastest he'd ever painted a picture.  The paint wasn't even dry when he delivered it to the Saturday Evening Post.  

Rockwell was so fascinated with Tom Sawyer that he went to Hannibal, Missouri to visit the places that Mark Twain wrote about including the cave.  After his divorce, being chosen to illustrate Tom Sawyer expanded his confidence. 

I took a year before Rockwell realized that the boy with the apron has three legs. 

I took this one for our friends, Esther and Lionel, who are Rotarian's that we will be visiting soon.

A fire destroyed his studio and he illustrated the event.

Of all the illustrations, this was my favorite.

I was looking for my birth date but the closest I could find was the month and year.

 Here's Bill in his birth year--the 1936 issues.

The last exhibit was the 70's.  What a history he recorded over 60 years.

There was a huge gift shop of illustrations and they also did framing.  

I was a little disappointed about the way they displayed the illustrations on peg board.  The descriptions were typed and could have been redone over time.  

When we left the Rockwell Museum, I thought the Wilson Castle sounded interesting.  As we pulled into the drive-way I had some doubts.  There was only one car parked in the parking area.  Notice I didn't say "lot".  I looked at the long walk over an uneven surface and was thinking about my foot.  The visiting couple came out, and said it was $11 for seniors. I decided since we are planning to see Hildene, I'd pass on this one today.   

There was a sign that indicated the Marble Museum was nearby.  I toured it back in the 70's so I knew what it was.  Bill thought it sounded interesting so he followed the directional signs to it.  When we entered we found out this was the largest marble company in the world.  

It wasn't until Bill saw this that he realized it wasn't the marbles that you played with.  I do remember not having enough time to visit the playing marble place in near Kansas City. 

I thought the entrance might have been a clue.

The late 1800's building is being used as the museum and gift shop.  

We began the self guided tour with two videos.  One on the history of the Vermont Marble Company and the other on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  

The Hall of Presidents included all presidents except Obama.  They were very well done.

Do you know who this president was?

If you don't know, the Canadian boy, who was on our tour of Van Buren a few weeks ago, knew this fact.  

There was a room dedicated to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

This is the actual blueprint of the tomb dated 1929.

We were invited into Allen Dwight's studio.

He was a delight and showed Bill how he carved the marble.

Bill had many questions about how he decided what to carve.  I believe a biography of him said that his art has been in 30 different countries.

 The second half of the building had all different kinds and colors of marble.  That was all that was in the museum when I visited it years ago.  It just goes to prove that you can go back.   

The gift shop had some gorgeous marble gifts.  It just so happens that I needed a cheese board and cutter and guess what I found.  Now we'll need to visit a cheese factory.

It was a great day and we still needed to stop at the grocery before going home.

Turtle Safely.......