NIAGARA FALLS STATE PARK: More Than Just Tumbling Torrents

Niagara Falls. View from the American side, looking toward the Canadian side of the river.

Welcome sign on Old Falls Street.

If the ancient Greeks had known about Niagara Falls, they would have added it to their list of Seven Wonders of the World. The sheer quantity of water—75,000 gallons per sec pouring over the edge--is impressive enough, not to mention the giant clouds of mist rising from the bottom of the gorge as the water lands.

The falls are formed as water from the Niagara River, which separates the United States from Canada as it makes its way from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, plunges into a deep gorge. 

Observation point on Goat Island of Horseshoe Falls.

In mid-July I joined the millions of visitors that come each year from all over the world to gaze in wonder at the falls. My husband was attending a conference in the Niagara Falls Convention Center on the American side. While he was at meetings, I had time to wander through the city of Niagara Falls and explore the park. I had my passport and could have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side but decided not to on this trip because I had been there before. 

View from Goat Island of American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, viewing tower, and Rainbow Bridge.

Niagara Falls State Park borders the falls on the American side. The 435-acre New York state park was developed in 1885 by American artist Frederick Church and Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscape architect who also designed Central Park in New York City. He believed that natural spaces like Niagara Falls should be preserved for people to enjoy. The park includes miles of walking paths, beautiful gardens, as well as plenty of viewing and seating areas. It is also an opportunity for bird watching and other wildlife viewing. 

Scale model of Niagara river and falls, and Goat Island.

A scale model near the Welcome Center shows Goat Island, the two main cataracts, American Falls and Horseshoe Falls, and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls. A short pedestrian bridge connects Goat Island to the American side of the river. Paths on Goat Island lead to viewing points for all the falls. 

Hop-on, Hop-off trams are available to take people around the park.

The Welcome Center near the main entrance to the park has exhibits, restrooms, a cafe and gift shop.

I started my Niagara Falls visit at the Welcome Center near the entrance to the state park where there are displays highlighting the history of the area, beginning with the Native Americans who lived there long before the first Europeans came.

Acknowledgment is made that the park is on traditional indigenous lands.

There are also sections about Father Hennepin, who came with French fur traders, and Nikola Tesla, a major figure in the history of Niagara Falls. Tesla was the engineer who, along with George Westinghouse, figured out how to harness the energy of the falls to make electricity.

Statue of Nikola Tesla on Goat Island.

One can view Niagara Falls from both the American side Canadian sides of the river.

Maid of the Mist boat takes people to the base of the falls.

I limited myself to standing at the railing and looking at the falls from above. But many people take the Maid of the Mist boat ride for a close-up look at the base of the falls, wearing raincoats to keep dry as the boat gets close to the mist. 

A tether keeps the hot-air balloon from floating away.

Others view from a bridge over the water. And some go up in a hot air balloon. If you do this at night in the summer, you can see a light show and fireworks over the falls. (We could see and hear the fireworks from our hotel window.)

Along tree-lined Old Falls Street, which leads to the entrance of the park, visitors can enjoy giant chess boards, ping pong and other games.

Historical marker on Old Falls Street.

The city of Niagara Falls is designed for tourists with hotels, restaurants, and entertainment, all within walking distance of the state park. Reflecting the scope of international visitors, a wide range of eateries--including many featuring South Asian cuisines-- line the main street. 

Main gate of Niagara Falls State Park.

Within the park one can get around by walking, riding a bike, or taking a tram. Entrance to Niagara Falls State Park is free.

Thirty years ago, I visited Niagara Falls with my family, viewing the falls from the Canadian side. We went down an elevator to a path that allowed us to walk behind the falls. We stood on the walkway as the water roared past us, awing us with its power. On this trip I was no less impressed.

Map of Niagara Falls State Park.

For more information go to the Niagara Falls State Park website. 

TANG MUSEUM OF ART, SKIDMORE COLLEGE, Saratoga Springs, NY

Ceramic piece by Kathy Butterly, Assume Yes Exhibit at the Tang Museum, Skidmore, College.

On the campus of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, stands a large angular building, the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. Its stated purpose is to “awaken the community to the richness and diversity of the human experience through the medium of art.” The museum mounts twelve exhibitions each year and students are often involved in the curatorial process. It is an impressive resource for the students at Skidmore as well as for the wider community.

A long walkway leads to the entrance of the Tang Museum.

Tang Museum of Art

Fringe, by Oliver Frontini. Senior Thesis Exhibit.

I visited the Tang Museum in May, on graduation weekend when the senior thesis exhibition featuring works by graduating art majors occupied one of the main floor galleries. A large sculptural piece by Oliver Frontini, dominated the lobby. It was the Outstanding Senior Thesis award winner.

Student work spanned a wide range of media--painting, photography, textiles, sculpture, metalwork and more.

Metalwork. Senior Thesis Exhibit.

