The Wisconsin Project: Found: 80 Acre Farm Sample, Merrill, WI

27.1.13

Found: 80 Acre Farm Sample, Merrill, WI

Found: No. 13 C. The sample of a 80 Acre Farm shown on opposite side of card with House 16x26 and 14x22 is a real snap.
For description, price and terms, address The Ev. Luth. Colonization Co., Merrill, Wis. circa 1920s.

Found: No. 12 G. The sample of a 130 Acre Farm shown on opposite side of this card has a fine Brick House 28x32 and is a real bagain. For description, price and terms, write to The Ev. Luth. Colonization Co., Merrill, Wis. circa 1920s.

1 comment:

Anonymous13:01
The farmhouse I most remember that is of this brick type was in my neighborhood on South Foster St. in Merrill, WI and was owned by a family named Ziemke. They had a barn in the back there was a small cow pasture and a field that went down to Devil's Creek in which they grew oats.

The 3 window dormer is very reminiscent of the farmhouses in Mecklenburg and Pomerania from whence most Merrill Germans sprang.

The wooden farmhouse is the classic farmhouse for poorer farmers. I have a picture of my great great grandfather and his siblings sitting on a porch of a farmouse of this type.

I have never heard of the Lutheran Colonization society.

Gerald Zahn
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THE WISCONSIN PROJECT

Our research-driven Wisconsin Project contemplates the rooted-ness and state-of-mind resulting from inhabiting a single place, our native Wisconsin, for a long time. Through critiquing postcard views both made and found, we learn a great deal about past and present Wisconsin. We began making postcard views of the places immediately around our studio and on our drives around Wisconsin in about 2008. We use the vintage postcard film format and print the cards in palladium and cyanotype. By communicating details of a specific place, seeming to register only marginally on the national radar, the project seeks to bring audiences into a Wisconsin mental space. Some in the art world would argue that the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin, makes for banal “fly over” subject matter. Our project challenges that by finding meaning in the ordinary and inviting audiences to examine, dialog, and reflect on the particular emotional quality of the idiosyncrasies of place and the perceptions of those both inside and outside of it. Sometimes distant memories are involved and a longing for a time now gone. Wisconsin’s glacier inflected landscape and proximity to the Great Lakes creates an exotic arena for living that informs our project. The life cycle plays out and rural and urban ruins serve as monuments to existences as people, places, and ideas surface then vanish. Ultimately, we aim to grapple with complex perceptions of Wisconsin ranging from nostalgic, romantic, and idealized--as depicted on myriad real photo postcard and standard tourist postcards--to mysterious, dark, and Gothic as conveyed in works of art and literature such as Michael Lesy's "Wisconsin Death Trip" book and Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" film. The project culminated in a residency with workshops and community collaborations and the installation "We Go From Where We Know" at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center 10.13.2013-3.7.2014 and later the Harvestore Bandshell for Fermentation Fest in 10.2014. The blog continues the exploration of postcards.