Norfolk Hopper: Chrysler’s Plaything

Norfolk Hopper, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk

It’s a stormy drive from Chapel Hill to Norfolk, Virginia. The Norfolk Hopper picture is in the Chrysler Museum. The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk owes its existence, just as the surrounding city does, to the military.

Norfolk is home to the largest naval base in the world. Norfolk’s miles of shoreline, blanketed by fog and lined by piers, bridges and inlets, have a distinctly military feel to them.

Uniformed personnel on their way to Iraq and Afghanistan fill my motel in Norfolk. At breakfast, a group awaiting a delayed flight enjoy a lazy breakfast in the lobby.

Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Art-Obsessed Scion

Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. was the son of the founder of the Chrysler Corporation. Chrysler met and married a Norfolk native and gym teacher, Jean Outland, while serving in the Navy in World War II.

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Montgomery: Blount vs. Fleischman

Montgomery Alabama

I drive deep into the heart of Alabama. The shiny glass of Montgomery’s office towers and strip malls replaces Tuscaloosa’s old red brick. The old southern diners morph into brightly lit burrito joints. My mother and I enjoy a margarita while discussing Jack Warner and his collection.

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Huntington: Pretty in Pasadena

Huntington Railroad Fortune

One of the enduring pleasures of visiting art museums is to imagine yourself as the owner of the priceless work of art in front of you. The truly democratic aspect of public museums is that every patron becomes an artwork’s owner for one ephemeral moment.

Nowhere is this illusion better preserved than at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino, an affluent Los Angeles suburb just south of Pasadena. Huntington, a superbly wealthy railroad and real estate magnate, owned twelve hundred acres of land here.

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