Favorite Things: Rockwell Kent's Lump of Coal

 

 

  

 

Portrait of Rockwell Kent by Carl Van Vechten (1933), from the Library of Congress

People often ask archivists and special collections librarians, "what's your favorite thing in your library?"  This is, of course, impossible to answer. But if forced to compile a list of "a few of my favorite things", this would be high on the list.

The painting, "That the Days of Our Years May Grow Fuller" was done by the famed artist and illustrator, Rockwell Kent. The University of Alabama received in 1948 one of ten paintings commissioned by the Bituminous Coal Institute from Rockwell Kent. Each painting was given to a university that was strongly linked with the history of coal and the coal industry. 

If to the viewer's eyes, my world appears less beautiful than his, I'm to be pitied and the viewer praised."  -- Rockwell Kent