Arbor Day Tribute

Bill Locates "Best of Show" at Iowa State Fair
There is good reason Bill Sherman is proud of artist Grant Wood.  Both he and Wood are native sons of Iowa who have revered their beloved state and have shared that passion in different ways. CSAA's  Co-Founder, Bill Sherman, is known by country school enthusiasts as the most ardent promotor of schoolhouse restoration, preservation, and history in Iowa and across the nation. Bill is so dedicated, he believes Iowa should be known as the "Country School Capital,".... and we'll give him that!

Grant Wood is the artist whose best known and recognized work is "American Gothic" portraying a farmer (holding a pitchfork) and his daughter in front of a classic Iowa farmhouse of the 1930's, people Wood envisioned would live there. For those who love one-room schools, Grant Wood is remembered for  the painting entitled "Arbor Day," a scene  reminiscent  of the days he attended a country school in Antioch, Iowa.

​Just this month, Bill made his annual pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair and located a 3-D hand carved replica of Grant Wood's painting "Arbor Day" as it is portrayed on the 2004 edition of the Iowa quarter! Coincidently 2024 marks the 20th anniversary since Grant Wood's painting was selected as the image for the Iowa State  coin that year. It depicts scholars at a one-room school planting a tree to celebrate Arbor Day, the holiday first instituted in Nebraska in 1872.  The idea of Arbor Day spread quickly across the US and millions of trees were planted to observe the holiday.  Today, it is generally celebrated the last Friday of April, but schedules are flexible due to climate.

​The decision to select "Arbor Day" as the motif for the Iowa quarter was made by then Governor Thomas Vilsack who now serves as the US Secretary of Agriculture. Possibly unknown to some of our readers, Bill Sherman was actually instrumental in promoting and securing that image (twenty years ago) for the casting of this Grant Wood commemorative coin! 

​How fitting it was for Bill to locate the creative wood carving of "Arbor Day," awarded "Best of Show" at the Iowa State Fair. The vignette below describes Bill Sherman's usual search for anything SCHOOLHOUSE.

 "As you can see by the purple ribbon this original carving was selected as the “Best of Show” by the judges at the Iowa State Fair in a Miniature Room carving competition.  I was unaware there was any such building at the Iowa State Fair but happened to stop by the 4-H Exhibits Building.  I asked to speak to the woman who was  in charge of this part of the 4-H program in Iowa to see if there were any one-room school exhibits on display this year at the fair.  She said she didn’t think so, but a few moments later she said she had seen an image of the Arbor Day school building in  another part of the fairgrounds.  I asked where that building was located.  I quickly raced over to the building and the rest is history as far as I'm concerned.  I’m probably the only person who attended the fair that felt the same way." ...Bill Sherman

The photo was taken by Bill on Saturday, August 17th at the Iowa State Fair which he reported set a daily attendance record of over 1,000,000 for the 12 day s the fair was open.

We thank Bill Sherman for more than we could catalogue here, but we do know you'll enjoy the information he submitted for this post.

---