"During the late nineteenth century, Americans believed that industrial development brought economic prosperity. Consistent with this viewpoint, midwestern businessmen recognized that the desolate land in northwest Indiana would be an ideal location for manufacturing sites. Its cheap price, good water supply, easy access to Chicago and Midwest markets, and a nearby workforce made the Calumet Region a prime location for industrialization. When artist Frank V. Dudley was first introduced to the dunes country by his brother ...
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"During the late nineteenth century, Americans believed that industrial development brought economic prosperity. Consistent with this viewpoint, midwestern businessmen recognized that the desolate land in northwest Indiana would be an ideal location for manufacturing sites. Its cheap price, good water supply, easy access to Chicago and Midwest markets, and a nearby workforce made the Calumet Region a prime location for industrialization. When artist Frank V. Dudley was first introduced to the dunes country by his brother Clarence in 1908, the wildness of the area, combined with Frank's fascination with Native Americans, attracted him. After the groundbreaking dunes pageant of 1917, Frank became involved with Friends of Our Native Landscape, built a studio/cottage on the dunes, and became an invaluable promoter of efforts to save the dunes from further development. Dudley's paintings for the rest of his life were almost exclusively images of the dunes. Dudley and his wife Maida's role in Save the Dunes efforts were personal and tireless. In addition to participation in events and programs for Friends of Our Native Landscape and the Prairie Club of Chicago, they created their own project, "Art in Painting and Song," which they performed numerous times in venues throughout the region. They also opened their Dunes Studio on Sundays to all visitors for thirty-three years (1923-56) to convert dunes visitors, one by one, into "Dunites." Perhaps most significantly, in all seasons at all times of day, Dudley devoted his time and talent to capturing the Dunes on canvas. He regularly showed his paintings in Chicago exhibitions, awakening people to the treasured shoreline only a few hours away from the city"--
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