It’s a remarkable gift, a remarkable collection, a remarkable asset. It’s evident that Arthur Mooney was quite a guy. Let me say a few words about him, then share a few thoughts about his gifts to Charles City and his home state.
John Arthur Mooney was born in Rockford, Illinois shortly before the Civil War. As a child, his family moved to Charles City, where he spent most of his childhood. Orphaned at age twelve, he was entrusted to the oversight of a local photographer, who instilled in young Arthur both skills and love of photography. Mooney left Iowa in his early thirties but retained warm memories of his North Iowa years.
Details about Mooney’s career are few. Moving to New York, he worked for Eastman Kodak in a role often simply described as “an executive”. Responsibilities apparently included occasional travel to Europe and significant exposure to people of culture in the arts community. Without direct heirs, as Mooney grew older, he debated what to do with his two prized possessions: his outstanding print collection gathered over decades, and his art library, reflective of his broad cultural interests. In the early 1930s, he decided his art library, consisting of more than 400 volumes, would go to the Charles City Public Library. (I’m not sure he’d yet selected a site to receive his extensive print collection.)
By 1939, the Arthur Mooney Art Library was formally established at the Charles City Public Library, housed in a handsome Carnegie building facing Central Park, now home to the Charles City Arts Center. In 1941, upon his death, Mooney’s collection of 80+ engravings, etchings, and prints by significant artists – Rembrandt, Picasso, Dürer, Cézanne, Goya, Manet, etc. – was also bequeathed to the Library. It includes examples of lithography, intaglio, woodcut, aquatint, cameo, and drypoint.
It took five decades for these works to be matted, framed, and displayed in a manner commensurate with their quality. Located within the Library, this gallery now offers glorious inspiration for those who wander in, although a library employee responding patiently to my questions noted only a handful of visitors drift in most weeks, not including larger groups making it a destination stop. To the extent Mooney is known today, it’s due to this outstanding gallery.
What’s easily overlooked, however, – and seriously underutilized – is Mooney’s Art Library. Most volumes are displayed in waist-high bookshelves, many behind glass doors, with selected books shelved among the library’s regular collection. Focusing on Mooney’s books, I reviewed the Library’s 54-page booklet, primarily an inventory, entitled “The Arthur Mooney Art Library,” dated 1939.
After several introductory essays, including paragraphs from Mooney and the donor’s photo, it lists the collection under thirteen headings: Architects & Architecture, Art-General, Engravers & Engravings, Graphic Arts, History, Illumination, Industrial Artists & Arts, Painters & Painting, Photographers & Photography, Printers & Printing, Limited Editions, Sculptors & Sculpture, and Technique.
In his own words, Arthur Mooney outlines his intent. “It is my hope that these books may be used… by as many interested people as possible.” According to a respected Cedar Rapids gallery director, “Among these volumes many are seldom found except in the most well-endowed special libraries of art.” For example, citing a portfolio edition by William Blake, “This book is not available anywhere else in the state.”
Sisters Berenice Bishop and Mae Bishop Birkin, lifelong Mooney friends, expressed their expansive hopes. “Arthur Mooney has conferred two splendid gifts upon the town… his first gift – the gift of inspiration. When we were young… his enthusiasm was like a torch which lighted the way. Charles City has yet to show what the second gift [the Art Library] may mean. The Charles City Library can… now become the torch bearer lighting the pathway not only (for) our town but our entire countryside.”
Bear in mind, these objectives – inspiration and access to art information – were outlined decades BEFORE Mooney’s print collection was ever displayed, artworks that required space and strategies to make them readily accessible. Mooney’s Art Library now requires similar attention, including possible affiliation with a university or a major art museum, and employing online technology to promote the broadest potential use of a rare and valuable resource.
This is a rich opportunity because it’s a remarkable asset. Expanded access to the Mooney Art Library would help fulfill the bright future envisioned when Arthur Mooney’s books first arrived in Charles City.
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I intend to write more at some point about Mooney’s involvement in the movement to recognize photography as an art form, an effort largely focused in New York… but not this week. I’m pleased to have my column published weekly in the Nora Springs - Rockford Register (western Floyd County) and to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. This is the growing roster of my talented IWC colleagues:
Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center
Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities
Dartanyan L. Brown: My Integrated Live, Des Moines
Jane Burns, The Crossover, Des Moines
Dave Busiek, Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Iowa Writers Collaborative, Roundup
Steph C: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen, Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca, Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield
Daniel P. Finney, Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines
Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Rob Gray's Area: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Become Inspired...Nik Heftman, Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC
Black Iowa News: Dana James, Iowa
Chris Jones: Chris’s Substack, Iowa City
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters From Iowans, Iowa
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County
Hola Iowa: Iowa
Alison McGaughey: The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities
Kurtis Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Vicki Minor: Relatively Minor, Winterset
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Ice Cube Press: The Pulse of A Heartland Publisher, North Liberty
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander's Emerging Voices: Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Jason Walsmith: The Racontourist, Earlham
Kali White VanBaale: 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
I remember visiting the Art Museum in Davenport as a kid and both loving and feeling bored by all the art there. I was bored because I was a kid and wanted to be outside playing, but loved all the history and talent I found there. Having this in a library is an amazing idea. Thanks for this story.