FEATURING SATURDAY EVENING POST COVER ART
When was the first time that thousands of people across the nation saw a full color scene of Platte County?
It may have been in September 1947 on a Saturday Evening POST cover featuring a mother and child picking apples on a farm north of Weston. This artwork cover along with over 30 others will be displayed through July 6 in the Ben Ferrel Platte County Museum’s exhibit “Heartland: John P. Falter’s Saturday Evening Post Cover Art, 1940s-1950s, the Homefront Years.”
Falter had family ties to Atchison, Kan., and his paintings included scenes from in and around Platte County. Also on display will be several posters he illustrated for the Navy WAVES program during WWII.
Highly respected by his peer Norman Rockwell, Falter excelled at capturing scenes of Midwest town and rural life in ordinary moments that often carried great personal value.
In the scene “Missouri River Valley” from 1946, the Post’s editor describes how Falter paints children on an adventure following the path of Lewis and Clark. Another cover shows a mother at a mailbox at the moment she opens a letter from her son in WWII. In the background is a century-old farm.
The Platte County Historical Society (PCHS), which owns and operates the museum, hopes that visitors will see through Falter’s art that the presence of the past is all around us whether in features of the landscape, barns built by pioneer ancestors or simple but traditional activities related to children and family.
In addition to a loan of artwork covers from a private collector, the display includes posters from the John Phillip Falter Museum in Falls City, Neb., and a framed print from Ruth Swaney of Platte City who also grew up in Falter’s hometown of Falls City.
In conjunction with this display, Platte City Friends of the Arts invites artists to a “Platte City Plein Air” on the Hisel Family Farm on May 4 with details at this organization’s website. Participants will receive photos of some of Falter’s artwork courtesy of the historical society.
Find out about the museum’s exhibit at www.pchs1882.org.
Located at Third and Ferrel Streets in Platte City, the museum is open Thursdays and Fridays from 1-4 p.m. (except holidays), and on occasional third Saturdays from 9:30-11 a.m. as listed to the museum announcements (816) 431-5121.
