At Yellow Springs- Pretend You Are An Artist--Models, Clothes Optional

 Last night Historic Yellow Springs supporters led a tour of sites in the Chester County, Pennsylvania village which were important from 1917 to 1952, when the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts established the Country School for art students. Re-enactors portrayed such early artists and teachers as Daniel Garber (center), NC Wyeth, Albert Laessie (bottom), Roswell Weidner, and Arthur B. Carles, who taught here. D. Roy Miller was an early school director (top left corner), One of the revolutionary ideas was to copy the French "en plein air" outdoor painting, and even more revolutionary--they posed nude models outdoors (shielded by bamboo fencing, but local boys figured out how to peek).

Surrounded by nature and in a landscape created with marshes and plantings, they worked and played where 50 years previously, visitors had arrived by train and carriages to take advantage of the various springs (in gazebo and behind fence on right top) which were said to be "restorative."  Even the early Native Americans, the Leni Lenape, knew of the healing powers of the springs. And George Washington located the first military hospital here (ruins at bottom right, now home to a garden of healing herbs), surely a healing place! A big "Thank You" to Chester County's Town Tours and Village Walks. For the next tour, see schedule of historic tours.