My mother put herself through college in the late 1930’s. She started at the University of Wisconsin, took some classes in Chicago while working there for Barnhardt, the dictionary people, and then finished through the University of Wisconsin extension. She used to talk about going to the Art Institute, and I had no idea what she meant when I was five or six. But now I do. And I discovered that, like the National Gallery of Art in DC, they have loads of images in the public domain and their website is easy to navigate.** I had a lot of random fun. https://www.artic.edu/

Female Personification of Science. 1776. Artist: Joseph Fratrel. 
French, 1730-1783. Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain.

Church and Graveyard in the Snow by Moonlight. 1827. Carl Blechen 
German, 1798-1840 Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain.

Upraised Right Hand, with Palm Facing Outward: Study for Saint Peter. Date: 1518/20. Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael 
Italian, 1483-1520. Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain. There’s some controversy over whether this is in fact Raphael’s drawing, but the Gallery thinks it is, and I think it’s beautiful. Read about it here if you like. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/114932/upraised-right-hand-with-palm-facing-outward-study-for-saint-peter

Just a note on Death Comes to the Science Fair... I don’t have a schedule for it yet but I’ll be putting it out within the month.

** I’d love to share pictures from the Freer (and yes, I know they changed the name) but the website is very difficult to navigate for those purposes.

The header is a famous picture by Georges Seurat. Art Institute of Chicago, Public domain. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27992/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884