Object Details
- Artist
- Helen Hornberger
- Description
- Artist, Helen Hornberger, revived the techniques of French tole to create naturalistic representations of the state flowers. The artist used thin copper sheets as her base, and painted them with oil paint in the natural colors of the blossoms and leaves of the White Hawthorn Blossom (Crataegus). Two clusters of small white flowers and jagged leaves meet on the brown branch. The small, open blossoms have five short, rounded petals encircling the curly, yellow stamen.
- Label Text
- The Congress of Representative Women at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago proposed that each U.S. state and territory select a flower to represent their state in the “National Garland of Flowers.” This resulted in the National Floral Emblem Society. Each state has adopted to represent the state and its people based on their importance to the state’s history, economy, folklore, or native varieties. Tole artist Helen Hornberger created each artificial flower representing each state to create for a bouquet displaying America’s floral diversity.
- MISSOURI: The White Hawthorn Blossom (Crataegus) was named the official state floral emblem of Missouri on March 16, 1923. The Missouri state flower is bloom from the Flowering Hawthorn Tree. It is also known as the "Red Haw" or "White Haw," the Hawthorn is a member of the great Rose family and resembles the apple group. There are hundreds of species of Hawthorn, and Missouri is home to over 75 of them, particularly in the Ozarks. While the state’s legislature did not name a specific variety of Hawthorn, the Department of Conservation advocates for the Downy Hawthorn (Crataegus mollis).The White Hawthorn Blossom is most common in southern Missouri. The small Hawthorn trees grow well in Missouri’s climate, and each spring they bloom in clusters on the tree. They attract the pollinators that are needed for the tree to produce its fruit. Hawthorn fruits resemble miniature apples and are a valuable source of nutrition for wildlife. They can also be used to make jams, jellies and herbal medicines.
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian Gardens, Horticultural Artifacts Collection. Gift of Helen Hornberger.
- 1980
- Accession number
- 1980.038.021
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Artificial flowers and trees
- Medium
- Copper, oil paint
- Dimensions
- Overall: 13 in. (33 cm)
- Stem: 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm)
- Flower: 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm)
- Origin
- United States
- See more items in
- Horticultural Artifacts Collection
- Smithsonian Gardens
- Topic
- copper
- tôle
- Artificial flowers
- crafts
- emblems (symbols)
- flowers (plants)
- Missouri
- Record ID
- hac_1980.038.021
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/aq4e608c559-24f4-40fc-8433-aa871baefc76
