THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406010166
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
DATELINE: 940603 LENGTH: Medium
Furthermore, she lived 100 years, adding to the dimension of the former Woodrow Wilson High School teacher.
{REST} When she died in 1983, ODU professor Alf Mapp Jr. predicted that the good she did in her long life would live on.
Not only did she encourage many of Wilson's well-known alumni. The alumni in turn passed along the encouragement to a later generation.
In a column I wrote about his former teacher years ago, Mapp said that he continued to use her anecdotes in his ODU classes and added, ``She has a great sense of humor and it still works.''
Although I never knew Louise Fontaine, I have heard about her all of the years I've lived here.
Naturally, I was interested when I learned that a portrait of her that had hung in the old Wilson High, later Mapp Junior High, was without a home.
It seems the portrait had been removed from the building and was propped against a wall in a school office. Nobody could identify the woman in the portrait. Nor did anybody realize the work was done by Ralph Wolfe Cowan, the jet-set portrait painter who was graduated about 40 years ago from Wilson.
By chance, an alumnus of the high school visited the office and saw the portrait. She recognized the artist and his subject.
Sidney ``Skipper'' Duck, operations director for the schools, said the schools have no formal procedure for handling such artifacts.
``We'd give it back to the family,'' he said.
But, otherwise, he said, he didn't know what would happen to it.
Ralph Cowan, the artist, was in town recently and said the painting belongs to the city. Louise Fontaine, he said, was a real inspiration to him and encouraged him.
She had that reputation.
Somewhere in the muddle of what to do with Cowan's portrait of Louise Fontaine, there is a lesson.
Maybe we should have an official city policy that applies not only to schools but to all public buildings.
If one of the buildings is to be razed or even remodeled, all of the artifacts should be turned over to the city museum system. A standing committee composed the museum curators and a group of citizens should be established to examine the items and determine their fate.
Not only portraits and photographs should be included. The committee should also be responsible for the contents of cornerstone boxes and of trophy cabinets.
A city ordinance establishing the formal procedure also should make it illegal to dispose of any items that have not been examined by the city experts and the citizen committee.
Duck said athletic trophies from two previous Woodrow Wilson High Schools are being placed in a special room at the new Wilson High. That's a good idea, but that also is not required. Even trophies could disappear in the future.
Since Portsmouth has a history museum and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, it is a simple thing to form a group to oversee proper dispersal of the artifacts that might be in public buildings.
There are a lot of them. Look around City Hall. Look around most schools. Look at other buildings.
In the cornerstones, there is history that should become a permanent part of the city's archives.
In the case of Louise Fontaine, it would be very interesting to have a brief biography written by Mapp or one of the other outstanding Portsmouth people who remember her influence. She's a good role model for today's faculty.
The fact that the portrait that brought all this up was painted by Cowan makes it even more interesting. His name also is worthy of the city archives and he too is a good model for our youth.
Starting with this portrait, the city should get and maintain control over all artifacts. Any inventory of artifacts in the city should include written material that explains the importance of each item.
Otherwise, Cowan's painting of Louise Fontaine is apt to disappear.
No telling how many similar items are gone already.
by CNB