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210023644
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Memorandum from Steuben Glass, "The Merry-Go-Round Vase"
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210023644
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document
title
Memorandum from Steuben Glass, "The Merry-Go-Round Vase"
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President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)
Personal Files
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210023644
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1947-01-01
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1947
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320092a6e8d6e2f5
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*NATIONAL
STEUBEN GLASS
is ARCHIVES the SERVICE" RECORDS AND
THE MERRY-GO-ROUND VASE
The idea for the Merry-go-round Vase first occurred to me
while attending a country fair at Queenstown, Maryland.
These fairs, so typical of rural life, present an interest-
ing cross-section of the American mind. On the serious side
we find prize horses and cattle, fruit, flowers and veget-
ables which are the bride of their owners and their growers.
But for every hour which the countryman spends in looking
at the agricultural exhibits he spends three hours on what
is somewhat grandiloquently called "the midway". Here he
finds snake charmers, dancers, confidence men, tattooed
women, weight guessers, fortune tellers, toy balloons, walk-
ing sticks, "hot-dogs"- and the inevitable merry-go-round.
It is the merry-go-round, more than any one thing, which
gives color and movement to the country fair, at the same
supplying a noisy musical background to the whole occasion.
The merry-go-round has often been painted by artists both
here and abroad, but what struck me on that day in Queens-
town was its natural suitability as the decoration of a
round form. I made rough sketches of certain details and
completed them on returning to my studio, attempting to
create a rythmic pattern and to capture some of the fri-
volity and gaiety which make the country fair so dear to
the heart of rural America.
The country fair is the oldest and most unaffected of our
festivals and the merry-go-round is the soul and symbol of
that institution.
Sidney Waugh
718 FIFTH AVENUE . NEW YORK CITY 19 . CIRCLE 6-8280