| B4 - Tuesday, December 19, 2000 |
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The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y. |
EDUCATION
Revolutionary
War painting remains a mystery
Students seeking community's help in finding painter
By JUDY BERNSTEIN
bernst@poststar
com
SCHUYLERVILLE * It's a `whodunit' that's got
third-graders chasing down people they call "suspects" and
following "clues."
The mystery?
A 5-foot by 8-foot oil painting hanging in the
elementary school cafeteria depicting a Revolutionary War scene.
Signed only "R.H. '66," it was apparently
given to the school when it was built just over 30 years ago.
Fourteen students in a Schuylerville Elementary
School enrichment project have been learning everything they can the
past five weeks about the painting.
And in the meantime, quite on purpose, the students in
class, called 1,2,3 Unlimited, been learning about history, methods of
investigation and the importance of phone manners.
At this point, two of the biggest puzzle pieces - who
did the painting and how it got to the school - remain elusive. |
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| Students Erica Larkin, 8, Dustin
Lasky, 9, and Rebecca O'Leary, 8, have been researching the
origins of the painting hanging in the Schuylerville Elementary
School cafeteria. |
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The student sleuths and BOCES instructor Neil Herr,
saying they've reached a roadblock, are reaching out in a last big
effort before the school's winter break to see if anyone in the greater
Glens Falls area can help them solve the mystery or provide further
leads.
"The skill (to teach) really is: How do you find
out a real-life mystery?
"In the real world, there are a lot of dead
ends, unlike in a textbook, where they give you the problem, you give
them an answer.
"It's not to frustrate them; it's to show them
you have to keep trying everything you can," Herr said.
Piecing together information they've received, the
class believes the painting may be a copy a high school student did of a
painting at the Saratoga Battlefield museum.
The elementary school probably received the painting
just after the building was constructed in 1966.
Students said they've interviewed everyone they know
who might know something, and even people they don't, trying to
determine the identity of the painter and the reason it ended up at the
school.
"We ask people everywhere we go," Dustin
Lasky said.
The students also put announcements in the school's
public address system and posted notices throughout the school.
They thought there might be information on the back
of the painting, but head custodian Dan McNamara said taking down the
painting, which is 10 feet up, would be difficult because it is so
heavy. |
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He said putting it up in its current spot a few years
ago took four men.
Students learned more about the subject of the
painting and the people depicted in it by finding other paintings that
were similar, Rebecca O'Leary said.
They discovered that the painting portrays the
British surrender at Saratoga in 1777,
the turning point of the Revolutionary War.
British Gen. John Burgoyne is depicted giving his
sword to the American Gen. Horatio Gates, signifying the Saratoga
Convention, or treaty, that ended the battle.
Also portrayed are hunter Daniel Morgan, a famed
sharpshooter who helped the American soldiers, General William Howe,
General Green and Benedict Arnold, whose leg was injured in the battle,
and a black hunting dog.
The scene depicted took place under a large tree near the current
location of visitors' information center across from the Schuylerville
post office.
Anyone who has information should call Herr at
798-1371.
One hundred people, including family embers,
neighbors, current and former school personnel and teachers have all en
"suspects," students said.
The class drew its own picture of the Hinting to use
as an aid in asking people gout it.
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Erica in the News
