193. Pioneer Mother (Portrait Bust of Mary Coon Howell)

c. 1936

Painted plaster

15 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 10 in. (40 x 19.1 x 25.4 cm)

The model (great-aunt of Neva Hamann) was cousin to Bessie Coon, author of Cha-Ki-Shi. Shows an elderly woman with hair in bun at back of neck.

Signed lower right of pedestal: Christian Petersen

Mary Coon Howell; Neva Hamann; State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa: 1997.074

n/a

Papers, SC, Box 1 f.2, Pioneer Woman design for College Cemetery, Alma Mater "thinking of her lost ones", pioneer theme/memorials; Box 2 f.5/12, 1936 entry for Denton, Texas competition for "Pioneer Woman"; Box 4 f.4, Letters Loomis to Fisher, Oct. 1934.

Notes: In March of 1935, Governor Pat M. Neff proposed “a monument to pioneer mothers to be fashioned out of Texas granite, by Texas hands, and tower above every other Texas monument.” After the first monument selection ended in controversy, a model by Leo Friedlander, a New York artist was selected. In 1938, Friedlander constructed a lone figure made of solid Georgia marble, standing at 15-feet tall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Woman_(Friedlander)