Revive / Re-Entry of ADK

When we saw so many paintings, drawings, and other art work in her grandfather's estate in 1981, JoAnne begin asking questions about where it all came from and who were the artists. Aunt Sally Rich Coogan knew that some were done by her grandmother Mabel, most were by her great aunt Alice Kellogg who was a notable artist from Chicago and had been trained in Paris. The Chicago Art Institute had some of her works but very little about the artist herself. Otherwise, information about ADK was difficult to find. At first, JoAnne's emphasis was to preserve and protect the artwork, some of the smaller paintingss were framed while many of the larger charcoal studies were matted and shrink wrapped.

I don't recall just when JoAnne began to say "I am going to reintroduce Alice Kellogg to the world". , but it was early in what developed into a multiyear process that at times was delayed by my job transfers and moves. In late 1982, I was offered a transfer and promotion from Benton, Ark to Phoenix AZ which fell thru at very last minute. Instead, in February 1983, I was transfered to Corpus Christi, Texas to a position that I did not like, hence, in May 1983 we moved again, this time to Ennis,Texas just after our son's second birthday.

In spring of 1984, JoAnne began transcribing the letters written by Alice Kellogg while studying in France and the Netherlands to her family in Chicago. In the summer? 1985, JoAnne responded to ad in the New York Times seeking infomation about American women artist from 1875 to 1950 for new museum in Washington, D.C. This began correspondence with Elaine Ellis, who eventually led to contact with the New York Historical Society in the person of Annette Blaugrund.

Annette Blaugrund, Senior Curator of Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture at the New York Historical Society and guest curator of the exhibition Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition by the Pennsvlania Academy of Fine Arts. Published in Archives of American Art Journal 1988.

Alice's letters from paris to her family in Chicago are at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Alice Kellogg Tyler papers, 1871-1932, 1871-1898 (bulk dates)

Laura and Dale Nichols support and help from very early was important. They were able to buy many of the paintings that were sold at estate auction, restore and frame them, and then had the patentence to hold for until the summer 1986, when Tom McCormick and Melissa P Williams, art dealers of Kansas City, MO became interested in the combined collection. About the same time, Aunt Sally Rich Coogan first sent a big box of letters and diaries for JoAnne to transcribe, then a little later offered to give us her paintings and furniture that had been in storage for more than a year. At the end of August 1986 we drove from Ennis to Fort Meyers, Flordia where we rented a U-Haul trailer, filled it with the things from Aunt Sally, and took it all back to our home in Ennis. At about the same time Williams & McCormick produced their first catalog "Alice Kellogg Tyler 1866-1900, Private Works" and begin showing and selling the combination of collections from the Nichols and JoAnne.

Deb Corcoran note, in Heart of Acadmey that the original letters have been moved to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries art and architecture research collection serving the Art Institute of Chicago

Joanne W Bowie, 1951-2016, with son Joseph at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, May 1990.

Miss GEK before cleaning and new frame, as received from Sally Rich Coogan, August 1986.

Miss GEK after restoration in new frame, with study at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, May 1990.

JoAnne Wiemers Bowie was diagnosed with ALS - Amyotrophic Laterial Sclerosis - 29 August 2014 at Kansas University Neuro MND in Kansas City. Exam noted extremity weakness and Bulbar weakness. Later we came to understand that as Bulbar onset, as speech difficulies was one of the earliest problems she had noticed, but had felt something was wrong for maybe couple of years, just couldn't define or get a good diagnosis.

As I remember, we usually walked one to three miles several times a week in the months prior to ALS diagnosis. By mid -October 2014, she had noticed a loss of overall energy, loss of abiltiy to whistle loud for her dogs, and loss of strength and in hips, legs, and ankles, with one foot or the other beginning to drag especially on inclines and stairs.

17 months after diagnosis of ALS, JoAnne died the morning of January 24, 2016, age 64 years, 1 month 11 days. We had been married 36 years 11 months and 2 days.