The mural of Lindsay's painting, "The Wedding of the Rose and the Lotus," in Downtown Springfield is getting a new lease on life. The Vachel Lindsay Association, in partnership with Downtown Springfield, Inc, is replacing the faded mural with a brand new one.
To passers-by on Fifth Street between Jefferson and Washington Streets, the mural will appear to have been restored but it actually is being replaced. Work will commence on February 1.
Both the painting and the poem of the same title celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and the intermingling of the waters of the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Rose signifies the West and the Lotus the East.
Lindsay recited the poem to Woodrow Wilson's cabinet in 1915. To a published version of the poem, Lindsay added the parenthetical notation, "A poem distributed to both houses of Congress by Secretary Franklin K. Lane on the opening day of the Panama-Pacific Exposition."
The Panama-Pacific International Exhibition opened on February 20, 1915 in San Francisco.
Springfield's mural was installed 10 years ago and has faded considerably in the last few years. The new installation will delight passers-by for many years to come.
Read the State Journal-Register article
here.
