I am hoping someone on this list can help me with more information about the painting which I mentioned in the last Newsletter for The POORHOUSE STORY website. Comments about the painting are quoted below: On the Wisconsin page you can find "Monroe County Almshouse and Insane Asylum, Sparta, Wisc." at http://www.poorhousestory.com/poorhouses_in_wisconsin.htm Go look at it now! Despite being larger than most, that layout is quite typical. I had not realized until I got more involved in this research that the mental hospital as a distinct institution quite literally grew out of the poorhouse physical plants. (The need to separate the “insane” from the rest of the poorhouse population was what gave rise to the development of special facilities … and later specialized treatment … for the mentally ill.) The starkness and isolation of these side-by-side institutions is very strongly evoked in this postcard image. But even when the setting was more rural and pastoral … the emotion was the same. Andrew Wyeth painted a picture entitled “ Chester County Farm.” . [Note: Prints of the painting are available at many sites on the internet. Just go to your favorite search engine and enter the title of the painting together with the artist’s name. But the best on-line image to which I can refer you is http://biggallery.com/art/byimg/A0DA4000.htm <http://biggallery.com/art/byimg/A0DA4000.htm> Please go look!] While I have not yet been able to get more information about the painting, it seems to be the portrayal of a solitary couple with very few belongings walking up a country lane to a “poor farm..” The similarities between the two images illustrates the universality of the atmosphere of despair. Do any of you know if this was based on a real poorhouse in YOUR Chester County? I love the painting and would dearly like to know more about it. Thanks, Linda Crannell (aka=The Poorhouse Lady)