Woven textiles. Senior Thesis Exhibit.

In the other main floor gallery Kathy Butterly's inventive ceramic pieces were scattered across large table-height platforms, each piece glowing like a large jewel. None of them are more than a foot tall, but by giving each of them their own space they didn't feel overwhelmed by the large room. Each one had its own personality.

Ceramics by Kathy Butterly.

  

Ceramics by Kathy Butterly.

Ceramics by Kathy Butterly.

More exhibits were in the upstairs galleries. Here is a sample of some of the pieces that caught my eye.

All These Growing Things exhibit.

Alewife, 2014. By Alexis Rockman. The Alewife is one of a few species of fish that can live in both fresh and saltwater.

View of second floor galleries.

"Rug"

RUTH ASAWA RETROSPECTIVE: Spectacular Hanging Wire Sculptures and Much More

Wire Sculptures, Ruth Asawa Retrospective, SFMOMA.

When I was in Oakland in August, I took BART to San Francisco to see the Ruth Asawa exhibit at SFMOMA, just before it ended. The exhibit, a retrospective of Asawa’s life’s work, will open in New York at the Museum of Modern Art on October 19. It is an amazing show, featuring not only Ruth Asawa's unique wire sculptures, but a wealth of her other work--drawings, paintings, and other media. 

Photograph of Ruth and her young son in front of a sculpture in San Francisco.

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) began her art career at Black Mountain College (BMC) in North Carolina in 1946. In 1949 she moved to San Francisco with her husband, Albert Lanier, an architect, who had also been a student at BMC. They had six children! Ruth spent the rest of her life living and working in San Francisco and was active in the art community.

Meander, ink on paper, 1948-49.

The exhibit is arranged chronologically, and fills twelve rooms of the museum, beginning with her student work at Black Mountain College.

Ruth had a job in the college laundry. This design was created with the stamp that marked the college linens.

Folded paper design.

Throughout her early works you can see Ruth’s fascination with repetitive motifs, from folded paper, fabric designs, to pen and ink drawings.

 In these two pieces, one chair is defined with positive strong black strokes, the other by negative space.

Detail of chair. Created by repeated dabs of a felt tip marker.

Ruth’s first wire works were baskets, inspired by a trip to Mexico in 1947 where a craftsman showed her how he made egg baskets by looping wire.  

Early works--baskets.

But what has made Ruth Asawa famous are her hanging wire creations of all sizes and shapes--some with shapes nestled within one another, some exploding outward, some resembling giant teddy bears, others like tear drops or space ships, some elegant, others whimsical, and some even calling to mind an extraterrestrial! In room after room the hanging sculptures were the center of attention in the SFMOMA exhibit. Although suspended by wires from the ceiling, they seemed to float in space.

One large room of the exhibit reproduces the living room of Ruth Asawa’s Noe Valley house in San Francisco, which was filled with hanging wire sculptures and other works of art, both hers and those of friends. Many of the same pieces seen in the photo were displayed in the room at the museum.

 

Photograph by Rondal Partridge of Ruth Asawa's family in her living room.

Ruth loved her garden. Among my favorite pieces in the room were watercolor paintings of a geranium and a detailed drawing of a sunflower.

The exhibit is huge, with more than 300 works of art. Truth be told, my friend and I only looked closely at half the exhibit, spending the first two hours in the first six rooms looking at each and every item. By then we were starving for lunch, and walked quickly through the remaining six rooms in order to exit through the gift shop, stopping briefly to look at just a few pieces. We had a tasty lunch in the museum café on the fifth floor. We could have reentered the exhibit after lunch, but would have had to stand in a long line, so decided not to. In any case I felt I had a good experience and I knew I would enjoy the exhibit again and again as I looked at my photos at home.

Casts of Ruth Asawa's hands.

HOLY FAMILY PAINTING by MERCY ANN LOCKRIDGE: A 6000 Mile Journey from New York to California and Back

The Holy Family by Mercy Ann Lockridge, reproduction of a painting by Raphael.

When I was growing up, a beautiful, large, ornately framed painting hung in the living room of my grandmother’s house in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  It depicted Saints Mary and Elizabeth with the baby Jesus, and a genuflecting Saint John holding a cross of reeds. Jesus, assisted by Saint Elizabeth, appears to be blessing Saint John. In the shadows stands Saint Joseph. We always called it The Holy Family. It was painted by my great-great-grandmother Mercy Ann Lockridge in about 1865, a copy of a famous painting known as the Madonna of Divine Love by the Renaissance artist Raphael in 1516-18.  The original Madonna of Divine Love hangs in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. Italy. The painting that my grandmother made is a copy of a copy of Raphael's original. [See the letter below for the story of how that copy made its way to upstate New York.]

