Glimpses of Cats, Glimpses of Lives
And Talks! See the bottom of the post
Lorado Taft
Someone posted this photo on Facebook this week, which reminded me that I would like to do a Herald article about Lorado Taft and his art colony. There was of course very famous art colony from 56th to 57th, Dorchester to Stony Island that embraced artists and eccentrics ever since 1893. Taft, whose studios were at 60th and Ellis and then 60th and Ingleside, gathered a personal art colony of assistants, former assistants, students, and related people in arts and architecture. Apparently, they all gathered for noontime dinner, possibly every day. I just can’t imagine how wonderful it would be to have a circle of support like this. I’m still trying to track down who was involved. I’ve seen other photos, but somehow this one with the cat just brings home the lived domesticated life in the arts.
In trying to track down the source of the photo, I bumped into several other cats.
Lady Jane Grey
What defines a community? Having a communal cat to pet? Lady Jane Grey was the guardian spirit of O’Gara and Wilson Bookstore. Here she is by the antique cash register. She deigned to allow customers to giver her a scritch behind the ears as she lounged on the used books, some of which were antiquarian gems. For me though as a broke grad students I was interested in the cheap and strange, letting serendipity guide me. I didn’t even know to search for. And if nothing magical popped up, there was always a visit with the Queen of the store.
The storefront on 57th Street had been a beloved book and stationery store for many decades. There’s a still a ghost sign painted on the side of the building that says Woodworth’s. The wooden floors creaked. The floor to ceiling bookshelves were accessed by ancient rolling library ladders. Outside a large tree became the bulletin board for the neighborhood, with messages tacked all over the trunk. For years after the tree died, they left the 7 foot tall stump to still be a message board until it finally met its demise.
Jockey Cavens
And then there was this mystery, simply identified as “Jockey Cavens with a cat 1929.” He’s so slight and frail and seemingly worried about the cat tolerating him. A Chicago Daily News photographer took the photo, so I tried the news. Cavens did have a first name, not just a job. I managed to find out that he was Joseph, Joe Cavens, born in 1912 in Dallas. So he was just 17 in the photo and kicking around from track to track. He shows up in articles from New Orleans, or Churchill Downs. The stories were mostly him getting into some trouble, cutting off a horse during a race, getting into a fight with another jockey.
And then I found something. A 1930 news item from Time magazine. Cavens had just been suspended from a racetrack in New Orleans for whipping his horse on the head at the end of a race. The next day at dawn, he was still on the grounds when a cry went up. The stables were on fire. Horses were frantic, battering their stall doors with their hooves. Men were running around shouting for water. Cavens ran past them and disappeared into the smoke, flames, and chaos, emerging with two racehorses “in an ecstasy of terror.” He ran back in and emerged with two more. A third time he ran in, but this time as he came out with two horses, his clothes were on fire. He beat out the flames but didn’t attempt to go in again. 18 racehorses died within an hour.
After that act of incredible bravery, I could find only one more glimpse of Joe. He registered for the draft in 1940. He was working at Churchill Downs and living in New Orleans. No one as far as I can tell wrote him an obituary.
Frank Lloyd Wright Talk
Next Wednesday at noon Central Standard Time, I’ll be on Zoom Talking about how Frank Lloyd Wright got his start because of Hyde Park and how his early ideas evolved. It’s basically the same talk I gave in person last spring. This will be on Zoom and they will post it on YouTube. Here’s Frank during the fight to save Robie House from demolition.
More information and a link are here.
Panel on Morgan Shoals
Then on November 14 at noon on Zoom I’ll be talking for about 15 minutes giving the history of Hyde Park’s lakefront, Morgan, ship wrecks, and the shoals—ancient coral reefs out in the lake. It’s a panel set up by Friends of the Parks. They are worried about the Army Corps of Engineer’s plans. It’s a biodiverse habitat beloved by swimmers and fish—and it has a long interesting history! This will also get posted on YouTube.
Wonderful. I hope there are instructions how to access this Program. I'll look around.
Thank you,
MG