Joslyn Art Museum

I am taking it easy for a few days, awaiting Mother, who will fly in to Omaha Monday afternoon to accompany me on the last segment of the trip. Omaha looks to be about half way across, but maybe not the way I travel. I have driven just under 2000 miles so far, which is not too bad. I drove 4500 miles in all, the first time I drove cross country in 1998.

I arrived at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha at 11:50 Saturday morning. Lucky me--Saturday mornings are free until noon. This is a beautiful Art Deco building, covered in pink marble, built in memory of local businessman George Joslyn by his widow. It has a little bit of everything, including Greek pottery, 19th Century art, Art of the American West, and a new Asian Arts section. One display case has a selection of Georg Jensen silver items. I loved the teapot with an ivory handle. The museum also has not one but two Dale Chihuly glass chandeliers.

But the gem of the museum is the Maximilian-Bodmer Collection. Unfortunately, I just missed the tour of the collection, which includes material relating to the expedition of German Prince Maximilian of Wied and Swiss artist Karl Bodmer across North America and up the Missouri River, to what is now Montana, in 1832-34. The prince was an amateur scientist who hired Bodmer to go along and make accurate drawings to accompany his own written account, which was published when they returned. The museum rotates the selection on view from the collection's immense holdings. An interesting note is that Max & Bodmer met up with General Clark in St. Louis. Clark had copies made of the maps produced on his & Lewis's 1804-06 journey to assist them, as they followed much of the same route from St. Louis. Many of Lewis & Clark's original maps have since been lost, so that these are the only visual copies extant of that portion of the journey.

I learned something else: Majolica pottery was introduced into Spain from Majorca (hence the name), where it was made by Moorish craftsmen. It spread to Italy and the rest of Europe from there. I never knew this, even tho I had lived in Majorca at one time (but I was very young).

The museum may be beautiful, but it certainly is confusing. Even with a map, I kept getting lost. I would be no good on an expedition. And the food is nothing to write home about, in contrast to many of the museum cafes I have tried. Semi-do-it-yourself sandwiches and undrinkable iced tea made from some kind of nasty powder. And can anyone tell me how to get mustard out of those little packets without getting it all over your hands?