MOUNT VERNON — Leslie Loveless, who edited and compiled “A Bountiful Harvest: The Midwestern Farm Photographs of Pete Wettach, 1925-1965,” will talk about the book and give a slide presentation at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, in Room 108 of Cole Library on the Cornell College campus.
“A Bountiful Harvest,” published by the University of Iowa Press last summer, contains photos showing people at work and play, dining and sharing time together. The images were taken by A.M. “Pete” Wettach, who made home visits to farms around the state for his work with the Farm Security Administration. In 1949 he quit to become a full-time photographer. He died in 1976.
Loveless, currently living in St. Paul, Minn., discovered several Wettach photos when she was working at the U of I’s Institute for Rural and Environmental Health. Wettach’s son, a physician in Mount Pleasant, allowed Loveless access to thousands of negatives and prints stored in his basement. The collection has been donated to the State Historical Society.
Thirty photos are on exhibit in “Farm Life in Iowa: Photographs by A.M. Wettach,” one of three simultaneous exhibitions at the U of I Museum of Art from March 7 through May 4. The overview exhibit, “Celebrating the Farm: The Art of Living on the Land,” will have an opening reception at the U of I Museum of Art from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 9.
Wettach’s photos have appeared in Wallace’s Farmer, National Geographic and the Saturday Evening Post.