County to continue partnership with Museum into 2022

While on loan to the Putnam County Museum, several paintings from the early 1900s by local artist Elisha Cowgill are also being restored by Radecki Fine Art Conservation of South Bend. From the work performed on a landscape featuring the second Putnam County Courthouse, the vibrancy lost to the years is evident.

Courtesy photos/PUTNAM COUNTY MUSEUM

With restoration efforts going well and the county bicentennial approaching in 2022, the Putnam County Commissioners are looking to continue partnering with the Putnam County Museum on the preservation of county paintings as well as one important document.

Earlier this month, County Attorney Jim Ensley approached commissioners David Berry, Tom Helmer and Rick Woodall regarding seven paintings that have been on loan to the Museum since late 2018.

Painted by Elisha Cowgill (1835-1914), who served in various Putnam County and City of Greenastle offices as well as practicing law, the works of art had likely been hanging in the Putnam County Courthouse for more than a century.

Three paintings each were in the Auditor’s Office and Recorder’s Office, as well as one large piece in the third-floor lobby.

The Commissioners noted that some officeholders have asked when the paintings might return, as nothing has been mounted to replace them.

If the Commissioners so desired, they could have gotten them back very soon. The original contract with the Putnam County Museum ran out in May 2020, but the Commissioners signed an extension through the end of 2021.

However, Ensley showed the Commissioners how one of the paintings — the smaller of two landscapes of the second Putnam County Courthouse — looks after recent restoration efforts.

The work by Radecki Fine Art Conservation of South Bend, which is working on the paintings for PCM, has removed the faded, dingy look of the painting and brought back vibrancy that had been missing for years.

Of particular note is a wagon on the left of the painting, lost among other elements before restoration, now popping out in vivid blue.

Though it was not mentioned during the meeting, it is also worth noting that while hanging at the Courthouse, several of the paintings went missing over the years.

When the original loan was made in 2018, Museum board member Gwen Morris noted that some paintings have disappeared over the years.

“The troubling thing is, we keep losing one about every 25 years,” Morris told the Banner Graphic.

The Commissioners noted that they have no intention of giving up ownership of the paintings, but they also see a benefit to continuing the loan into 2022.

That date is also of significance, as it marks 200 years since Putnam County was founded, which has prompted another partnership with the Museum.

A copy of the Putnam County charter has remained in the possession of the Putnam County Clerk’s Office these 200 years. However, the document has remained largely out of sight, stored in a book in the office.

In July, however, the county agreed to a partnership with PCM to restore and preserve the document.

The quote from Signature Conservation was for $855 plus supplies to do the nine-hour preservation project.

The Commissioners agreed to split the cost with PCM, paying up to $500 for the effort.

Once restored, the two-sided document will be stored in a glass case that allows both sides to be viewed.

Woodall has expressed his desire to do some sort of celebration of the county’s bicentennial in 2022, an event that would likely feature both the founding document as well as some of Cowgill’s paintings.