In 1892, George Harvey, a regional painter in the midwest, was commissioned to paint a view of Burlington, Iowa. The large painting which he completed was hung in the Iowa Building at the Columbian Exhibition which was held in Chicago the following year.
Following the fair, the painting was returned to Burlington and put into storage. After a wall that was large enough to hold the seven by twelve foot painting was constructed, it was moved to the
meeting room in the Burlington Public Library. New attention was focussed on the painting by
the publication of William H. Gerdts' Art Across America: Two centuries of Regional Painting (Abbeville Press, 1990) when this painting by Harvey was chosen to showcase his work.
Four local chapters of The Questers (an international organization dedicated to the research and study of antiques) created a local effort to raise money for the cleaning and restoration of this important painting. They successfully raised about $5,000 which was then matched by grants
from the International Questers, the Burlington Fine Arts League, the Witte Foundation, and the Friends of the Library Foundation.
In the spring of 1998, the painting was removed from the wall where it has hung for seventy years and shipped to Chicago for cleaning and restoration of the frame. Bogdan and Aleksandra Krol, art restoration specialists, worked on the painting and the frame for more than four months to stabilize and restore it. It was returned and rehung in the library on August 3, 1998.
The local Questers chapters which contributed to this effort were:
Orchard City #1206
Sho-Quo-Quon #322
Steamboat Ladies #1214
We appreciate their support for this project.
