I left Louisville at 6:30 AM on Sunday, March 24. After dropping Richard Bryant off at the airport, I headed to Chicago where I was going to meet Gene Meier, a panorama historian. There have been several individuals who I have encountered while searching for online information. Gene has done extensive research on American Panorama companies. On a whim, I decided to see if he wanted to meet on my return trip. We have been talking quite a bit recently after I uncovered a panorama company established by Sosman & Landis. This was in addition to their main scenic studio.
After winding my way to Sycamore, Illinois, I located Gene’s house. It was only twenty minutes away from where I was staying that evening. In many ways, meeting Gene in person was like reuniting with a long lost friend. We have been in contact about various panoramas and scenic artists for the better part of a year. Gene’s great aunt was an artist with quite an interesting background who was connected with the panorama artists. It was wonderful to see her work up close. She left diaries, sketches, paintings and other memorabilia. The care with which Gene has pieced together little bits and pieces about her past is impressive.
Gene’s Tante Tilda, Mathilde Georgine Schley, is most famously pictured in costume with a group in front of a panorama.
The Milwaukee Journal also published an article about her in 1925 (29 Oct. 1925, page 10). She was a Wisconsin painter, and the granddaughter of one of the Kindermann pioneers. The Kindermann emigrants came from Pomerania, Stettin, the districts on the Baltic, Brandenburg and the lands along the Oder. Under the leadership of Rev. G. A. Kindermann, the “Altlutheraners” sought religious freedom. They were the forerunners to the later German emigration that would follow, reaching Wisconsin during 1843. The Milwaukee Journal article notes that “They formed a common treasury into which rich members of the group poured their wealth and out of which passage and even land for the less prosperous ones was paid. The Kindermann emigrants came to Milwaukee. Some of their number became the first settlers in the Chestnut St. district…Those from Stettin and the Oder, between 70 and 100 families settled at Lebanon and Ixonia.” Mathilde’s grandfather settled in Lebanon, Wisconsin.
By the age of 19, Mathilde taught art in Dodge county. She studied art with Loranz and von Ernst in Milwaukee before moving to Kansas where she once again worked as an art instructor.
This was such a wonderful conclusion to my USITT trip, and certainly gave me incentive to return soon.
To be continued…
