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2003: To the University of
Iowa, Iowa City, for support of the production of The Devil's Rope, a documentary video on the history and development of barbed wire.
The Devil's Rope is a documentary video that focuses on a small band of avid collectors of barbed wire to tell the colorful, and brutal, story of this American invention. The collectors are men in their 70s and 80s from the Middle West and Western U.S. who gather together at small conventions across the Plains States to buy, sell, trade and dicker about barbed wire. Using their stories as a theme, the documentary explores the beauty and ingenuity and horror of this most American of inventions, beginning with its humble forerunner, the "Wooden Strip with Metallic Points," first shown at an 1873 county fair in Illinois to its adoption by Amnesty International as a symbol of political repression.
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2002: To the University of Hawaii at Monoa, Honolulu,
for field work for archeological research of wrecks of Civil War whaling ships destroyed by the C.S.S. Shenandoah in April 1865, in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.
Under the auspices of the American Battlefield Protection Program, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior, maritime
archeologists are investigating Pohnahtik Harbor on Pohnpei. Pohnahtik is the harbor where four whaling vessels were captured and sunk by the C.S.S. Shenandoah, a Confederate raider sent to the Pacific
to destroy the merchant whaling fleet sailing from American ports.
The Confederate government hoped that the loss of these valuable vessels would encourage the ship owners to petition the U.S.
Government for a settlement with the Confederate States before they were forced to surrender. From the sailing charts captured during the attack at Pohnpei, the Shenandoah was able to locate and virtually destroy the whaling fleet during the months of April through August, 1865. Ironically, all of the destruction occurred after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
While the action did not have an effect on the outcome of the Civil War, the whaling industry, already suffering a decline due to a
decrease in the number of whales and an increase in the use of petroleum as an alternate fuel source, never recovered from the destruction of the 1865 whaling fleet.
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2001: To the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, England
for purchase of the Warminster Jewel
Discovered in a field near Wiltshire, England, the Warminster Jewel is an
aestel (manuscript pointer) made of rock crystal and gold with an inset of lapis lazuli. The Skaggs Foundation was able to assist in its purchase after it was discovered that the museum did not qualify for the usual
sources of funding for acquiring British antiquities. The Jewel dates from the ninth century. MORE ON THIS GRANT...
2000: To the Textile Conservation Centre in Winchester,
England for conservation of "deliberately concealed garments".
In the construction of medieval
buildings, workers would conceal garments and shoes to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck to the inhabitants. When surprised modern workers discovered these untouched objects bricked into the walls of houses
during the renovation of homes, they were brought to the attention of the University of Southampton's Textile Conservation Centre. A three-year grant totaling $30,000 from the Skaggs Foundation has been used to
assist the collection, conservation and description of the fascinating artifacts of this curious practice from an age now long gone.
1999: To the Cobbe Foundation for restoration of Gustav
Mahler's Graf piano
In a world where music collections are silent, the Cobbe Foundation offers a veritable
gallery of sound. It collects and restores to playing, historic keyboard instruments such as those played by the likes of Bach, Chopin and Elgar. Austrian conductor and composer, Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), possessed
a unique piano that has come into the Cobbe collection. The Skaggs Foundation contributed to the restoration of Mahler's Graf piano, one of only three surviving quadruple-string Grafs (Beethoven's being one of the
other two).
1999: To the world-famous male vocal chorus, Chanticleer in
order to purchase matching tuxedos
How could this group be expected to perform in mis-matched suits?
The Skaggs Foundation helped with a modest grant to take care of this critical need.
The singers used to supply their own white tie and tails concert dress. Some outfits were new, some inherited, some tailored, some
altered. The result was a mish-mash. The Skagg's grant provided for a complete set of new concert dress for each singer from Brooks Brothers!
More recently, they have been given a grant to assist in the commissioning of a work to celebrate the 25th anniversary season
of Chanticleer. Sir John Tavener, one of the preeminent living composers for choral works, will prepare a work Laminations and Praises which draws upon Sir John's Greek Orthodox background in presenting a
liturgical drama which depicts the Orthodox conception of Good Friday. The Libretto for Lamentations and Praises will be written by Orthodox Abbess Mother Thekla. The work will have its world premiere in
2002.
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