Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018-19 Part 7 – Flight from the City: Vermont & Olson Replies to Kent’s Letter June 27-30, 2019 ABOVE – Lars Matt Olson’s waterfront pass. Seward was the terminus of the new Government Railroad. During the Great War security measures were put in place along the Seward waterfront. By 1918, the date of this pass, the tracks did reach Anchorage and were progressing north toward Nenana and Fairbanks. Construction would be completed in 1923. Resurrection Bay Historical Society Collection. A New Consecration -- The Hopes of an Unsaved World "A cultured society that has fallen away from its religious traditions expects more from art than the aesthetic consciousness and the standpoint of art can deliver. The Romantic desire for a new mythology...gives the artist and his task in the world the consciousness of a new consecration. He is something like a 'secular saviour

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018-19 Part 6 – Flight from the City: Vermont & A Letter to Olson June 23-25, 2019   ABOVE – Kent and his family at Egypt in Arlington, Vermont. From right to left, daughter Kathleen; Rockwell; Barbara; Clara; Kent's wife, Kathleen, and Gordon. Son, Rockie is missing. Gordon was born in October 1920. This photo was probably taken in 1922. Photo from a private Kent family collection. Events moved quickly once Kent returned from Alaska. He left Seward on March 31, 1919. He was home in early April. The show of his drawings occurred within a month followed by outstanding reviews and financial success. He had a book contract to feature his drawings, investors for Rockwell Kent, Inc., and patrons who supported him in other ways. The fame and success he craved looked promising. At the very least, the art world now gave him the attention he knew he deserved. The rest would