Lewis Miller, 19th-century artist/carpenter, left a rich legacy of drawings documenting 19th-century York County.
Because of his work, we know more about what life was like around here in the 1800s.
It’s fun to try to figure out who will become 20th and 21st-century Lewis Millers... .
Sculptor Lorann Jacobs www.lorannjacobs.com certainly has provided a recent body of work that will leave a legacy of understanding the community at the turn of the 21st century.
Jacobs recently made the news for her work on a statue of Marquis de Lafayette, who visited Continental Congress meeting in York in 1778. http://www.ydr.com/search/ci_4509641
Other high-profile Jacobs statues include the Korean War statue, along the rail/trail in York; the World War II statue, Continental Square; the “Workers of York" statue at York’s Agricultural and Industrial Museum; and “Gift From Market," the little boy with a market bag near Continental Square.
A quick assessment of the the war-related statues suggests that the community was eager to memorialize those who sacrificed in two of the 20th-century’s war while they were still alive. It grew from a sense that their service would be forgotten, lost among other events such as those who fought in the Civil War and World War I and the Vietnam War.
York Daily Record/Sunday News photographer Paul Kuehnel, himself an effective chronicler of York County life since the 1980s, shows Jacobs at work on a Brooks Robinson statue for the new stadium. http://w2.ydr.com/mmedia/flv/837
Miller’s effectiveness as a presenter of York County culture came, in part, because his work covered seven decades. He also gathered details to undertake drawings on life in the 1700s. So, it might take several modern-day recorders of our culture to rival the contributions of Lewis Miller.
But for the moment, Jacobs is putting forth a legacy that will provide grist for researchers 100 years from now to understand York County's past.
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