Carnegie museum plans exhibit on Charles Parsons

FAIRFIELD — The Carnegie Historical Museum in Fairfield is working on a new exhibit to feature Charles Parsons, a member of the family that started Parsons College in 1875.

Charles Parsons and his brother Lewis B. Parsons were the sons of Lewis B. Parsons Sr., who died in 1855 and left a bequest to start a Christian college in Southeast Iowa. His sons chose to locate the college in Fairfield.

In addition to his work with the college, which included creating endowments for professorships on Biblical literature and Latin language and literature, Charles led an extraordinary life that included being an adviser to presidents and Civil War generals, and who was a world-traveling art connoisseur, helping to found the first art museum west of the Mississippi River.

Charles was the subject of 2020 biography called “The Life and Times of Missouri's Charles Parsons: Between Art and War” by author John Launius. Launius has given talks on Charles’s life, including in Fairfield. Launius, who lives in St. Louis, visited Fairfield again in August to check out the collection of Charles Parsons artifacts at the museum, and to conduct an interview about Charles with Dick DeAngelis of Fair Field Productions, who is producing a documentary about Parsons College.

Carnegie Historical Museum Director Mark Shafer said that Launius’s book on Charles Parsons was the catalyst in convincing him that Charles deserved his own exhibit at the museum. Charles is not just an important historical figure for Fairfield, but for the country.

“He helped his brother Lewis as assistant quartermaster on the Mississippi River campaign during the Civil War,” Shafer said. “That was important because it gave the Union control over the Mississippi River and shut down the port of New Orleans.”

During the Civil War, the Parsons brothers were quartermasters responsible for moving and supplying Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s armies. Launius told The Union in 2021 that Lewis and Charles made an “extraordinary contribution to the country we’re living in” by moving men and supplies to nearly all the major battles along the Mississippi River such as the Battle of Vicksburg.

Apart from his claim to fame during the Civil War, Charles helped found the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1881, which would become the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park, and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

The Carnegie Historical Museum contains the only known surviving portrait of Charles Parsons, which was nearly lost. Shafer recounted the serendipitous way in which it was saved. He said Bill and Pat Medley, then music professors at Parsons College, were walking across campus one day when one of them noticed a worker clearing storage from the basement of Barhydt Chapel. Among the items being cleared out of the basement was a painting of Charles Parsons and its original frame, which they took with them when they retired to Texas, but which the museum was later able to retrieve and put on display.

The future exhibit on Charles Parsons also will feature artifacts he gathered on his world travels.

“He first went to Japan in the 1870s, shortly after Japan’s isolation had ended,” Shafer said. “Everybody went crazy for Japanese designs reflected in furniture and fashion. Charles picked up on that craze and started buying high-end, tourist stuff. His collection was very good quality.”

Shafer said that Charles’s brother Lewis also traveled in the east, but he tended to buy less expensive items than Charles.

“Lewis wasn’t quite as discerning,” Shafer said. “A lot of the stuff we have from them was on the Parsons campus, and when it closed, the creditors allowed those things to stay in Fairfield because they were pertinent to local history.”

One of the neat artifacts from Charles that will be part of his display is a sword that resembles a Samurai sword. Shafer thought it was a Samurai sword from Japan, but when Launius came to visit in August, he took a close look at the sword and determined it was not Japanese but from another Asian country.

Shafer said there’s circumstantial evidence the sword might be from China because of a writing Charles left behind detailing a trip down the Yangtze River in China.

“All of the boats were equipped with swords in the event of a pirate attack,” Shafer said. “John wondered if that is the kind of sword that was made available to defend against pirates, which I think is pretty wacky, and almost better than being a Samurai sword.”

Another noteworthy artifact from Charles’s travels is an incense manual from Japan. Launius, who is also a connoisseur of Chinese and Japanese art, and the Japanese refinement art of incense appreciation, said he believes Charles purchased this incense manual to accompany a Japanese carved figurine (Okimono) of a Japanese incense master in the collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com