Found: Sheboygan River, Sheboygan, WI

Found: Sheboygan River, Wood Scene, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Made in Germany for C.E. Wheelock & Co., Peoria, Illinois & Leipzig. Circa 1907.

The trees reflecting in the water depicted on this postcard bring to mind Edward Steichen's The Pond - Moonrise.  Steichen lived in Milwaukee, from age 10 until age 20, where his interests in photography and painting began. Though working as a lithographer's apprentice, he left for Paris then New York where he met Alfred Stieglitz and helped found the Photo-secessionist group and by 1903 began contributing to Camera Work. Steichen's The Pond, from the same era as this postcard, does not include women posing along the water nor does it include text to associate the scene with a specific place. If Steichen had stayed in Milwaukee to work as lithographer, is this postcard image what his work would have become?

The Pond - Moonrise, 1904, by Edward J. Steichen
Platinum Print with Applied Color (from The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection)

The Pond - Moonlight 1904, by Edward Steichen

Kohler Residency, Summer 2013

Shimon & Lindemann Poplar Structure with Rambler,
John Michael Kohler Arts Center Garden & Parking Lot, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (6.29.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

We gave a series of workshops and lectures during the year leading up to our exhibition, We Go From Where We Know, at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. The workshops were part of the Connecting Communities Program and helped us meet people from around the state. In Sheboygan, we built a structure out of poplar trees harvested on our farm and installed in the Kohler Arts Center garden to serve a a trellis for beans, squash, morning glories, corn, and sunflowers we planted with friends old and new.  We talked with people about postcard imagery of Wisconsin as we all altered "found" postcards of the state. At the Wisconsin Concrete Park in Phillips, Wisconsin we all made small figural sculptures inspired by Fred Smith's glittery creations using Sculpey clay. Visitors to the ARTery continued this work by crafting gem encrusted tear drops and concrete corn cobs that became part of our "Wisconsin Reliquary" and "Nash Corn Crib" installations.

Timber Inn Motel Room, Highway 13, Phillips, Wisconsin (7.10.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Found: Sheboygan Harbor Breakwater, Sheboygan, WI

Found: Sheboygan Harbor Breakwater, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Best of fishing off this breakwater.
Photo & Published by G.R. Brown Co., Rt. 5, Eau Claire, WI  54701-9990. Circa 1980s

Fishing without fear in the ceaseless blue of Lake Michigan in the 1980s appears idyllic in this postcard view of the Sheboygan Harbor.  DNR-posted warnings about the health risks of consuming fish caught in Lake Michigan more than one per month (due to PCB and mercury contamination from the boom of manufacturing along the great lakes) makes such a scene elegiac in the 21st century.

Found: Vollrath Bowl, Sheboygan, WI

Found: Vollrath Bowl, Sheboygan, Wis.
"This man-made amphitheatre is a succession of gently sloping terraces
built to accommodate huge audiences for outdoor programs. 
It is the scene of many civic pageants and other special functions including high school graduations."
A genuine Kodachrome Reproduction by the L.L. Cook Company,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin copyright 1951.

Found: Rapids Road, Manitowoc, WI

Found: Rapids Road, MANITOWOC, WIS. circa 1906.
Handwritten in fountain pen on frontside:
"May 28, 1906. Dear Sister Dorcas, We are spending two days here.
Have just sun. Mr. Wood. Juliet." postmarked Manitowoc, May 28, 1906, 9 PM

Found: Black Oak Lake, Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin (No Camping).
A Genuine Kodachrome reproduction by the L.L., Cook Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin circa 1960s

Found: Terry Andrae State Park Entrance near Sheboygan, Wsconsin.
Curteichcolor® 3-D Natural Color Reproduction. Distributed by R. Nery, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Found: Beauty Spot in Vollrath Park, Sheboygan, WI

Found: Beauty Spot in Vollrath Park, Sheboygan, Wis. by Curteich, Chicago, postmarked Sheboygan, October 7, 1946.
Hand written in fountain pen on the backside: "Sweet lassie. Movin' along. As ever.  Love xxxx Dad" mailed to Chicago.

Found: Water Spectacular, Sheboygan, WI

Found: Water Spectactular on Plaza 8, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
photographed and published by G. R. Brown Co. Eau Claire, circa 1982

The Grand Opening of Plaza 8, according to the nearby Mead Public Library, was July 8-10, 1976 with 250 trees, 350 flowering bushes, and 5,000 flowers funded with a $5.9 million federal grant with $1.9 million from the city of Sheboygan. The cost of construction was $1.55 million.

Found: Kiwanis Park, Sheboygan, WI

Found: Kiwanis Park on the Sheboygan River, Sheboygan, Wisconsin distributed by Nery Sons, Sheboygan, Wis.,
Color by R. Nery, Curteich 3-D Natural Color reproduction, circa 1966

Found: Pinky Schneider Tavern, Sheboygan, WI

Found: Pinky Schneider Tavern, 12th and Lincoln Ave., Sheboygan, Wis.
by Winscher Co. Etch Tone, Sheboygan, circa 1956

Kwik Trip, Sheboygan, WI

Kwik Trip, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, October 11, 2010

Kwik Trip, Menasha Avenue, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, September 26, 2010

Found: "Adams DX Truck Stop and Restaurant", located on I-90 and U.S.  Highway 51, Madison, Wisconsin" copyright Dexter Press, circa 1960 (featured as a location in Werner Herzog's 1977 film "Stroszek")

The culture of eating, drinking, and refreshing in the age of the motor vehicles evolved from the full-service truck stop with restaurant (open 24 hours, seats 100, delicious food, mechanics on duty) such as the Adams DX, infamous for its appearance in Werner Herzog's Strozek. Now there's the Kwik Trip here in Wisconsin, established in 1965 and spreading into Iowa and Minnesota. It offers the 24/7 convenient consumption experience for motorists that the old truck stops once did. Besides gas, there's a range of food (from onions to Greek yogurt), a bakery, a dairy, hot coffee, lottery tickets, newspapers, and smokes. The Kwik Trip became the hub in the neighborhood near our studio by the mid-1990s. In the late 1980s, there were still a couple grocery stores within walking distance, a food co-op, news and video store, and there wasn't a lottery. All that's gone now and the Kwik Trip has filled the void, a lifestyle.

Found: Human Activity on the Lake Front

Found: "Lake Front, Pier and Breakwater, Sheboygan, Wisconsin" by C.E. Wheelock &Co., Peoria & Leipzig, circa 1908

Found: "Bathing Scene, North Beach, Racine, Wisconsin" by E.A. Bishop, Racine, circa 1910

Found: "Lake Winnebago, North Park, Oshkosh, Wisconsin" by E.C. Kropp Co. Publishing, Milwaukee, circa 1910

Found: "Bathing Beach at Night,Lake Geneva, Wisconsin" by E.A. Bishop, Racine, Wisconsin circa 1930

Found: "Condensing Factory, New London, Wisconsin" by John T. Faber, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1907

Found: "Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, (Lake Pepin) "The romantic interest is the spot from which the beautiful indian maiden, Winona, daughter of the mighty Red Wing, Chief of the Dakota's took her famous "Lover's Leap" along the burlington's Missisippi River Sceneic Line between Chicago and St. Paul-Minneapolis" by Burlington Route, circa 1928

Schulz's Restaurant, Sheboygan, WI

Schulz's Restaurant, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, September 25, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann