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By Sheila Riley, Director of Collections
The Children’s Museum was founded as a collecting institution nearly 86 years ago. Among our artifacts, we have many examples of fine art and folk art. One of my favorites is our Norman Rockwell painting, Scout Memories, on display outside the Power of Children gallery on Level 3.
We were given this painting via an estate in 1993. I remember the day I got a phone call from the lawyer saying we’d been left a Norman Rockwell painting, and I immediately thought, “Well, it must be a print or something, there’s no way it could be real.” We made arrangements to go to the Anderson, IN residence where the painting was located—still in the upstairs loft area of the house in what used to be an office. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes—it was a REAL Norman Rockwell painting, and it was thumb-tacked on the door of a bookcase!
We decided it would be much safer to take the door off of the bookcase than to try to remove the painting. I ended up using a little screwdriver on the end of my keychain to get the door off, and then we carefully placed it in our van and brought Scout Memories to The Children’s Museum. After a careful cleaning that removed years of dirt and nicotine, we were able to exhibit the large oil painting.
Rockwell painted Scout Memories in 1931 as an illustration for a Brown & Bigelow Boy Scout calendar. It features a buckskin-clad Dan Beard, an early Boy Scout founder, telling a pioneer story by lamplight to a young Scout, with images of settlers in the background. Research indicated that the original owner of the painting was a key figure in scouting who had purchased the painting from Rockwell in the 1940s. Truly an iconic figure in American art, we are proud to have this Norman Rockwell painting in our collection.
Be sure and look for it on your next visit!