At the time that Mercy Ann painted The Holy Family she was living in Cattaraugus County in Western New York. The painting followed her as she and her family moved west--to Wisconsin, Kansas and finally Chicago. It  then went to my grandmother in Kenosha. A family treasure, the painting has since been passed down to my father, traveling from Kenosha to Minneapolis and San Francisco, and then to me in Los Angeles. It has now made its final journey, back to Cattaraugus County, New York, where it has been donated to the Perrysburg Historical Museum, in the town of  Perrysburg. .

The Holy Family, displayed in the Perrysburg Historical Museum, Perrysburg, NY.

I am pleased to have The Holy Family “back home” where it can be seen and enjoyed in the community and by visitors to the museum. I thank the village of Perrysburg for including it in the town museum and town historian Steve Stockwell for coordinating the exhibit. More about the museum can be found on the Perrysburg History Museum Facebook page.

The story of the Lockridge family is an integral part of the town history and is the subject of a book written by my father, Lester Scheaffer, Lutie and Mercy Ann. A copy of the book is a part of the museum collection and is being posted a chapter at a time on the museum Facebook page.

My father’s book includes a letter written to my grandmother about the origin of the painting that Mercy Ann used as a source for The Holy Family. 

Letter from Maria Parker Chapman to Dorothy L. Gibson, possibly between 1900 and 1902, in response to Dorothy’s inquiry about her grandmother Lockridge’s painting called “The Holy Family”.

My dear Dorothy,

This is the story in detail, and as all good children like the “Once upon a time,” so I will begin mine so.

Once upon a time there lived in the village of Versailles, Cattaraugus Co., State of New York, Hiram Chapman with Maria his wife. They had no children of their own, but had an adopted son, and in their very hospitable home they had gathered about them those that had not homes of their own. [Note that Versailles--pronounced as if it rhymes with "sales"--is a hamlet located in the northeast corner of Perrysburg.]

Mr. Chapman, before his marriage had sailed the Lakes as Captain and often in his quiet home life was called by that title. The incident that I am about to relate occurred forty years ago. – One stormy evening in December when the snow lay deep upon the ground, there came into the little village store a stranger dressed in the garb of a sailor and whose language was that of a Scotchman. – His face was weather-beaten, his large blue eye was tender, and when he made the appeal to the store-keeper—“Is there anyone in this village that ever sailed the waters?” all were interested.

On the corner, one of three stores in Versailles in the 1880s.

He was directed to Capt. Chapman on the hill.—Later in the evening a rap on the kitchen door of the home of Mr. Chapman announced the coming of the wayfarer.

He told his story simply, he was born in Glasgow Scotland and when he was a boy of twelve years, tired of school of restraint, he ran away and hid in the hold of a whaler that was about to put to sea for a five-year voyage. So well did he secrete himself that not till the vessel was far out to sea was he discovered.—

Then when this voyage was over he went again and again till at this time they entered the harbor of New York to remain for the winter.—He gave his name as Edward Gallagher from New York. He made his way across the state to Buffalo thinking when spring came he might get on a boat on the Lakes,--but alas! Ned found bad companions and in a short time he was penniless, then came the tramp of 30 miles across the country to some place he did not know when his wanderings were so aimless. But the little village under the hill close beside the roaring Cattaraugus, ended his wanderings.—Though a man of twenty-four years his education had been sadly neglected. They gave him a home with their accustomed generosity and went to the village school, Mrs. C.—giving him lessons in writing in the evening.—His frank genial nature soon make him a favorite with the village young people and he was always a welcome guest at their merry makings, attended a singing school, and the little wooden church, with the good old-fashioned minister often found in him an attentive listener.

When spring came the smell of the salt water wooed him away and he went to come back the ensuing autumn, for several winters his home was in Versailles, then a longer cruise took him to the blue waters of the Mediterranean, when the second winter came, he with a sailor friend Jim he called him came with the picture of the “Holy Family” secured in a hempen bag, while on the coast of Italy some sailors made a raid on a church and some valuable pictures were taken. Ned bought this and, for the friendship he held Mrs. Chapman in, he with a great deal of trouble in securing it, presented it to her for the unvarying kindness to him she had ever shown him.

Years went by no tidings came from Ned—but at last a letter came from Jim. His shipmate had died in the hospital in New Orleans. The picture is in the old home yet. Though other faces look upon the beauty, the other faces look upon newer and more glorious beauties. Celebrated artists have pronounced it the work of some pupil from one of the old Masters.—We do not know.—Your grandmother while in Fredonia obtained the loan of it for 6 months,--and hers is a beautiful copy.

This is a story dear I am glad to write it.—It all seems so vivid to me as I was of your age now when this all happened.—I love to think of these dear old times and your dear Grandmother knew this Ned Gallagher.—We are all usually well and hope you are, my love to all your friends.—Keep in touch with your Heavenly Father do not get away from Him.

Lovingly M.C.P. Chapman

Detail of The Holy Family painting by Mercy Ann Lockridge..