Atlas Obscura missed the best thing on Mays Island in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mays Island sits in the middle of the Cedar River, and the city’s government is based there. It’s a big deal because Osaka and Paris are the only other major cities to have their governments on an island. Buried in their entry is an offhand mention of Grant Wood’s Veterans Memorial Window.
Veterans Memorial Window
The Veteran’s Memorial Window stands 20 wide and 24 feet tall. When installed in 1928, it was the biggest stained glass window in the United States. The window features a huge mythical female figure surrounded by clouds, with a blue veil behind her. Is she Liberty? The Republic? She holds a victor’s laurel wreath in one hand and a palm branch for peace in the other. Along the bottom stand six nearly life-sized soldiers, one for each war in which the United States fought.
A local artist, Grant Wood, was awarded the commission, despite not having any experience in stained glass. He drew full-size plans for the window, hanging them up in the gymnasium of the Quaker Oats factory so he could work out issues. He meticulously researched the uniforms, and decided to depict only Privates in the window.
Due to the complexity of the window, the Missouri-based glass firm contracted to build the window determined that the glass should be manufactured in their factory in Munich, Germany. It must have been a controversial choice to build a window memorializing American war dead in the country America had just fought in the first World World. The Daughters of the American revolution took issue and stood in the way of the dedication ceremony. Wood got his revenge years later with the satirical “Daughters of the American Revolution” painting.
More importantly, the trip to Germany exposed Wood to medieval German and Flemish art, which inspired him to take on a new style of painting. He dropped his Impressionist style of painting, and adopted the Regionalist depiction of everyday Iowa. Less than three years after his return, he painted his masterpiece, “American Gothic.”
The window was finally dedicated in 1955 after Wood was dead, and rededicated after the 2008 floods. The window was partially submerged in flood water, and had to be completely restored. Looking at pictures of the flood, it is amazing that it even survived.
Municipal Island
Some things are made easier by having the government on an island. After viewing the window, we were headed back to our car when a woman drove up asking if we knew where the court house was. She was scouting the location before she had to be there on Monday. “It’s gotta be somewhere around here,” she said as she drove off.