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Patriotic Rumors…(concluded)
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| or, an Inspirational Story, and How It Has
Grown… |
I’ve looked, moreover, and haven’t yet found any evidence
(beyond Browne’s stirring narrative) that Arch Willard had Joe
Munroe in mind when, a hundred years later, he painted the famous
Ancient Drummer-boy. His fellow-Masons report that Willard, Senior
(Archibald’s father) was the final model of two who sat for the
likeness. Both father and son were anxious to “do something
special” for the Centennial and succeeded far beyond any
reasonable expectation.
Art experts have always pooh-poohed the
“Spirit of ‘76” (originally titled, “Yankee
Doodle”), as little more than a cartoon, not serious art. Well
and good. Would the experts kindly name a piece of serious art
that has ever been received instantaneously and durably into the
public heart, as has this embodiment of Willard’s patriotism?
The painting, like the Corporal Joe story, captures something of what
we all wish we were. Especially when we forget to be critical and
sophisticated. Or, for that matter, historically truthful.