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Showing posts from March, 2020

MARCH 18, 2020 -- 100 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH

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ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2020 100 Years Ago This Month March 18, 2020 It was 100 years ago this month -- March of 1920 -- that Rockwell Kent began his rise to fame. This is when the New York exhibit of is Alaska paintings combined with the publication of his first book, Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska . If you haven't already read this portion of the website, this might be a good time to do so. Begin with the link below and work you way along this multipart series. https://rockwellkentjournal.blogspot.com/2019/07/part-1-july-21-24-wilderness-alaska.html In a few days I'll continue the series about Olga and her family, the Drexel-Dahlgrens.

MARCH 13, 2020 PART 2 OLGA DREXEL DAHLGREN AND HER FAMILY

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 ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2020 Part 2: Olga Drexel Dahlgren and her Family March 13, 2020 INTRODUCTION This journey into Olga Drexel Dahlgren and her family has several purposes. There is a connection between Olga and Rockwell Kent that involves his second wife, Frances, and perhaps even his first wife, Kathleen. I will cover this in the last entry of this series. On our way there, I want to introduce the family as portrayed by press coverage. To a significant extent, this will be a skewed perspective, as is all media coverage. I don’t have access to letters and diaries that would certainly present a more nuanced narrative. The Drexels, the Dahlgrens, and the Drexel-Dahlgrens represent a prominent, visible, wealthy, Roman Catholic family – a combination of old and new wealth – that emerged after the American Civil War during what has been called the Gilded Age. The Drexel-Dahlgren children reached maturity during a pe

MARCH 9, 2020 PART I: OLGA DREXEL DAHLGREN AND THE BACHELOR GIRLS

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ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER Part I – Olga Drexel Dahlgren and the Bachelor Girls by Doug Capra © 2020 March 9, 2020 ABOVE – Olga Drexel Dahlgren, 1926. Photo by Edward Steichen. Photo Source. BELOW – From the March 20, 1898 Chicago Tribune. JUST ABOUT A GENERATION The difference between an “old maid” and a “bachelor girl,” dear nephew, is  just about a generation.          March 25, 1921 Baltimore Evening Sun The bachelor girl of the present day…earns a good salary, is financially independent and is respected by all. No stigma attaches to her state of single blessedness. I’m rather inclined to think that many of the married women regard her with envious eyes and wish they had her money and her freedom!          Nov. 12, 1914 in the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger While researching Rockwell Kent’s life during the mid-1920’s, I stumbled upon two interesting topics – a person, and a change in social mores