A live weekly radio adventure through Indiana history with host Nelson Price. Show airs live from noon to 1 p.m. ET each Saturday on WICR 88.7 FM in Indianapolis. Or install the WICR HD 1 app on your cell phone or computer and stream live from anywhere. Check out our extensive list of searchable archived show newsletters and podcasts. You can also listen to recent shows by clicking the podcast links below: Our November 19 show, "Great Depression governor, Paul McNutt" Click here Our November 12 show, "Terre Haute cemetery and intriguing people buried there" Click here |
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November 26, 2022 Artist who crusaded to save the Dunes - Encore
As an activist, his tools were a canvas and a paintbrush. Captivated by the scenic beauty of the natural wonders on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, artist Frank Dudley (1868-1957) devoted the rest of his life to creating landscape paintings of the Indiana Dunes and rallying the public to protect them. Although based in Chicago, Dudley and his wife Maida built a Dunes studio that they opened to the public for 33 years "to convert visitors, one by one, into Dunites," according to a new biography of the painter. His mid-life decision to refocus his career made Dudley one of the era's preeminent artists with an Indiana connection. Acclaimed art historian Rachel Berenson Perry, the author of Painter of the Dunes (Indiana Historical Society Press), is Nelson's guest on this encore broadcast of a show that initially aired on Aug. 7, 2021, to share insights about Dudley and his impact on the preservation of the Dunes.
Included within the 15,000 acres of the national park is the Indiana Dunes State Park, which was established in the 1920s. According to Painter of the Dunes, a dozen Indiana lawmakers discussed the idea of creating a state park during a gathering at Duneland, Dudley's studio. By then, the biodiversity of the Indiana Dunes - which includes wildflowers, swamps and even woodlands in addition to the iconic sand dunes - was catching the interest of scientists as well as preservationists, outdoor enthusiasts and artists like Dudley. He had been introduced to the Dunes by his brother Clarence, a Chicago-based photographer who began making expeditions with Jens Jensen, a famous landscape architect. In 1917, Frank Dudley was among the thousands of attendees at the Dunes Pageant, an enormously influential event; he "vowed on that day to dedicate his art and his persuasive efforts to preserving the Dunes," according to Rachel's book. She writes that Dudley persisted with his "almost obsessive subject matter as well as his activism" even though colleagues warned him about limiting his artistic focus.Rachel Berenson Perry has been a frequent guest on Hoosier History Live shows that have explored Indiana artists, often in connection with her previous books. They have included William J. Forsyth: The Life and Work of an Indiana Artist (Indiana University Press, 2014) and Paint and Canvas: A Biography of T.C. Steele (Indiana Historical Society Press, 2014). Live talk radioRoadside Architecture across Indiana was the topic on May 10, 2016. The show featured discussions about such memorable bits of roadside architecture as the Coffee Pot in Pennville, Char-Bett Drive In in Logansport, XXX Family Restaurant in W. Lafayette, and more. Left to right are Paul Diebold with Indiana DNR Division of Historical Preservation, host Nelson Price, and public historian Glory-June Greiff, sporting a Dinosaur Land T-shirt. We're not sure what Paul's T-shirt is about! A Legendary Roadtrip: T.C. Steele and Waveland, Indiana
The small town is also home to T.C. Steele’s Boyhood Home, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. And many of T.C. Steele’s relatives are buried in the Waveland Methodist Cemetery, which is just east of the Carnegie library.
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