Luella Busch's Fabulous Time Machine

This album of old photographs (over 200 images)  recently came into my possession. It had been found in an attic many years ago by an acquaintance when he moved into a house.


Circa 1910

The people seem to be happier and more vivacious than most of the old snaps I see (and believe me, I have seen hundreds of thousands in my professional photo-scanning work), perhaps because many of them were taken before WWI.


Circa 1924

Luella Busch and her sister Clara (twins?) graduated from Algoma Wisconsin High School in 1910. This was evidently Luella's album of photos of her family and friends, her name is writ large on the frontispiece. She married a certain Mr. Dean Cornam and moved to Minneapolis in 1915, where this album was discovered many years later.


1910

I'll be featuring some of these images here from time to time and when this project is complete I'll contact the Kewaunee County Historical society and see if they would be interested in this charming archive of a young woman who had a sense of humor and a pretty fair eye for composition.


Circa 1924

Stylin' with Luella - Time Machine #2

More from the Luella Busch photo album, circa 1910.

One Hundred Years Ago Today

Melete, Mneme, and Aoide?

From the Luella Busch album

Harriet and Desha

Como Park Conservatory,  Luella Busch, C. 1920

A reliable pick-me-up for the mid-winter blues is a trip to the Conservatory. This verdant getaway in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has been lifting spirits for over one hundred years with its mix of plants from around the world:



The Sunken Garden (pictured above), features this charming bronze of a petite young woman as its centerpiece:



This expression of innocent joy was captured by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth in the early 1920s. I think that there would be a public outcry if such a revealing sculpture were to be installed in a public place today:


Play Days, c. 1925

Harriet was old school—she had studied art under Auguste Rodin and Gutzon Borglum—and was unimpressed by Modernism. Appreciation of her art, which had been considered passé for many years, rose again in the 1970s. Harriet managed to live long enough (she died in 1980) to be able to enjoy it. Recently, sales of her large bronzes have brought upwards of a half million dollars. There is another Frishmuth bronze at the conservatory, one that expresses joy in an even more exuberant fashion:


Crest of the Wave, C. 1925

Looking into the story behind these works, I found out that these were both based on the same person, Desha Delteil, a noted dancer, who was the model for these and many other works by Frishmuth, as well as for other artists.  Harriet highly valued Desha’s ability to hold difficult poses for extended periods:


Desha, by Nickolas Muray, 1922, George Eastman House

A cast plaster bust of Desha by Frishmuth has been featured on Antiques Roadshow.

Not a bad way to spend a chilly Saturday afternoon in January!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

More from Luella Busch, circa 1910:

Sports

From Luella Busch’s fabulous time machine:

Indian Summer

Luella Busch Archives, circa 1910

   Last week's cold snap was only a tease for the fall to come. For at least the next few days it will be warm and dry, as if summer had never ended. My tomatoes are thriving although the Olsons down the block have already pulled up their plants—did they think they had gone past their freshness date, or were they just sick of eating tomatoes? I'll keep mine going, several dozen green ones are on the vines. I wait until there is a freeze predicted before I harvest. The red ones we eat or put into salsa, the green ones go in a box between newspapers stored in a cool place where they will slowly ripen. I check on them every few days and toss any bad ones. A surprising percentage will survive for several weeks, one year we had tomatoes until Thanksgiving!

Mini-hiatus

Off for a short trip to the great Pacific Northwest. I’ll be back late next week with more “adventures” but until I am there will be periodical updates (backdates?) from Luella Busch’s fabulous time machine.

In the meantime, if you are looking for something thought-provoking, I recommend this recent post from Tavi Gevinson’s great Rookie Magazine.

