Keeping warm in Pittsburgh
Recently during a great week-long chill, the kids and I stayed in Pittsburgh for a few days while Randy had a business trip to California. Since there was at that point little snow in Pittsburgh, neither Myles or Brigid were keen on playing outside. It wasn't hard to keep ourselves occupied during the day (after some school work was done, of course) in warm places.
Like the Carnegie Museum of Art
Where we wandered slowly through, taking time to sketch, and enjoy.
More after the jump
"Mom, this painting here reminds me of King Richard III," Brigid told me.
"You know, the one who is really a nice guy?"
It was actually "Picture of a Man holding a Book" by Ambrosius Benson.
For the first time we tried the Museum's app for extra notes about select pieces. It is a great addition to the visit, and I hope the Museum adds more artwork to the app in the future. For now, though, I can appreciate that it permitted me to spend a bit more time than normal in front of this stunning John Singer Sargent painting. We all stood and listened to Lynn Zelevansky talk about some of the amazing details.
Like amidst all of the floating abstract shapes that compose the hallway scene, these two women are captured in pose and expression that reminded me of contemporary instagrammy street photography. They seem to be caught off-guard, and maybe a little annoyed, by this person painting them.
And because the art and natural history museums are connected, we ended our day with a brief visit to the hall of dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs have always been more Myles' thing than Brigid's, but she has lately started to be more interested in them. This absolutely delights Myles to no end, a new receptive audience for all the dinosaur facts with which he has filled his head for the past eleven years. The two of them had been talking about Barnum Brown, and his discoveries, when Myles reminded Brigid that the CMNH owned a Barnum Brown Tyrannosaurus Rex. Brigid just had to see that for herself.
"I can't believe I am actually looking at THE Barnum Brown T. Rex!" she exclaimed, forgetting that she has been looking at this same dinosaur several times a year for most of her life.
For supper one night, I thought that fondue might be a good idea. I couldn't think where we might find some, until I remembered that Pittsburgh has a Melting Pot. We were more interested in just cheese fondue, like we enjoy in Switzerland, so we didn't go in for the full Melting Pot supper. I also asked about kirsch, thinking they wouldn't have it, but they did set me up with some cherry brandy. With a little added water, it came closer to what we had at Wii Hüsli than I would have expected.
Brigid was surprised that there was actually a desert called "chocolate fondue" like in the song from Frozen.
Another cold day meant another museum. The Heinz History Center is also among our favorite uncooperative-weather hideouts. We can spend hours here, too, absorbed in the big-museum treatment subjects of local, Western Pennsylvanian interest receive there.
On our recent visit we spent most of our time in a special exhibit on the steamboat Arabia. This steamboat, like many in the 19th century, was built in the Pittsburgh area (the local part), and was most used for transporting people and cargo along rivers in the Mid-West and west. In its final years of use, its route was on the Missouri River, where it eventually sunk in 1856. The wreckage was quickly covered in mud, and with the shifting of the Missouri, the precise location was lost. It wasn't until the 1980s when the farm owners, the Hawleys, were determined to locate the wreckage and salvage what they could.
The very first item found was, amazingly, a single rubber overshoe. Such a rare artifact from the period anyway, this is now kept in a nitrogen-rich, humidity-controlled chamber. This shoe, and the 251 others recovered from the site, are among the oldest surviving examples of Charles Goodyear's patented rubber-fabric. However, this lone shoe was the first encouraging find in that muddy site.
Also recovered a few days later was an intact barrel of china and glass ware. This was referred to as the "Magic Barrel" as it was even further proof that the excavation should continue.
The finds after that were then incredible. Because this was a cargo ship. The artifacts were cleaned up and catalogued. At the Heinz, these were displayed in impressive rows and mercantile-like displays.
Especially fascinating to me were the shoes and clothes that survived the 150 years in the mud. Anything leather or wool was able to be cleaned up and restored. However, cotton was vulnerable to decay, and most of the pre-made cotton clothing that was on the manifest was in evidence only by the pile of horn or shell buttons left behind.
Bolts of wool were found, but empty spools of cotton thread. Even on the pre-made clothing, the wool pieces were found unattached from one another, the thread long since dissolved.
Among the amazing discoveries was this jar of pickles and bottle of ketchup. One hundred and fifty years after being bottled, they appear still to be edible. Currently, though, they are stored and displayed in controlled chambers.
What really helps a whole family enjoy such and exhibit is how it appeals to kids. Myles was fascinated, of course, and followed the course of the exhibit as any adult would. Brigid, though, needed a little more age-appropriate help, and this was available. There were plenty of mystery objects that needed to be probed further, or at least, revealed by looking under a flap.
The exhibit contained so much more than just the recovered cargo---there was a room just about the hows and whys of steamboats (again, with much Pittsburgh interest covered), and some great information about the Arabia before its notable sinking, like its role in the Sharps Rifle Episode. It was, as we have come to expect from the Heinz History Center, engaging and dense with information.
This Heinz History Center exhibit is by now closed, but the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City is open year-round.
