New Rural School

watercolor

Name/Title

New Rural School

Entry/Object ID

2003.64.1

Description

Watercolor of a rural school house with trees and fields in foreground and a village in the background. It is mounted within a brown mat that has the label, "THE NEW RURAL SCHOOL" and a thin silver line around the mat opening. The whole is framed in a black wooden frame with a simple molding.

Artwork Details

Medium

Watercolor

Context

In the late 1910s and 1920s the Daughters of the American Revolution took a distinct interest in education in the United States. In the early years they felt a need to create a unified, Anglo-American-centric curriculum to help immigrants shed their own culture and become "Americanized." By the mid-1920s this initiative grew beyond new immigrants to poor and rural schools. In 1924, the Marquis de Lafayette Chapter of the DAR (Montpelier) sponsored a speaking contest to define the "New Rural School" and raise funds for the project. The speaker had to be between the ages of 50 and 90. This second prize painting by Verna Stebbins of Montpelier was awarded to Lenora Stevens Farnham on February 24, 1924.

Acquisition

Accession

2003.64

Source or Donor

Farnham, Madeline H.

Acquisition Method

Gift

Credit Line

In memory of Lenora Stevens Farnham

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Stebbins, Verna Adele (1898-1998)

Role

Painter

Date made

1924

Place

City

Montpelier

County

Washington County

State/Province

Vermont

Country

United States of America

Continent

North America

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Painting

Nomenclature Class

Art

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Overall

Height

12 in

Width

8-3/8 in

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Farnham, Lenora Rachael Stevens (1869-1943)

Person or Organization

Daughters of the American Revolution