Central Library
A marbled navy blue frame and broad white matting center this detailed painting by Independence, Missouri native George Lightfoot, titled "K.C. Union Station-Winter". The print's perspective places the station at a distance from the viewer and nestled below the surrounding city skyline. Covered in snow, the Union Station building appears grand and still save for the family building a snowman on the lawn facing it. The small size of the print itself, which is 5 3/4 inches long by 4 1/4 inches wide, encourages the viewer to dial in on the minute details that characterize the artist's style.
Promotional poster for Kansas City Area Transportation Authority marketing 'DIMETOWN', a ten cent ride program to various parts of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The enlarged poster is patriotically colored, the lettering is mostly blue, with the exception of DIMETOWN which is blue bordered containing a red and white interior, and a white background.
Based in Kansas City, Irma Starr is a world-renowned potter who creates collectible works of art that are modeled after the 17th-century slipware style of pottery. This beautifully and meticulously rendered ceramic plate holds the Kansas City Central Library building as its focal point, thus placing further emphasis on the Library as the city's oldest cultural institution. On the outer lip of the plate are two images. To the left, a portrait of the Public Library's founder James M. Greenwood. To the right, Greenwood’s white marble memorial chair located at the Central Branch.
Edward Degas is regarded as one of the founders of the Impressionist movement in 19th-century painting. However, he regarded himself as a realist or independent due to his pursuit of atypical subject matter and his tendency to paint from unusual vantage points and with asymmetrical compositions. He painted scenes of leisure activities of modern life, such as ballet dancers in the 1870s that eventually comprised perhaps his most memorable series of work.
Claude Monet was the founder of the French Impressionist movement which sought to express one's perception of nature through essence and the effect of light on forms. Plein air painting was the chosen subject matter of the movement, but when figures such as this one arose they were depicted in the same style which left details open and gestural. Accordingly unrecognizable, the woman pictured here is Suzanne Hoschedé, daughter of Claude Monet's second wife, Alice Hoschedé. The painting was rendered from a low viewpoint, making Ms.
This elegant grandfather clock contains a large round clock face and oval body atop a base with scroll and leaf ornament and bun feet. The clock has a beautiful Windsor cherry wood finish with hues of antique gold throughout the carved details. The clock face features dual-tone, metallic and gold hands with Arabic numerals beneath a convex glass crystal. A leaf-tip pattern surrounds the clock face as well as the lower glass door, framing the hanging composition of weights and large, round pendulum.
This lectum was designed to empower the speaker before the audience. Rectangular in shape, the top of the piece provides ample space for the speaker to rest their hands on either side of the angled book platform. The platform is upholstered in a red velvet material in order to keep the speaker's materials from sliding downward. The upper section of the lectum narrows downward over a series of beveled edges that create the illusion of elevating the speaker. The body of the lectum remains rectangular with two wooden columns fashioned into the base.
Lehighton Letters is a series of works created for public libraries worldwide by found object sculptor Richard J. Hinger. Works from Lehighton Letters that he named after the artists Pennsylvania birthplace are on exhibition in London, New York City, Paris, Washington D.C. and 60 other public libraries including the Central Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. This work is made from salvaged signage letters and recycled objects like soda cans, toys, toothbrushes, and bottle caps inlaid in a resin material with a textured application.
Artist Eugene L. Daub portrays a scene simultaneously in pause and in motion with this relief sculpture. Lewis and Clark look out over their expedition team with their journal and sextant (navigational tool) contemplating the expedition to come while a band of men load and heave large wooden canoes into the water. Sacagawea looks past the scene in the same direction with child fastened to her back. The wind blows the fabric of her dress in the same direction as her gaze emphasizing the still capture of a chaotic moment.
This bronze sculpture of the Lewis and Clark Expedition team includes Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, York, Sacagawea, and Lewis's Newfoundland dog, Seaman (listed on the artist's website). The group rests atop a rocky base while looking out in all directions and observing what lies ahead. Lewis and Clark are in the midst of consulting their instruments and each other. The team stands alone, facing what the viewer's imagination reads as the uncharted Frontier in the space around the sculpture. They appear cautious, yet brave, and together convey the essence of discovery.
