look good enough to kill. Caps, spores, leaves, bark, twigs, peach blush, fuzz, strawberry seeding, and pea plant tendrils are botanically accurate. So is the maggot tunneling, blight, and apple curculio damage.
GENEVA, NY - Most of them are 75 years old, but the apples, peaches, strawberries, and peas look good enough to eat. The poisonous mushrooms look good enough to kill. Caps, spores, leaves, bark, twigs, peach blush, fuzz, strawberry seeding, and pea plant tendrils are botanically accurate. So is the maggot tunneling, blight, and apple curculio damage.
These fruit, vegetable, and mushroom models are waxÑpart of a rare collection created for teaching purposes for Cornell University's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. The models were rendered in painstaking detail by James Lawson between 1920 and 1935, or Clara Barnes, between 1936 and 1942 , when they were part-time employees.
The only public display of this extensive wax fruit and vegetable collection is located in the foyer of Barton Lab at the station. There, in three unlit display cases, 12 life-size mushroom clusters, both edible and inedible, have found a home in the Department of Plant Pathology. Among them are Chanterelles, Morels, Amanita muscaria, and Puff-balls. "Such models were often used as teaching aids and in museum exhibits," according to the case's title card. "Mycologists have studied these and found them to so accurately replicate living specimens that they cannot believe they are made from wax."
The rest of the Station's wax collection is boxed and located in the Station warehouse. Charles D'Amico has been keeping track of its 
whereabouts ever since they were stored there in the late 1970s. In all, there are 20-30 boxes of samples, probably "well over 200 individual samplesÑall labeled," he said.
For over 40 years, the collection was located in 4' by 5' display cases on the third floor in Jordan Hall. "When I was in school, we would take class trips to the Experiment Station to see them," remembers Sandy Antinelli. Last fall, some of the wax models were used in Geneva Library's "Mules to Microcomputers" display in Statler Hall on the Ithaca campus.
Part of the story about these remarkable wax sculpture and the artist who created them was recently unearthed by Station historian Ed Glass, who noted that such "sidelights" makes writing the history of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station "an interesting task." According to Glass, the information below summarizes a newspaper article in the Guelph Daily Mercury dated Saturday, November 13, 1965, and one in the December 6, 1965, Geneva Times . These articles were loaned to Glass by John and Ione Wellington who personally knew and admired Lawson. They were able to provide additional information on the Station's wax sculptor to Glass. Of Clara Barnes, nothing is known.
The Reverend Doctor James S. Lawson aspired to be a minister, even as a boy on his parent's farm in Acton, Canada. His ambiton was delayed for lack of funds however, and he worked in a pharmacy to earn money. After graduating from the Ontario College of Pharmacy in Toronto, he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1915. After the war, the call of the ministry prevailed and he undertook studies and received his B.A., B.D., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. An early illness had damaged his vocal chords resulting in a very soft voice which precluded a congregational ministry (this was before loudspeaker systems had been invented), so he was ordained with the understanding that he would serve the church through his knowledge and love of art.
After graduating from Emmanual College, Victoria University, in 1929, Lawson went to Europe to do religious research. He returned to Canada in the 1930s to join the staff of Victoria College. Dr. Lawson had been a great admirer of the noted Hamilton-born artist, Grace Coombs, whom he eventually met and married, in 1942. According to John Wellington, "Lawon said he had long admired Grace's paintings but could not afford them, so he married her."
Early in his career, Dr. Lawson had spent some time at the Experiment Station in his home town in Guelph where he made fruit models. Drs. Jordan and Hedrick saw these when they visited the Guelph Station and were so impressed that they brought Lawson to Geneva as museum preparator each summer from 1920 to 1935 to fill the shelves of the new museum in Jordan Hall. Dr. Lawson developed an intricate art for sculpturing very accurate replicas of fruits and other botanical objects. He was very ingenious and accurate. The results of his painstaking attention to minute details of structure and color resulted in remarkably true-to-life sculptures.
In 1965, Dr. Lawson returned to Geneva for a few days to restore some of the fruit models. At the time, he observed that with every new model, he used some old techniques but, at the same time, each new subject presented its own individual problems. An example would be raspberry fruis. According to John Wellington, Lawson pulled hairs from his arms and cut them to the proper length to make bristles on the models of this fruit. He gave the same detailed attention to colors.
The Ontario Agricultural Museum in Milton, Ontario, houses an extensive collection of wax fruit and vegetables that was created between 1905 and 1912 by Elizabeth Potter, the resident wax artist at the Agricultural College in nearby Guelph. According to Peter Ledwith, curator of the museum's collections, Potter created more than 1000 specimens for the college, plus a collection of mushrooms and diseased fruits and vegetables that have since disappeared.
From the evidence, it would seem certain that Dr. James Lawson would have worked with Potter or was at least aware of her work. He grew up in nearby Acton and graduated from the Ontario College of Pharmacy in Guelph. According to newspaper articles (see related article), he spent some time at the Experiment Station in Guelph "early in his career . . . where he made fruit models."
From a copy of an analytical report prepared 12 years ago when a damaged specimen was sent to a lab, Ledwith noted the fruits are hollow. He was able to describe how the wax models were done. "Apparently, a plaster mold was poured around the live fruit. When dry, it was cut in two and the fruit removed. Molten wax was then poured into the two-part mold and the mold shaken." When opened, a hollow fruit likeness was obtained which was subsequently painted. "The skill lies in the coloring and texturing," he said. About the composition of the wax leaves, Ledwith knew nothing.
"The wax models were used to document different varieties as well as common insect and disease damage, but, sadly, no one apparently thought to document the work of the wax modeling process," he said.
The wax fruit and vegetable collection at the Ontario Agricultural Museum is not open for public display but private viewings can be arranged, according to Ledwith, who also said, "it had better be soon." The 80-acre museum in Milton, which is operated by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs, has been open since 1979. It is scheduled to close as of March, 1997, because the Canadian government is withdrawing its support. Althought certain privatization proposals are under consideration, "anyone interested in coming to visit is greatly encouraged to do so within the next 10 months," said Ledwith.
The Museum is located about 30 miles from Toronto and is open daily from Thursday to Sunday from July 1 to September 2 and (Canadian) holiday Mondays. There are 35 historic buildings including a crossroads community, farmhouse, and church which have been relocated to the site. There are over 15,000 artifacts in the museum's collection, 7000 cubic feet of archival materials, and an extensive library. In the collection, are antique tractors, farm implements, and machinery. Additionally, there are live farm animals, and live demonstrations at the blacksmith and wheelwright shop.
For more information, call 905-878-8151.
Contact: Linda McCandless
315-787-2417
e-mail: llm3@cornell.edu
Communications Services, Geneva, NY
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