James Buchanan's Wheatland, Lancaster, PA

~ During my stay in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I went to check out Wheatland, the home of America’s 15th President, James Buchanan. With my usual impeccable timing, I managed to walk the mile and half from my hotel to Wheatland on the one day of the week the home was closed. Thankfully, the ten acre site is unfenced and visitors are free to wander the grounds and examine the exterior of the house and gardens, and the various outbuildings at leisure.

Constructed in 1828 by William Jenkins, a local lawyer, Wheatland, or the James Buchanan House, is a brick, Federal style house which was once surrounded by 22 acres of sculpted gardens and landscaped grounds. Today Wheatland shares its ten acres with the Lancaster County Historical Society.

James Buchanan purchased Wheatland in 1848, and lived in the house for next two decades―except for several years during his ambassadorship in Great Britain and during his presidency. Speaking of which: in complete contrast to the constant travel that modern presidential hopefuls embark on, Buchanan did not tour the country as part of his 1856 campaign. Instead, he conducted it from Wheatland as a "front porch campaign". In this age of instant communications, it boggles the mind to try and imagine how anyone could run a successful campaign for President from his front porch!

After his death in 1868, Wheatland passed through a succession of owners before it was acquired by a group of people who set up a foundation for the purpose of preserving the house.

Wheatland was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. It was designated a contributing property to the Northeast Lancaster Township Historic District in 1980. The foundation and the adjacent historical society merged in 2009.

Wheatland was opened to the public on May 5, 1936 and was dedicated "as a new presidential shrine, taking its place with Mount Vernon, Monticello and The Hermitage," in October 1937.

Architecture and Décor

As already noted, Wheatland is built in the Federal style. Wikipedia has this to say about its construction:

As no documents on the actual construction are known to exist, the person or persons responsible for the design of Wheatland have remained anonymous. However, the architecture of Wheatland, as well as its location on the property, indicates someone who was skilled in classical architecture. Design elements, like various lunette windows, also show the influence of various architectural guidebooks that were prevalent in the early 19th century.

Former privy built well away from main house!

The Grounds

On the grounds, behind Wheatland, stand a privy, a smoke-house  and a carriage house. A stable used to stand on the property but was replaced by the carriage house in the late 1880s; an ice-house also no longer exists.

A bathroom, complete with bathtub, shower and a bidet, was installed in the west wing in 1884. Until this was done, the household and guests had to visit a large square privy built well away from the main house―for obvious reasons.

Making the best of a poor situation, I am happy I took the trouble to see Wheatland, but I am disappointed I did not have an opportunity to enter the house to get a sense of life in the mid-1800s. Again, Wikipedia offers this:

The interior of Wheatland is furnished as it would have been in the mid-19th Century, with most of the furniture being original to the house. As Wheatland has never been significantly altered or remodelled  other than the installation of modern lighting and heating, it provides an accurate view of the lifestyle in the Victorian era.

If you are visiting Lancaster, don’t do as I did―make sure you visit James Buchanan’s Wheatland while it is open! Having said that―unless I have missed it―the official website does not mention specific opening hours, just the start of the first and last guided tours. It is probably safe to assume that opening hours are 9 AM-5 PM, but don’t take my word for it, call 717-392-4633 to confirm this for yourself.

The Hours of Operation noted below are taken directly from the official site:

April through October
Tours are offered Monday through Saturday, on the hour, starting with the 10 AM tour.  The last tour begins at 4 PM.

Closed
Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Years Day.

And just to prove that my outing to Wheatland was not a complete waste of time, here is a brief video documenting my visit:

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TED on Tuesday: Ken Robinson: Schools Kill Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson

In my family and extended family, I count at least nine members who are involved in various fields of education, either as teachers, instructors, or some other capacity. Across the same family there are members who sing, play musical instruments, paint, write poetry, and dance. One is a screenwriter, and another is currently undertaking a film making course.

I myself, am a singer-songwriter with a couple of albums to my name, and I guess I can add video maker to my credits if I include the numerous short videos I have put together documenting my various travels. It goes without saying then, that questions examining the nexus between education and creativity are of great interest to myself, and other members of the family.

Today’s TED on Tuesday features a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, who makes an entertaining and forceful case for creating a modern education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.” ~ Sir Ken Robinson

Posing the question: Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Further, he argues that students with restless minds and bodies―far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity―are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. Or worse―diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder), and  medicated into submission.

Sir Ken led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. His latest book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative was published in January 2009. He is also the author of the best selling The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.

Take a look as Sir Ken Robinson delivers one of the most popular TED talks on education and creativity:

Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France

I visited the Musée de l’Orangerie, in Paris during my stay in the ‘City of Lights’, in December 2010. The Museum is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, located on the banks of the Seine in the old orangery of the Tuileries Palace, on the Place de la Concorde near the Concorde metro station.

I first encountered two of Monet’s magnificent Water Lily masterpieces when visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Although I had seen photographs of some of these paintings often enough, nothing prepared me for the sheer joy I experienced standing before these masterpieces of shadow, light and colour.

Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the fifth floor of 45, rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature. The term Impressionism, is derived from the title of his painting: Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant).

Beginning in the 1880s and 1890s through the end of his life in 1926, Monet worked on several "series" paintings, in which his subject matter was depicted in varying light and weather conditions. Using his own gardens (with their water lilies, pond, and bridge as inspiration), Monet’s Water Lilies date from this period.

In 1922, Claude Monet signed a contract donating the Nymphéas series of decorative panels to the French government. With input from Monet, the Nymphéas were arranged on the ground floor of the Orangerie in 1927. The eight paintings are displayed in two oval rooms, and are viewed under direct diffused light as was originally intended by Monet.

In what I can only assume is a very unconventional method of mounting the paintings, the eight massive canvases have been glued directly to the walls.

Monet died of lung cancer on 5 December 1926 at the age of 86, and is buried in the Giverny church cemetery. His home, garden and water lily pond were bequeathed by his son Michel, to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1966. Through the Claude Monet Foundation, the house and gardens have been open for visits since 1980, and are a ‘must see’ for all devotees of Monet’s work.

According to the museum's website, the Orangerie was originally built in 1852 to shelter the orange trees of the garden of the Tuileries. Today, while it is most famous for being the permanent home for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, the Musée de l’Orangerie also contains works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Rousseau among others.

Here is a brief look at some of those magnificent works of art:

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