State Capitols – Lansing, Michigan, Part 2

There were so many shots that I like from the Lansing visit that I divided them into two posts. Besides, if I’m going to keep this blog going, two stories are better than one.

A little more history. It’s noteworthy that the antipathy between Michigan and Ohio dates back long before the Wolverines and Buckeyes met on the football field. In 1835, the two states claimed the same 400-square mile strip of land that extended west from Toledo. Militias were mustered and skirmishes threatened to become a real Border War. Congress interceded and settled the dispute by giving the land to Ohio and granting Michigan what is now their Upper Peninsula which they sliced off the Wisconsin Territory (perhaps fueling animosity between the Badgers and Wolverines). Michigan thought they got the raw end of that deal until copper and iron deposits were discovered. Then the ‘U.P.’ was appreciated.

Jerry, a Deer and the Headlights (9 April 2008)

That glib title of a portrait of Gerald Ford is not fair. Michigan’s only president got a bad rap. He was very smart AND athletic AND a really nice guy. His portrait is in a hall with one of the capitol’s famous and unique chandeliers. The lamps incorporate casts of the elk and shield from the state seal. I posted an appreciation of the president on the anniversary of his passing in 2013.

Michigan Capitol, Lansing (9 April 2008)

A recent news story showed protesters from Flint filling this space on every floor, pounding on the railing and shouting their displeasure over being poisoned by the public water authorities. I guess you can’t please everybody.

Looking down from the fourth floor, in the space beneath the rotunda, one can see the first level where 976 thick, glass tiles form the floor. They allow light from the basement to illuminate the space and are arranged to give the illusion from above that the flat floor is a depressed bowl. Replicas of the state’s Civil War battle flags surround the floor in display cases. Just as the South has revered their rebellion in its public buildings, some northern capitols continue to memorialize their part in the conflict that ended 150 years ago. The only statue on the capitol grounds that honors a specific person is that of Austin Blair, the beloved “Civil War Governor”.

Statue of Austin Blair, Michigan Capitol, Lansing (9 April 2008)

As in the Indiana capitol, we have these allegorical female figures…muses that represent all the fine points of civilization like art, education and industry. Of course, here, doing the capitol on a budget meant that expensive statues were out. In their place are canvas paintings glued in spaces around the base of the rotunda. Given the news of late, maybe we should consider an updated collection of muses. I’d love to see how the new standards of civilization are depicted. Ineptness, corruption and of course, money might make for interesting interpretations.

Below the Rotunda, Michigan Capitol, Lansing (9 April 2008)

It was after this visit that my ‘capitol collecting’ got serious. I started taking more pictures at other state houses than I took here. As I have said before regarding digital photography, shoot away…the ‘film’ and developing are free.

I took some of the images using the SHADE white balance setting. That adds a warmer, redder hint to the image. The ‘Below the Rotunda’ image above used that setting.

However, the AUTO white balance setting helps in spacious, interior places like this where there can be natural, incandescent and florescent sources of light. It makes for a more realistic but cooler image. A favorite shot from this visit was this off-center close-up of the inside of the dome. The blue cast to the scene works with the stars in the oculus. I can’t think of a better central feature in any other capitol building.

Rotunda, Michigan Capitol, Lansing (9 April 2008)

Good luck to the Great State of Michigan and its leaders. As I said in a recent (and rare, for me), Facebook post, “Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do…”