In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

XI Acknowledgments Blanche DuBois had it right: one must depend on the kindness of strangers. Once friends are added to the list, quite a group needs to be thanked for help and support during the past twelve years. I start with my own institution, Washington and Lee University, where a series of Glenn and Lenfest grants helped fund research travel and where sabbaticals in 2001, 2005, and 2010 gave me needed time for research and writing. I thank June Aprille, Hank Dobin, the late John Elrod, Ken Ruscio, and Tom Williams for their support. The kind strangers include the librarians and staff of the many institutions I visited, including the Atchison, Kansas, Public Library; Atchison, Kansas, Historical Society; the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England; the Chicago History Museum and Newberry Library; the Hagley Library and Research Center and Winterthur Library, both in Wilmington, Delaware; the Iowa State Historical Society in Des Moines; the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka; the Library of Congress; the Minnesota Historical Society in Saint Paul; the Mitchell Public Library and the Mitchell Area Historical Society in Mitchell, South Dakota; the Philadelphia Historical Society and the Philadelphia Free Library; the Sioux City, Iowa, Public Library and Pearl Street Research Center; University of Kansas libraries in Lawrence, including the Watson, Anschutz, and Spencer Collections; and the Wisconsin Historical Society. I also thank the librarians at Washington and Lee’s Leyburn Library, especially Elizabeth Teaff, for handling all those interlibrary loans. David Butler, son of the Canadian butter sculptor Ross Butler, graciously welcomed me to his home in Ontario and gave me access to the museum/archive he established in honor of his father. Many colleagues faithfully sent me newspaper clippings and other references when they came across them. I am especially grateful to Marilyn Casto, Jeff Cohen, Lisa Davidson , Susan Eck, Betsy Fahlman, Ashley Gleason, Helen Langa, Travis McDonald, Richard Poole, Cynthia Elyce Rubin, Carolyn Swope, Robin Vedder, Alissa Walsh, Yvonne Webster, and Camille Wells. A number of good friends read parts of the manuscript and gave helpful advice, including Margaret Barlow, George Bent, Catherine Bishir, James Boyles, Ken Briesch, Amy Earls, Kasey Grier, Betty Hickox, Kim Hoagland, Andrea Lepage, Kelly Sisson Lessens, XII ACKN OWL EDGME NT S Harvey Markowitz, Ann McCleary, Sally McMurry, Cindy Mills, Marcia Reed, and Cynthia Elyce Rubin. Others read the whole manuscript at various stages and offered useful suggestions; thanks are due to Lydia Brandt, Delos Hughes, Mary Knighton, Simon Levy, Holt Merchant, Travis Nygard, Colleen Sheehy, and Michael Ann Williams. Larry Stene and Yasmine Espert gave important help with images. Friends, family, and colleagues gave me a bed when I was visiting an archive near their home and were willing to spend countless hours talking about corn palaces and butter sculpture. Thank you, Anna Andrzejewski, Bob and Leah Hemenway, Kim Hoagland, Pam and John Hughes, Michael Koop, Kevin and Ann McCormally, Cindy Mills, Carolyn Torma, and Henry and Patricia Simpson. I published six articles on aspects of this topic, and I thank the editors of the publications in which those articles appeared for their significant contributions in shaping my ideas and prose. I would like to single out Travis Nygard, my collaborator on several articles, for sharing his work on Oscar Howe and on corn history and for being such an interested and generous scholar. Thanks to Pieter Martin, Kristian Tvedten, and the staff at the University of Minnesota Press for shepherding this book into publication and for their constant patience and good advice. Finally, I thank my husband, Henry, for his help, humor, and support over the past forty years. First he had to hear about linoleum, and then about corn palaces and butter sculpture , but he has borne it all with patience and grace. ...

Share