Arthur Nevin & Walter McClintock, cont.

Signals, September 2009

You will remember that the last three issues of Signals featured the story of Arthur Nevin’s Indian opera, “Poïa,” and Nevin’s relationship with Pittsburgher Walter McClintock (1870-1949), whose beautiful photographs of the Blackfeet were used to illustrate the Signals articles. The April and May issues included a transcription of Arthur Nevin’s diary, written when he visited the Blackfeet reservation with McClintock in 1903.

In June, we received a phone call from Steven L. Grafe, Curator of American Indian Art at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, who was in the process of writing an extended article about the opera for Montana Magazine and was thrilled to find the transcribed journal on our website. Grafe has edited, with contributions from William E. Farr, Sherry L. Smith and Darrell Robes Kipp, a handsome volume entitled Lanterns on the Prairie: The Blackfeet Photographs of Walter McClintock (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2009), which the Historical Society has purchased for its collection. The book, in addition to the McClintock photographs, contains an extensive account of the writing of the opera “Poïa,” which, according to Grafe, is pronounced “Py-ee!”

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Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann & My Book on Fallingwater

A Lecture by Franklin Toker

Held: Wednesday, September 16, 2009

at the Edgeworth Club

Lecture 7:30 pm

The Sewickley Valley Historical Society is pleased to present Dr. Franklin Toker, who will speak about the remarkable collaboration between Frank Lloyd Wright and E. J. Kaufmann that made the creation of Fallingwater possible, as well as about the conflicts between those two titanic personalities that made it impossible for them to bring a single one of their other 20 projects to fruition. Dr. Toker will also recount his own adventures with the Kaufmanns and with Wright's disciples as he struggled to record the facts about the world's most famous private house in his 2003 book Fallingwater Rising.

A popular teacher and lecturer in urban history and the history of Medieval and American architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Toker is a past president of the international Society of Architectural Historians and has published books as well as several dozen scholarly articles on topics ranging from Roman archaeology, Gothic architectural drawings, and Renaissance architectural theory to the work of H. H. Richardson, Post- Modern architecture and American urban history.

Dr. Toker was born in Montreal. He earned degrees in Fine Arts from McGill University, Oberlin College and Harvard University. The first non- Italian to teach the history of art at the University of Florence, his best- known scholarly work was as director of the archaeological excavations below the Florence Duomo. His book Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait is now in its third printing.

Outside of his academic work, Prof. Toker is active in civic improvements in Pittsburgh and in architectural and urban preservation. He frequently lectures on architectural and urban topics to national and international audiences.

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SVHS Welcomes John Kroeck as President

Sewickley Valley Historical Society's new President, John Kroeck, is a lifetime resident of Pittsburgh, having lived at various times in Glenshaw, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Mount Lebanon and the Mexican War Streets. A 1962 graduate of Shaler High School, he obtained a B. S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Grove City College in 1966 and an M.B.A. from Duquesne University in 1972. John worked for U. S. Steel, Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel and Westinghouse Electric during his 30-year engineering career. He became an antique dealer in 1996 and has since participated in hundreds of antique shows around the United States. He looks forward to his tenth show for Child Health at the Edgeworth Club in October.

Beginning in 1970, John restored four properties in the Mexican War Streets; he moved to Sewickley in 1984 to purchase and restore the Lark Inn, perhaps the oldest surviving residence in the Sewickley Valley. He joined the Sewickley Valley Historical Society soon after. John lives with his wife, Sadie, and their sons, Lou and Ben, at the Lark Inn, which he recently enlarged with an 1810 log house addition. Daughter Jennifer, her husband, Sam, and two grandchildren live in Denver, Colorado.

John owns and manages two antique shows held annually at the Greensburg Country Club and at the Lakeview Resort in Morgantown, West Virginia. He is currently Chairman of the Edgeworth-Leetsdale Municipal Authority, which is undergoing an eight million dollar expansion. He is a 20-year board member and past president of The Harmonie Associates, now known as the Friends of Old Economy Village. John is also a member of the Decorative Arts Forum of the Carnegie Museum and the Sewickley Neighborhood Association.