Search results | Digital Grinnell

Title: The First Meeting
Description: This piece aims to juxtapose Iowa’s progressive aims with its oppressive past. The centerpiece of this block is a poster publicizing an anti-slavery meeting which took place in Iowa. While anti-slavery meetings such as this one were necessary in the push towards abolition, the artist urges Iowans to explore their state’s relationship to slavery on a deeper level. The artist has incorporated chain-like strands of metal to symbolize the bondage of enslaved peoples, and depictions of genetic material captures the implications of slavery for actual living organisms. While Grinnellians may sometimes put their town on a pedestal for its historic abolitionist position and refusal to join the Confederate Army, this block calls attention to the pain and suffering that still occurred in this state at the hands of racism and white supremacy.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25483

Title: The Greatest Lie
Description: This block was created around the theme of agriculture, an industry inextricably linked to slavery in both the Caribbean and the United States. To echo themes of agriculture, the artist included images of the cotton plant, as well as organic shapes which resemble flowers, seeds, and other found natural objects. Corn kernels, buttons, and leaves unite the realms of the home and the outdoors, as was often the case on a working plantation. The center photograph depicts slaves on a cotton plantation engaging in agricultural work, however the workers are not in motion but are posted in a triangular composition facing the photographer. The second photograph is also from a plantation, yet the subjects are household workers as opposed to field hands. These images both show life on the plantation, but only to an extent; they are purposefully arranged and therefore tell a very different story than a candid photograph might tell. These juxtaposed images are symbolic representations of the censorship applied to stories of slavery in American culture and education.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25488

Title: The Journey
Description: This block was created around the theme of the journey. We all go through different journeys in our lives, some longer and more challenging than others, but every journey is important and demands courage and strength. This block honors those who were challenged by a specific journey unique to American history and relevant, even more specifically, to the state of Iowa; the story of the Underground Railroad. This block is comprised of a map of the Underground Railroad in the South, framed by a smattering of screws, pill capsules, buttons, stars, and other found objects. It also includes a photograph of the Lewelling House, a popular anti-slavery meeting house and renown safe stop on the Underground Railroad in an area of the Midwest particularly unfriendly to slaves and freed blacks during the years before the Civil War. Although the area of the South portrayed in the map is, of course, miles from the Lewelling House, the experience of black people in America is part of our entire country’s history, not just the areas most ravaged by institutional slavery and injustice. Although we often associate slavery with the American South, we must not forget that slavery was a national issue which demanded the attention of every city, small town, and individual, much like issues of racism still demand every person’s attention, no matter their race, today. The strewn nails and capsules surrounding the images in this block allude to journeys of different kinds, both physical and emotional. As our eyes follow the paths drawn by these loose objects we may be reminded of journeys we have taken in our own lives.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25495

Title: The Lewelling House
Description: The goal of this block is to awaken in the viewer the historical ache that is the legacy of slavery in Iowa. Superimposed over an image of Iowa is a road map of the Underground Railroad, with squares and circles placed along the routes to indicate safety for runaway slaves. In the upper right hand corner of the state the artist has placed an image of the Lewelling house of Henry County, Iowa, a meeting place for abolitionist activists and one of the stops on the Underground Railroad. The stones and flowers which surround Iowa, vibrant and glimmering, allude to the power of preservation. With preservation in mind, we must ask ourselves: How can artists and activists revisit the historical bondage of our ancestors while attempting to move onwards to freedom? J.B. Grinnell founded Grinnell with abolition as one of his key tenets. As we peer into the history of Iowa we confront the question of whether Grinnell College continues to protect the freedom of the individual, or whether we have fallen into neoliberal agendas that serve our oppressors. The evocation of discomfort through the topic of slavery serves as a reminder of the necessity to reimagine the realities of imperialism within and without the U.S.
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25482

Title: The World
Description: This piece represents an abstract approach to visualizing freedom. The only recognizable forms in this piece are two cotton plants, surrounded by abstract organic forms reminiscent of plant life. At the center of this piece the designs converge to create a shape evocative of a skull or head; yet each viewer might have a different reaction to the organization of forms and shapes. What do you see?
Date Created: 2017
PID: grinnell:25501

Title: Two Chinese people on a country road
Description: Photograph of a Chinese man and woman resting next to a dirt road.
Date Created: 1924
PID: grinnell:17392

Title: Two men in hats in China
Description: Photograph of two men on a dirt road in China.
Date Created: 1924
PID: grinnell:18744

Title: U.S. Post Office, De Witt, Iowa, De Witt City Hall
Description: Looking northeast from Ninth Street. The building was completed in 1937. Located at 510 Ninth Street, De Witt, Clinton County, Iowa. Number E-61.
Date Created: 1945
PID: grinnell:16947

Title: Warnecke's De Witt Cafe, De Witt, Iowa
Description: Looking at the inside of a 1950s cafe with tables and chairs, booths and a bar with stools. Verso says: Warnecke's De Witt Cafe, 903 Sixth Ave., Highway 61, De Witt, Iowa 'Air Conditioned', 'Just Good Food' Prime beef center of the world. Open every day except Monday. Bee and Harold Warneck, proprietors. 1956 postmark. Number 21624.
Date Created: 1956
PID: grinnell:16071

Title: Wooden cart with ox in China
Description: Photograph of a large wooden cart pulled by an ox.
Date Created: 1924
PID: grinnell:17404