A Sanctuary for a Forgotten Man

 

 

 

 

When we were discussing the Debates over "Americanization," I was particularly taken with Jane Addams' Twenty Years at Hull-House. I deeply admire her big heart and the insurmountable level of compassion she had.

 

Addams' Hull-House acted as a half-way house for the elderly and the less fortunate. In her writings, she describes the gatherings she would hold every New Years' Day for the elderly in her neighborhood. They would meet together and discuss "the good ol' days." She also mentions taking in a pregnant woman who was ostracized because her child was illegitimate. She even went as far as helping this woman give birth to that child. Orphaned children had also stayed within the sheltered walls of her home. I'm sure many people had walked away from her house with a new lease on life and a determination to better themselves.

 

The painting featured above is titled  Forgotten Man. It was painted in 1934 (during the peak of the Depression and several years after Addams' Hull-House, but I think the context is the same) by Maynard Dixon. My parents and I actually got to see this painting at the art gallery at Brigham Young University a few summers ago. My mother in particular was mesmerized by this painting and has a copy of it hanging on her wall. Nobody truly knows what this man's situation was (except the artist, of course), but I'm sure he could have benefitted from finding some peace in a sanctuary like Jane Addams' Hull-House.

Cheers and happy reading!