Minnesota at the turn of the century - 'Minnesota 1900: Art and Life on the Upper Mississippi, 1890-1915,' Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Magazine Antiques, June, 1994

THE TWIN CITIES of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota are situated at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, an ideal location augmented in the early nineteenth century by untapped reserves of timber, minerals, and other natural resources fast dwindling on the East Coast. The attraction for immigrants was strong and many chose to settle there. An exhibition celebrating the enormous growth of the state and its cultural institutions will be on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from June 19 until September 4. Entitled Minnesota 1900: Art and Life on the Upper Mississippi, 1890-1915, the show comprises more than 325 architectural drawings and elements, paintings, furniture, lighting devices, ceramics, metalwork, and objects made by local Indian tribes, many of which are displayed in period settings. In addition to the exhibition, the museum has initiated a statewide celebration at more than forty sites, from historical societies to house museums.

In 1891 the architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler wrote that "there could be no better place than the twin cities to study the development of Western architecture or rather to ascertain whether there is any such thing." Expansion fueled by prosperity required buildings of every type, and by 1915 some of America's most highly regarded architects had completed commissions in Minnesota, among them Daniel Burnham; Bertram Goodhue; Louis H. Sullivan; Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge; and McKim, Mead and White. Technological advances, in particular the skyscraper, were heartily embraced in Minnesota. While many architects in the state built in the Beaux-Arts style, innovative design as developed by architect of the Prairie school also found a receptive audience.

A section of the exhibition is devoted to the revolutionary designer and retailer John Scott Bradstreet (1845-1914), who arrived in Minneapolis in 1873 and five years later went into the furniture business with Edmund Phelps. The partners offered furniture imported from around the world as well as that of their own design. By the 1880's Bradstreet had turned from an early interest in the Gothic revival to Moorish and Japanese styles. With Phelps's retirement in 1883, Bradstreet persuaded Dexter Thurber, whose family was involved with the Gorham Manufacturing Company in Providence, Rhode Island, to move to Minneapolis. The firm of Bradstreet, Thurber and Company enlarged its inventory to include all types of decorative accessories, again imported from around the globe. Every other year Bradstreet traveled to Japan to ensure that his imports represented the latest styles. Around the turn of the century he added the arts and crafts movement to the repertory of styles represented in his shop. Early in 1904 he opened the Craftshouse, which employed mostly Scandinavian and several Japanese workmen. His own fine sense of design and marketing skills made Bradstreet the most sought after designer in the state. Eventually his services included landscape design, selling antique and reproduction furniture, and making furniture to the designs of local architects such as William Gray Purcell (1880-1965) and George Grant Elmslie (1869-1952).

Purcell and Elmslie headed a design and architectural firm that became one of the most important innovators of the period and was heavily influenced by organic architecture as developed by Louis H. Sullivan and carried out by Frank Lloyd Wright. Elmslie had been Sullivan's principal draftsman, while Purcell had spent part of his youth in Oak Park, Illinois, the site of many early Wright houses. In domestic architecture their hallmarks were raised hearths, tented ceilings, open floor plans, and the use of brightly colored surfaces. They were frequently called on to design furnishings, and the exhibition includes examples of their furniture as well as some of the silver they designed for execution by the Chicago silversmith Robert Jarvie (1865-1941).

The painter Robert Koehler (1850-1917) arrived in Minneapolis in 1893. He became the director of the Minneapolis School of Art and founded the Artists League. He and many of the other art teachers in the city were members of the Handicraft Guild, which was founded in 1904. The guild offered classes in metalwork, jewelry making, leather crafting, pottery, bookbinding, wood carving, woodblock printing, and watercolor painting. The group espoused the arts and crafts ideal of hand craftsmanship, but differed from other organizations of its type in that its primary mission was art education. It retailed its students' products until 1918, when it became part of the University of Minnesota.

The last section of the exhibition is devoted to the American Indians who were either native to the region, such as the Dakota and Lakota, or who were moved there by the United States government, such as the Woodland Anishinabe (often called the Ojibwe or Chippewa). On view are the bark containers, clothing, mats, fiber bags, and other objects they made for their own use, and the souvenirs they made for the white tourist trade.