Willa Cather Foundation facts for kids
Red Cloud Opera House, now the foundation's headquarters, in Red Cloud, Nebraska
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| Founded | 1955 |
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| Founder | Local volunteers, under direction of Mildred R. Bennett |
| Type | Non-profit |
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The Willa Cather Foundation is a special group in America. It's a non-profit organization, which means it doesn't make money for itself. Its main office is in Red Cloud, Nebraska. The foundation works to save old papers and places connected to Willa Cather. She was a famous writer who won a Pulitzer Prize. The group also helps people learn about and enjoy her books.
The foundation started in 1955. It focuses on education, saving history, and the arts. They offer tours of historic places. They also protect the 612-acre Willa Cather Memorial Prairie. Plus, they host art shows and events at the Red Cloud Opera House.
In 2017, the Willa Cather Foundation opened the National Willa Cather Center. This center is in downtown Red Cloud. It has a huge collection of old documents and a museum. You can find the Red Cloud Opera House there too. There's also an art gallery and a bookstore. A special exhibit called "American Bittersweet" tells about Willa Cather's life.
How the Foundation Started
The Willa Cather Foundation began in 1955. It started in Red Cloud, Nebraska. This small town is very important in Willa Cather's stories. She often used it as a setting in her books.
Willa Cather was born in Virginia in 1873. Her family moved to rural Webster County, Nebraska in 1883. A year later, they moved to Red Cloud. Willa lived there until 1890. Then she went to college at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The foundation was first called the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial. Local volunteers started it. Mildred R. Bennett led the group. She was a schoolteacher who came to Webster County in 1932. Mildred became a key person in studying Willa Cather's work. Her book, The World of Willa Cather, came out in 1951. It was the first full book about Cather after she died in 1947. It still helps people learn about Cather's life in Nebraska.
Saving Historic Places
In 1965, the group changed its name. It became the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. This new name showed all the things they were doing. Mildred Bennett guided the foundation's early work. Their main goal was to save and fix places in Red Cloud. These places were important in Cather's life and books.
By 1976, the foundation owned several historic spots:
- The Willa Cather Childhood Home.
- The Farmers' and Merchants' Bank building. This building was built by Silas Garber. He was the real person behind the character Captain Forrester in Cather's book A Lost Lady.
- The Burlington Depot. This train station appears in many of Cather's stories.
- St. Juliana Falconieri Catholic Church. This is where "Ántonia" from My Ántonia got married. In real life, Ántonia was Cather's friend Annie Sadilek Pavelka.
- Grace Episcopal Church. Willa Cather and her parents joined this church in 1922. Cather gave two painted-glass windows to the church to remember her parents.
- The Pavelka Farmstead. This farm was the setting for the end of My Ántonia.
In 1978, the Nebraska State Historical Society took over these properties. They also took care of the old papers the foundation had collected. But the Willa Cather Foundation kept managing the sites. They made sure visitors could still see them.
Later, the foundation added more historic places. They own these places themselves now:
- The J. L. Miner House. This house was home to the Harling family in My Ántonia.
- The Willa Cather Memorial Prairie. This is a 612-acre (2.5 km2) natural grassland. It's about five miles (8 km) south of Red Cloud.
- The Red Cloud Opera House. This building was built in 1885. It was important in Cather's novels The Song of the Lark and Lucy Gayheart.
What the Foundation Does Now
From 2007 to 2017, the group was known as the Willa Cather Foundation. A board of thirty people guided it. These people included experts, teachers, and professionals from all over the United States. In 2019, the group changed its public name to the National Willa Cather Center. It still keeps its non-profit status under the Willa Cather Foundation name.
The foundation publishes the Willa Cather Review. This magazine has scholarly articles and news about the foundation. They also hold a yearly conference in Red Cloud each spring. Every two years, they host an International Cather Seminar. This event is for experts and people who love Cather's books. They also offer tours in Red Cloud all year. And they welcome visiting experts and researchers.
The foundation gives out the Norma Ross Walter scholarship every year. This scholarship helps young women from Nebraska high schools. It's for those who plan to study English in college. Since 2003, the Red Cloud Opera House has been restored. It has a theater and an art gallery. The foundation also runs it as a local arts center.
In 2019, History Nebraska (which used to be the Nebraska State Historical Society) gave back all the historic Cather sites. They are now owned by the Willa Cather Foundation again. Also, over 8,000 Cather-related documents and items returned to Red Cloud. They are now kept safely in the new Special Collections & Archives. This archive opened in 2017 at the National Willa Cather Center.