Time Machine #3

More from Luella Busch, circa 1910:

Wisconsin

The professor’s travels through Cheeselandia:

2017 - 2018

Return to Mount Horeb
Blood Cookies (Mount Horeb)
How Much…  (Madison)
Pastoral (Mount Horeb)
Your Next Home (Vermont)

2016

Gonstead Guest Cottage (Mount Horeb) 
Searching for Shoshanah (Mount Horeb)
More from Mount Horeb
Madison
Carnival (Madison)
Is Anybody Home? (Mineral Point)
Walking with Ms. Lee (Mount Horeb)
Friday Road Trip (Mount Horeb)

Older:

Visions of Shoshanah (Mount Horeb - 2015)
Last Day of Summer (Mount Horeb - 2014)
Meat Cheese Beer (Milwaukee - 2014)
Milwaukee (2014)
Road Trip (Sparta - 2014)
Taliesin (Spring Green - 2011)
The Concrete Park (Phillips - 2004)
Eight Pounds of Beads (Couderay - 2004)
John-John Slept Here (Bayfield - 2004)
Mama Gets Folk (Bayfield - 2004)
Bayfield (1984)
Hippies Redux (Iola - 1970)
Hippies (Iola - 1970)
Luella Busch (Algoma - 1910-1915 )

In the Good Old Summertime…

Birchwood, Wisconsin, August, 1910, Luella Busch archives.

With its chain of lakes and a plethora of small resorts, Birchwood was the perfect getaway for the genteel crowd in pre-war Wisconsin.

Birchwood, “The Bluegill Capital of the World,” remains a popular vacation spot. Grab an iced coffee or a latte with some amazing pastries at Ed's Pit Stop and go out to explore all that the area has to offer!

Midwest

Impressions from the nation’s heartland:

Colorado

This Bud’s for You (Colorado Springs (2014) 
Miniskirts and Ibsen (Colorado Springs 2014)
Florrisant and Cripple Creek (2014)
Cripple Creek

Iowa

Decorah (2011)
Dubuque (2011)

Kansas

Rockets in the Heartland (Hutchinson, 2013) 
Salt Mine (Hutchinson, 2013) 
Waitress in a Greasy Spoon (Scott City, 2013) 
The Other Minneapolis (2013)
Postcards from the Road (Minneapolis, 2013)
In a Fiat 124 (1971)
The Day After (1971)

Nebraska

Terra Incomprehendia (Farwell, 2013)
Barnanew (Scottsbluff, 2013)

South Dakota

Mulder’s Farm Mulder’s Farm Again
Sorum (c. 1920)

Wisconsin:

2022
Nick Englebert’s Grandview (Hollandale)
Postcards from Mineral Point
Concrete Sculpture
Shake Rag Street

2017 - 2018
Return to Mount Horeb
Blood Cookies (Mount Horeb)
How Much…  (Madison)
Pastoral (Mount Horeb)
Your Next Home (Vermont)

2016
Gonstead Guest Cottage (Mount Horeb) 
Searching for Shoshanah (Mount Horeb)
More from Mount Horeb
Madison
Carnival (Madison)
Is Anybody Home? (Mineral Point)
Walking with Ms. Lee (Mount Horeb)
Friday Road Trip (Mount Horeb)

Older:
Visions of Shoshanah (Mount Horeb - 2015)
Last Day of Summer (Mount Horeb - 2014)
Meat Cheese Beer (Milwaukee - 2014)
Milwaukee (2014)
Road Trip (Sparta - 2014)
Taliesin (Spring Green - 2011)
The Concrete Park (Phillips - 2004)
Eight Pounds of Beads (Couderay - 2004)
John-John Slept Here (Bayfield - 2004)
Mama Gets Folk (Bayfield - 2004)
Bayfield (1984)
Hippies Redux (Iola - 1970)
Hippies (Iola - 1970)
Luella Busch (Algoma - 1910-1915 )

Forgotten Memory

An unremembered event, probably. The infant would be at least 94 years old, the boy might be over 100. What's left of this glorious summer's day, other than this photo?



The last living veteran of World War I died last year, so the soldier and sailors are certainly gone. There might be some of the clothes still around—a uniform may have been saved.  A better chance of survival would be afforded the mandolin—an instrument which could conceivably be the very same one which now resides in Flippist World Headquarters!



The resort building behind the group might still be there, but its uninspired architecture and cheap construction make that seem unlikely.  But the lake probably still exists, as well as the sun and the grass and all those other things which can turn a fine summer day into a memory for a lifetime.

Or, in this case, two lifetimes.

Image from the Luella Busch album, circa 1919

The Kids are Alright

More from Luella Busch's photo album:

Cowboys and Indians

More from Luella Busch...