Gabriella Polony Mountain's work includes four major themes. The first three themes are clearly recognizable as the Cosmos, Nature, and Figural works with the fourth theme encompassing history, philosophy, and culture. In her life as an artist, Polony Mountain worked with many different medium including mosaics, weavings, sculpture, stained glass, and repousse. Sculpture is a three dimensional branch of the visual arts. In traditional forms of sculpture, the materials used were easily accessible and consisted of stone, metal, wood, ceramics.
This map is of the Greater Kansas City Metro and Suburbs region. Text in the bottom righthand corner reads the company's slogan "Everything in Maps." The Gallup Map & Art Company was founded in Kansas City in 1875 and is one of the oldest operating cartography companies in the United States. A later reproduction of the same map can be found on their website and is listed as an "antique map featuring the streetcars" (GallupMap.com).
This map provides a visual understanding of Kansas City's urban landscape with bright color blocking to denote major districts packed with extensive quantitative detail. The legend includes house numbers, city limits, county lines, railroads, public buildings, hospitals, county highways, US highways, interstates, shopping centers, parks, cemeteries, golf courses, and an index of the major corporations, or districts that comprise the city.
The Kansas City Stockyards operated in the West Bottoms of Kansas City from 1871 to 1991. It was the second largest stockyards in the nation and one of Kansas City’s most important industries. Three separate maps comprise a whole view of the stockyards. Reading from top to bottom, each map is numbered Plate One, Plate Two and Plate Three. The maps were created circa 1907, from map makers Tuttle and Pike. Plate One details "N 1/2 Sec. 6, Tp. 49, R 33.". Two of the neighborhoods included in this area are Coates and Hopkins Addition. Plate Two details "S 1/2 Sec. 6, Tp.
This map provides a color-blocked depiction of Kansas City on a grid. The map used for this print was presumably much older since the key at the top identifies horse and cable roads as well as steam roads throughout the city. Steam roads refers to the roads that were created to accommodate the steam powered vehicles developed in the 1800s. The Missouri side, in yellow, features most of the grid as well as the Missouri Pacific, Chicago & Alton, and Kansas City Sunbelt railroads. They trail into the Kansas side, which is pink, and features more of the grid and the Shawnee Reserve.
As documented in the historical account from the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library, The town of Westport, in 1838, stood near the western edge of the American frontier and served as a disembarking point for traders following the Santa Fe Trail to present-day New Mexico, then a part of Mexico. To reach Westport from the east, traders traveled by river to a natural rock landing near the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers and then trekked four miles south to Westport. This is an original 1885 map of Westport Missouri, by Charles C. Spalding, C.E.
Gabriella Polony Mountain's work includes four major themes. The first three themes are clearly recognizable as the Cosmos, Nature, and Figural works with the fourth theme encompassing history, philosophy, and culture. In her life as an artist, Polony Mountain worked with many different medium including mosaics, weavings, sculpture, stained glass, and repousse. Weaving is a technique used to make textiles by interlacing thread.
"Missouri Ave" is an oil on canvas landscape painting in the Impressionist style. It depicts a view of the Missouri Avenue, located in the North East district of Kansas City, Missouri. The painting showcases multi-story buildings on either side of a street view with both automobiles and pedestrians. Businesses are visible on the left hand side of the work by the store front signs of "Tailor" and "Loans." "Missouri Ave" is an original painting signed by the artist.
This map color codes the geological mines throughout Jackson County with an accompanying legend. The legend includes the following mineral deposits: Alluvium, Iola Limestone, Chanute Shale, Drum LS, Cherryvale Sh, Winterset LS, Galesburg Sh, Bethany Falls LS, Ladore Sh, Hertha LS, Pleasanton Sh. The following areas are noted for each mineral: Lansing, Kansas City, Pleasanton, Henrietta, and Cherokee. The cartographic authors are noted as W.E. McCourt and J. Bennett, and other text further indicates H. A. Buehler as the State Geologist.
This enlarged reproduction print depicts a map of Kansas City showing the progress of Works of Improvement from surveys conducted in December of 1890 and again in October and November of 1891. The Missouri River Commission, Kansas City Division, created this plate to show the stages of water within a given time frame.