Every once in a while I wonder if we would continue homeschooling if we were to move back to Pittsburgh. I have to say it would be difficult, given all the distractions the city holds. How would I not want to spend every day wandering a different museum?
Like the Carnegie Museum of Art
Where we wandered slowly through, taking time to sketch, and enjoy.
More after the jump
"Mom, this painting here reminds me of King Richard III," Brigid told me.
"You know, the one who is really a nice guy?"
It was actually "Picture of a Man holding a Book" by Ambrosius Benson.
For the first time we tried the Museum's app for extra notes about select pieces. It is a great addition to the visit, and I hope the Museum adds more artwork to the app in the future. For now, though, I can appreciate that it permitted me to spend a bit more time than normal in front of this stunning John Singer Sargent painting. We all stood and listened to Lynn Zelevansky talk about some of the amazing details.
Like amidst all of the floating abstract shapes that compose the hallway scene, these two women are captured in pose and expression that reminded me of contemporary instagrammy street photography. They seem to be caught off-guard, and maybe a little annoyed, by this person painting them.
And because the art and natural history museums are connected, we ended our day with a brief visit to the hall of dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs have always been more Myles' thing than Brigid's, but she has lately started to be more interested in them. This absolutely delights Myles to no end, a new receptive audience for all the dinosaur facts with which he has filled his head for the past eleven years. The two of them had been talking about Barnum Brown, and his discoveries, when Myles reminded Brigid that the CMNH owned a Barnum Brown Tyrannosaurus Rex. Brigid just had to see that for herself.
"I can't believe I am actually looking at THE Barnum Brown T. Rex!" she exclaimed, forgetting that she has been looking at this same dinosaur several times a year for most of her life.
For supper one night, I thought that fondue might be a good idea. I couldn't think where we might find some, until I remembered that Pittsburgh has a Melting Pot. We were more interested in just cheese fondue, like we enjoy in Switzerland, so we didn't go in for the full Melting Pot supper. I also asked about kirsch, thinking they wouldn't have it, but they did set me up with some cherry brandy. With a little added water, it came closer to what we had at Wii Hüsli than I would have expected.
Brigid was surprised that there was actually a desert called "chocolate fondue" like in the song from Frozen.
Another cold day meant another museum. The Heinz History Center is also among our favorite uncooperative-weather hideouts. We can spend hours here, too, absorbed in the big-museum treatment subjects of local, Western Pennsylvanian interest receive there.
On our recent visit we spent most of our time in a special exhibit on the steamboat Arabia. This steamboat, like many in the 19th century, was built in the Pittsburgh area (the local part), and was most used for transporting people and cargo along rivers in the Mid-West and west. In its final years of use, its route was on the Missouri River, where it eventually sunk in 1856. The wreckage was quickly covered in mud, and with the shifting of the Missouri, the precise location was lost. It wasn't until the 1980s when the farm owners, the Hawleys, were determined to locate the wreckage and salvage what they could.
The very first item found was, amazingly, a single rubber overshoe. Such a rare artifact from the period anyway, this is now kept in a nitrogen-rich, humidity-controlled chamber. This shoe, and the 251 others recovered from the site, are among the oldest surviving examples of Charles Goodyear's patented rubber-fabric. However, this lone shoe was the first encouraging find in that muddy site.
Also recovered a few days later was an intact barrel of china and glass ware. This was referred to as the "Magic Barrel" as it was even further proof that the excavation should continue.
The finds after that were then incredible. Because this was a cargo ship. The artifacts were cleaned up and catalogued. At the Heinz, these were displayed in impressive rows and mercantile-like displays.
Especially fascinating to me were the shoes and clothes that survived the 150 years in the mud. Anything leather or wool was able to be cleaned up and restored. However, cotton was vulnerable to decay, and most of the pre-made cotton clothing that was on the manifest was in evidence only by the pile of horn or shell buttons left behind.
Bolts of wool were found, but empty spools of cotton thread. Even on the pre-made clothing, the wool pieces were found unattached from one another, the thread long since dissolved.
Among the amazing discoveries was this jar of pickles and bottle of ketchup. One hundred and fifty years after being bottled, they appear still to be edible. Currently, though, they are stored and displayed in controlled chambers.
What really helps a whole family enjoy such and exhibit is how it appeals to kids. Myles was fascinated, of course, and followed the course of the exhibit as any adult would. Brigid, though, needed a little more age-appropriate help, and this was available. There were plenty of mystery objects that needed to be probed further, or at least, revealed by looking under a flap.
The exhibit contained so much more than just the recovered cargo---there was a room just about the hows and whys of steamboats (again, with much Pittsburgh interest covered), and some great information about the Arabia before its notable sinking, like its role in the Sharps Rifle Episode. It was, as we have come to expect from the Heinz History Center, engaging and dense with information.
This Heinz History Center exhibit is by now closed, but the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City is open year-round.
Every once in a while I wonder if we would continue homeschooling if we were to move back to Pittsburgh. I have to say it would be difficult, given all the distractions the city holds. How would I not want to spend every day wandering a different museum?
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