Friday, December 2, 2011

S. P. Dinsmoor and his Garden of Eden



Did you catch Dana's mention of The Garden of Eden in Kansas during the last Snydecast?

It's a weird place.


Samuel Perry Dinsmoor (1843-1932) was a Kansas school teacher and is best known for his sculptures at his cabin known as The Garden of Eden.

I don't really have a handle on this place. It sounds like it is either the greatest place ever or something in dire need of a bulldozing.

I don't know what to think.

I did look at reviews of the place online. This dude said it gave him the "willies".



A little penicillin should clear that up.

Wait... whaaaa? Dinsmoor's corpse is on display?!?!?

Astounding.

Dinsmoor not only has his body on display, but he used a photographer's trick of double exposing the negative so that he could have a picture of him looking at himself in the crypt.


I know this seems like nothing now, but in the days before photo shop, this was pretty dang impressive.

Today, I can make a picture of Ron Jeremy looking at him in the crypt and it takes just 20 seconds:


And it looks like I spent just 20 seconds on it.

But that's not the point. The point is that this dude was a visionary. A weird visionary.

Here is a photo tour of his place:

2 comments:

Aaron said...

Awesome! I was hoping you'd elaborate on this, since Dana got sidetracked by the Casa Bonita discussion. I live less than an hour north of Lucas and the Garden of Eden, and if I'd known Dana was going to be in the neighborhood, I'd have arranged to "accidentally" bump into him… Bill Murray sexual predator style. I hear he likes wrasslin'.

Guy Hutchinson said...

If only.

Actually, that would work perfectly. Nothing you could do would seem creepy if you were at the Garden of Eden. It provides enough creep for everyone. #billmurray #amazing #forgotthisisnttwitter.