sight unseen talk coming to Burlington Iowa

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Catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo, Italy

Patrick Brydone, A Tour through Sicily and Malta: in a series of letters to William Beckford, Esq., of Somerly in Suffolk, from P. Brydone, F.R.S., 1773. English Edition: New York: Evert Duyckink, 1813—

This morning we went to see a celebrated convent of Capuchins, about a mile without the city; it contains nothing very remarkable but the burial place, which indeed is a great curiosity. This is a vast subterraneous apartment, divided into large commodious galleries, the walls on each side of which are hollowed into a variety of niches, as if intended for a great collection of statues; these niches, instead of statues, are all filled with dead bodies, set upright upon their legs, and fixed by the back to the inside of the niche: their number is about three hundred: they are all dressed in the clothes they usually wore, and form a most respectable and venerable assembly. The skin and muscles, by a certain preparation, become as dry and hard as a piece of stock-fish; and although many of them have been here upwards of two hundred and fifty years, yet none are reduced to skeletons; the muscles, indeed, in some appear to be a good deal more shrunk than in others; probably because these persons had been more extenuated at the time of their death.

Here the people of Palermo pay daily visits to their deceased friends, and recall with pleasure and regret the scenes of their past life: here they familiarize themselves with their future state, and choose the company they would wish to keep in the other world. It is a common thing to make choice of their niche, and to try if their body fits it, that no alterations may be necessary after they are dead; and sometimes, by way of a voluntary penance, they accustom themselves to stand for hours in these niches…

I am not sure if this is not a better method of disposing of the dead than ours. These visits must prove admirable lessons of humility; and I assure you, they are not such objects of horror as you would imagine: they are said, even for ages after death, to retain a strong likeness to what they were when alive; so that, as soon as you have conquered the first feeling excited by these venerable figures, you only consider this as a vast gallery of original portraits, drawn after the life, by the most just and unprejudiced hand. It must be owned that the colors are rather faded; and the pencil does not appear to have been the most flattering in the world; but no matter, it is the pencil of truth, and not of a mercenary, who only wants to please.

Humanities Iowa | Program opportunities 2019

WPA mural by Orr Fisher

Since the mid-1990s, I've been associated with the Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau. For all those years, I've been available to speak on subjects that pertain (in one way or another) to the history of the state. I've often given talks (sometimes as many as ten per year) at public libraries, historical societies, community centers, and so on. The talks are free and open to the public. They are funded by Humanities Iowa, which is part of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The requesting organization is charged only $50, while the HI picks up the additional costs of travel expenses, speaker's honorarium, and so on. What a great program.

Over the years, the talks I've offered have usually been about Frank Lloyd Wright, Grant Wood, Buffalo Bill, World War I camouflage (which Iowans contributed to), and so on. A few days ago, I gave my presentation on Buffalo Bill (which includes an account of the plight of the Native Americans during the dreadful Indian Wars) at the Story County Conservation Center, just north of Ames IA. The large audience (around 100 people) was absolutely wonderful, and, as usual, I had a truly delightful time.

The downside is that it was probably the last time I'll present my talk about Buffalo Bill, which has easily had the most requests. With my retirement from teaching, I decided it was time to offer new topics. My new talks are listed on the HI website here. One of those talks is about the WPA (Works Progress Administration), one of the government programs set up by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Depression Era, as I described in an essay I wrote years ago. One facet of that enabled unemployed artists to apply to create public murals for permanent installation in US post offices. It's surprising how many of these have survived. Reproduced above is one of my favorites, titled The Corn Parade, a painting by Orr Fisher in the US Post Office in Mount Ayr IA.

New talks & posters soon at Hartman Reserve

The fourth and final installment in an on-going series of poster exhibitions will be on display during November and December 2019 at the Interpretive Center at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Cedar Falls IA. These new nature-themed posters (created by author and designer Roy R. Behrens) are intended as promotions for a series of informative talks on nature-related topics, one per month, always on the second Sunday.

The upcoming presentations include a program by Robert Pruitt, Executive Director of the Cedar Valley Arboretum and Botanic Gardens (Sunday, November 10, at 2:00 pm) on "Creating Monarch and Pollinator Zones in the Cedar Valley," and a talk on area water trails, titled "Paddling the Cedar Valley and Beyond," by well-known area naturalist Vern Fish (Sunday, December 8, at 2:00 pm). All presentations are free and open to the public.

Concurrent with the Second Sunday Speaker Series talks and other events at the Hartman Center during November and December, the poster exhibition will be on public view in the Interpretive Center. In addition, all items in the exhibit can also be viewed online.

Hartman Reserve Nature Center Talks Soon

Poster © Roy R. Behrens 2019

Above Currently nearing completion is a new set of posters in connection with upcoming public presentations at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Cedar Falls IA. As noted in an earlier post, during the remaining months of 2019, one hundred posters will be installed at that center's Interpretive Building in four exhibits of twenty-five each.

Posters © Roy R. Behrens 2019

The next two presentations are Saplings, Songbirds and Sonnets: An Exhuberant Celebration of Nature Through Poetry by Laura Sohl-Cryer (2:00 pm, Sunday, July 14) and The Birds of Hartman Reserve: Bird-Friendly Communities by Prairie Rapids Audubon Society (PRAS) (2:00 pm. Sunday, August 11).  All presentations are free and open to the public.

Each set of posters promotes a new pair of presentations, one each month. This new set of twenty-five "bird-themed" posters will be on display during the months of July and August, for the presentations known as the Second Sunday Speaker Series.

Poster © Roy R. Behrens 2019

Hartman Program on Sources of Natural Dyes

Poster © 2019 by Roy R. Behrens

Just a reminder. Tomorrow at 2:00 pm, Sunday, June 9, Angela Waseskuk will speak about Connecting Through Color: An Exploration of Natural Dye Processes at Hartman Reserve Nature Center (Interpretive Building). Waseskuk is an artist and teacher at the University of Northern Iowa. In 1918, as Artist in Residence at Hartman Reserve, she researched the use of indigenous plants as potential sources of natural dyes, then used them in subsequent artworks. All presentations in the Second Sunday Speaker Series are free and open to the public.

Artist Angela Waseskuk

Hartman Reserve Posters | A Composite 2019

Hartman Reserve Posters © Roy R. Behrens / 2019

These posters will be on exhibit in the Interpretive Building at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Cedar Falls IA during May and June 2019. Three other exhibits will follow, in July-August, September-October, and November-December, with twenty-five posters featured each time. more>>> and more>>>

Hartman Reserve Speaker Series Posters 2019

Hartman Reserve Nature Center

Above We are currently designing a new series of posters in connection with upcoming presentations at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Cedar Falls IA. In the remaining months of 2019, one hundred posters will be installed at that center's Interpretive Building in four exhibits of twenty-five each.

Each set of posters will promote a pair of presentations, one each month, on topics related to nature. The first set of twenty-five posters will be on display during the months of May and June, in what is called the Second Sunday Speaker Series. The first exhibit of posters can also be accessed online at this link .

The first two presentations are Photographing Wild Iowa by Randy Maas (2:00 pm, Sunday, May 12) and Connecting Through Color: An Exploration of Natural Dye Processes by Angela Waseskuk (2:00 pm. Sunday, June 9).  All presentations are free and open to the public.

Hartman Reserve Second Sunday Speaker Series 2019