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Re-repost: RCC Half Cent and Saint Gaudens (long w/ 36 pic links)
This post was originally made a shortly after Thanksgiving and some
may have missed it....thus the repost. INTRODUCTION I had planned a day trip, a drive from southern Connecticut to the Green Mountains of Vermont, for Sunday October 17th. When I discussed my plans with a client and friend he gave me two tourist maps....one for Vermont and one for New Hampshire. The night before I left I was studying both maps planning my route for the next day's trip when I noticed one of the featured attractions on the New Hampshire map was the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site. It was close enough to where I would have to leave Interstate 91 to cut over to the Green Mountains that I figured it might be worth a quick look. I spent a half hour there on the 17th and decided it would be a great place to take the RCC half cent so I could finally send it on to the next host after keeping the thing for far too long....about a year and a half (shame on me). So the following Saturday, October 23rd, I ventured north again planning to spend a couple of hours at the Site before cutting over to New Hampshire's White Mountains and Mt. Washington. THE RCC HALF CENT VISITS SAINT GAUDENS To get to the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site most will travel north on Interstate 91 along the Vermont side of the Connecticut River which forms the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. You will exit at Windor, Vermont and cross the Connecticut River to Cornish, New Hampshire via the Windsor covered bridge: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg001.jpg At 450 feet this is the longest two-span covered bridge in the world. The sign above the entrance to the bridge reads "Walk Your Horses Or Pay Two Dollar Fine". After exiting the bridge you will turn left onto New Hampshire Route 12A and drive about 2-1/2 miles to the entrance road to the Saint Gaudens Site. A long and winding uphill drive will take you to the main parking area which has space for perhaps 30 cars. Just prior to reaching the main parking area there is a field to handle overflow parking and another sign indicates a handicap parking area further up the drive. After exiting your car you will stop at a ticket booth at the edge of the parking lot where a friendly Park Service employee will take your $5 admission fee, offer you brochures, a pass for the scheduled guided tours and explain the main features of the site. The admission fee is only for persons over 16 and the receipt is good for 7 days so I got two stops for the price of one. Walking across the drive towards the house you will first encounter the sign announcing your arrival at the site. The RCC half cent decided to stop here for it's first pictu http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg002.jpg After snapping this picture I quickly headed for the visitor's center and it's restrooms to answer nature's call (actually she was screaming). The visitor's center is manned by more friendly Park Service employees and contains a gift shop....which I skipped. Leaving the visitor's center I headed back for the main house: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg003.jpg The house was originally built in 1800 as an Inn and known locally as Huggin's Folly. After first renting the house for a time, Saint Gaudens purchased it as a summer home in 1885 and renamed it Aspet in honor of his father's birthplace in France. The large thornless honey locust in front of the house was planted by Saint Gaudens in 1886 and is now 110 feet tall. To the left of the picture of the house (in the background) you can see a portion of the Little Studio: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg004.jpg This studio was converted from a barn and was where Saint Gaudens worked. His assistants worked in a much larger studio that was destroyed by fire, rebuilt and destroyed by fire once again in 1944. In order to view the inside of this building you must take one of the guided tours. One of these tours was scheduled to start only minutes after I left. I wish I had stuck around a little longer as I later learned it contains more of his works, including a half size version of his Diana sculpture. The tour also gets you into the house which still contains it's original furnishings. At the rear of the house is the formal garden: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg005.jpg From the garden you can view Mt. Ascutney across the Connecticut River in Vermont: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg006.jpg To the left of the garden (when facing the rear of the house) is a small statue of Hermes: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg007.jpg While the nudity caused the half cent to blush, it still asked to be photographed with Hermes: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg008.jpg A bit flushed, the half cent then decided to rest on this bench at the rear of the garden. The bench is embellished with twin plaster busts quite similar to the Liberty that adorns the Saint Gaudens cent (more on that later): http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg009.jpg To the right of the garden, next to the Little Studio, is the Pan Fountain. While the half cent agreed to pose for a pic, it was a bit nervous at being so close to the water when it saw the coins that had been tossed into the fountain by other visitors: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg010.jpg Next we headed towards the galleries and stopped for the half cent to pose at the foot of the copy of the Farragut monument. The original, Saint Gaudens' first major public commission, is in New York City. However, the base shown in this picture is the original sandstone base. The New York statue now sits on a granite replica installed in 1934 after the original began to deteriorate. This pic was taken with a 16mm full-frame fisheye lens (resulting in the curved steps). The lens has a 180 degree field of view and incredible depth of field...I was only a couple of feet from the lower step when I took the pic. I have to be cautious when using this lens as a slight tilt downward will result in my feet entering the pictu http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg011.jpg To the left of the Farragut monument enclosure is the Picture Gallery. This gallery houses works by various artists. I took a quick look inside and saw small modern sculptures that didn't interest me much so I moved on (time was precious). However, I did stop long enough to take a pic of the half cent with this bronze plaque for Henry W. Maxwell next to the entrance to the Picture Gallery: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg012.jpg Between the Pciture Gallery and my ultimate destination, the New Glallery, is an atrium. The walkways at the sides of the atrium feature various busts and bas relief pieces. In the center of the atrium is a reflecting pool complete with spitting guilded frog. At the far end of the atrium is a guilded bronze version of Saint Gaudens' Amor Caritas. Here is a pic taken with the full-frame fisheye