Canada - Day Four: New York State (Fair Haven - Corning - Elmira - Cooperstown - Schenectady)

Note - traveling with my wife is wonderful - she even lets me listen to my music at a decent volume! But because we are "sharing time together", I have no time to blog (some sacrifices must be made), so these are being written upon our return home. Although the "correct" date appears on the dixonheadingwest blog itself, email subscribers only see the date-and-time it was posted. So I will be including day-and-date in my writings.

A big day today (Thursday, May 28) - 6 hours of driving, and 4 Museums (hey, the "National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum" has the word "Museum" in it!)


A good early breakfast, then 2 hours down the road to The Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, NY. We drove down the west side of Seneca Lake - one of the "Finger Lakes" and it was beautiful. Through the town of Watkins Glen (I would like to explore the Watkins Glen State Park - some other time ...). I feel that The Rockwell Museum is one of the Top-10 Museums for Western Art (Bierstadt, Moran, Thomas Hill), and it was my first stop on my 1st trip west in September 2013. The highlight is Mount Whitney by Albert Bierstadt (c. 1877), which is right in front of you as you come up the stairs for the third floor:


Other gems include
Thomas Moran - Clouds in the Canyon, 1915


Thomas Hill - Yosemite, c. 1908


Ogden Minton Pleissner - Lost Lake, Wyoming, c. 1940


This was the most-western point on our trip, so east 20 miles to the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, NY. Although they have two beautiful paintings by Bierstadt and Thomas Cole, their Hudson River paintings are only on display in the fall - so maybe I will return in Sept. or Oct.
Meanwhile, they had a nice painting by Willem van de Velde, the Younger: Man-of-War in a Storm


and two woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave of Kanagawa


Mt. Fuji from Kajikazawa


2-1/2 hours northeast on a beautiful sunny day in New York State takes us to the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown - an old mansion on Otsego Lake


Thomas Cole - Landscape, Scene from The Last of the Mohicans, ca. 1827


Asher Brown Durand - Hudson River Looking Toward the Catskills, 1847


They also have an exhibition of the Kodak Colorama, which used to be in Grand Central Station from 1950 until 1990. I remember seeing it as I walked through Grand Central Station when I commuted from the Upper West Side to A.I.P.S.O. at Third Avenue and 45th Street. The pictures were always awe-inspiring!



and, of course, since I am in Cooperstown, I had to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame! Here is Stan Musial's plaque (Wendy is from St. Louis!)


There are two fun pieces of art:
Norman Rockwell - Game Called Because of Rain (Tough Call), 1949


LeRoy Neiman - The Hall of Famer, 1996


An hour up the road to the Super 8, Schenectady, and a great dinner out and a good night's sleep! Thank you God for a great day!

Music today (I listened to albums):

sorry - don't remember which music I played today ...