Willa Cather and Material Culture: A Sesquicentennial Reflection
Willa Cather and Material Culture: A Sesquicentennial Reflection
In 2007, photographer and Willa Cather Foundation executive director Betty Kort created forty intimate portraits of artifacts in the historic sites of Willa Cather’s home town, Red Cloud. In addition to being featured in our gallery as a part of our annual Spring Conference, the exhibition toured across the country as part of the National Endowment for the Arts "Big Read" project.
Kort wrote that our organization possessed "an extraordinary collection of artifacts connected to the life and times of Willa Cather. Some are too valuable to publicly display, others too fragile, and some fit so neatly into the historic buildings that they are obscured. This photography exhibit is intended to highlight a select few of these objects and denote their relevance to the life, times, and work of Willa Cather."
Fifteen years later, the National Willa Cather Center will once again exhibit these framed photographs and supporting text as we celebrate Cather’s sesquicentennial and undertake major restoration efforts at the Willa Cather Childhood Home. Cather’s legacy as a Pulitzer Prize-winner and one of America’s most acclaimed authors of the 20th century is firmly established; this exhibition allows Cather’s readers to consider these precious museum objects in juxtaposition with her timeless words.