lens: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg013.jpg The half cent thought this would be a good place for another pic so I placed him in the crook of the tree branch visible in the wide shot. This was also taken with the full-frame fisheye lens: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg014.jpg Here is a closer view of the same pic. I cropped into the center of the slide and scanned at a higher resolution: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg015.jpg Next we entered the New Gallery. Here is an interior shot also taken with the fisheye lens: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg016.jpg At the left of this pic is a plaster copy of the moument Saint Gaudens did honoring Robert Louis Stevenson. I couldn't get a heads-on pic of this piece due to the display case in the middle of the floor. At the far end of the room is a copy of The Puritan, Saint Gaudens also did another piece titled The Pilgrim which was a variation of this sculpture. The next pic shows the half cent at the foot of The Puritan: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg024.jpg Just to my left when I took the wide shot of the gallery is a bust of William Tecumseh Sherman. Saint Gaudens also did a large piece featuring Sherman on horseback behind a winged Victory that resides at the 59th Street entrance to Central Park in New York. Here is the half cent with the bust: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg026.jpg Directly behind me in the wide shot was a small model of Saint Gaudens' second version of Diana. The original was intended to be a weathervane atop Madison Square Garden. The next pic shows the half cent with the model: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg025.jpg THE PLASTERS The items in the New Gallery of most interest to coin colectors are contained in display cases visible on the right side of the wide shot....the original plasters for the coins designed by Saint Gaudens. But first a word about the pictures of these plasters. These pictures wre taken in available light and hand held with relatively slow film. As such I was shooting at slow shutter speeds with the lens apertures wide open resulting in very little depth of field...especially in those shots taken with my 50mm f/1.4 lens. As a result in some of the shots the half cent will be out of focus. Here is the half cent with the plaster for the $20 Gold piece obverse: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg017.jpg Here is the half cent with the plaster for the $20 Gold piece reverse: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg018.jpg Here is the half cent with the plaster for the $10 Gold piece obverse: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg019.jpg Here is the half cent with the plaster for the $10 Gold piece reverse: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg020.jpg Apparently, St. Gaudens considered using the $10 reverse on the $20 gold piece as well (the half cent was AWOL for this picture): http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg021.jpg Not all collectors are aware that Saint Gaudens also designed a one cent piece. We can probably blame Abe Lincoln for the fact that these were never produced. Here is the half cent with the plaster for the one cent obverse (nice Liberty): http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg022.jpg And here is the one cent reverse with the half cent AWOL once again: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg023.jpg Also exhibited are actual examples of the $10 and $20 gold pieces as well as the Buffalo nickel, the Mercury dime and the Walking Liberty half dollar. The reason these coins are exhibited is that the coins' designers, James Earle Fraser and Adolph Weinman both worked as assistants to Saint Gaudens. FINISHING THE TOUR OF THE NEW GALLERY A side door in the New Gallery leads you outside to a bust of Abraham Lincoln. Saint Gaudens also did two large monuments of Lincoln....one a seated Lincoln and the other a standing Lincoln. Here is a full shot of the bust on it's pedestal: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg027.jpg And here's a close-up with the half cent: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg028.jpg Also out of view, to my left, when I took the wide shot of the gallery interior was this display case containing sketches and models used in the design of the Shaw Memorial: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg029.jpg This memorial was commisiioned by the family of Robert Gould Shaw, chosen by the Massachusetts Governor to command the first African American regiment raised in the north during the Civil War. Saint Gaudens' first sketches for an equestrian statue were rejected by the Shaw family as a treatment too grand for a colonel. He then decided to depict Shaw with his men; these soldiers assumed a greater importance as work on the monument progressed. Shaw was played by Matthew Broderick in the movie "Glory" co-starring Denzel Washington whose role earned him an Oscar as best supporting actor. A reproduction cast from the original plaster mold is at the Saint Gaudens site: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg030.jpg Here is a closer shot with the half cent: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg031.jpg Next we have a shot of a copy of the Saint Gaudens' sculpture for the grave of the wife of historian Henry Adams: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg032.jpg and a closer shot with the half cent: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg033.jpg Finally we move on to the "Temple": http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg034.jpg This marble monument was modeled after a wooden version used as part of the set for a play staged by Saint Gaudens' assistants. The marble version was carved in 1914 (seven years after Saint Gaudens' death) and contains the ashes of Saint Gaudens, his wife, his son, his brother and his brother's wife. Here is a closer shot with the half cent: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg035.jpg and closer still: http://members.aol.com/flip1948/SaintGaudens/sg036.jpg CONCLUSION Well, that pretty much wraps up my two hour stay. I'll be going back next spring. If I remember correctly, the entire estate consists of 150 acres and there is much I didn't see. In addition to the aforementioned guided tours there are a couple of hiking trails and a small building called the Ravine Studio. This studio is used by the resident sculptor and according to the friendly Park Service employee, you can stop by and watch him work or chat with him. The site is apparently open year round, but full access to all of the exhibits only occurs from early may through the end of October. For more information you can visit their website at: http://www.sgnhs.org/saga.html An birdseye rendering of the site: http://www.sgnhs.org/BIRDSEYE.jpg A smaller version of the birdseye rendering with numbered points of interest and links: http://www.sgnhs.org/virtual.html ++++++++++ Phil DeMayo - always here for my fellow Stooge When bidding online always sit on your helmet Just say NO to counterfeits |
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