Frederic Remington's How the Worm Turned, April 1901 Oil on canvas, gift of Mary Ellsworth Manning '21, Joseph C. Ellsworth '28, Mr. and Mrs. George R. Steiner, and the Class of 1965

9/12/11

Remington Presentation At SLU Kicks Off Festival

CANTON - A presentation titled "Frederic Remington at SLU," on Thursday, September 22, at 7 p.m. in the MacAllaster Room of Owen D. Young Library at St. Lawrence University will be the opening lecture in the Remington Arts Festival. The event is open to the public, free of charge.

Mark McMurray, the University archivist and curator of special collections, will give a talk on the letters, correspondence and messages from the Frederic Remington Collection at Owen D. Young Library, called "Dear Sir, You are a lulu: Text Messages of Frederic Remington."

Remington Art Museum Curator Laura Foster will give a talk called "A Painting at the Center of a Story," about a painting in the University's collection by Remington. The painting, "Say Boss, Ah Wasn't Thar - Ah Only Heerd 'Bout It from Men What Was," is an oil on canvas, from 1901.

Remington was best known in his time as an illustrator. He also wrote stories and articles for magazines, both fiction and non-fiction. In the story "How the Worm Turned," published in Collier's Weekly, May 4, 1901, Remington highlights an apocryphal tale of racist violence and revenge by telling it as if it were told to him by a new acquaintance. He creates a work of fiction that masquerades as a factual account, and is bolstered by the sole illustration, St. Lawrence's unusual and fascinating painting. At Fort Grant, Arizona, in 1885, Remington came to know and admire the African-American soldiers of the 10th Cavalry, called "buffalo soldiers." He celebrated their character and military prowess in the pages of Century Magazine. Later in his career, surrounding the Spanish-American War in 1898, he spent time with the buffalo soldiers again in Tampa and in Cuba. With this 1901 oil painting and accompanying article, Remington calls attention to his own personal, publicly documented relationship with these soldiers who were largely ignored by other writers and illustrators.

The Remington Arts Festival takes place in Canton from September 22 through 24.