OKI Wanna Know is our semi-regular feature where you get to ask the questions about those weird little things you think about but don't know where to find the answer. This time we visit a beautiful dreamer in a Cincinnati park.
There's one feature at Alms Park that piqued the curiosity of Xavier student Nick Watts — a statue of a seated Stephen Foster. He's curious about Foster's connections to the region, and the history behind the statue and how it came to be where it is.
"I'm a history major so I love anything to do with Cincinnati history [and] local history," Watts says.
Who was Stephen Foster?
Even if you don't know who Stephen Foster was, you probably know his music, like "Camptown Races." He's credited with composing more than 200 songs between the 1840s until his death in 1864, some of them while living in Cincinnati.
UC College Conservatory of Music Assistant Professor of Music Studies Kristi Swift says Foster was an important composer whose influence on American culture is still visible more than 150 years after his death.
"Stephen Foster's music and personae has shown up culturally in many places. There is the song by Tom Shaner, where he imagines a conversation between Slim Shady (Eminem) and Stephen Foster," she says. "Stephen Foster's music showed up in the musical Hard Times. Foster's music has shown up in film and television."
Stephen Foster's Cincinnati ties
A plaque on the Guilford Building on East 4th Street Downtown marks where Foster lived during his time in Cincinnati.
Swift says she sometimes stands by the plaque and asks people about Stephen Foster.
"It's really interesting, the response — at least that I've gotten when I've done that — [is] often 'Who is Stephen Foster?' "
Swift says Cincinnati and the Ohio River exposed Foster to different cultures and influences.
"Long before Stephen Foster is writing ballads and minstrel songs and hymns, and all of the genres of the 287 or so songs that he wrote, there are Indigenous and Black musicians who are contributing a wealth of songs and music."
Some of Foster's most well-known songs came while or after he lived in Cincinnati: "Oh Susanna," "My Old Kentucky Home" — the official state song of the Bluegrass State — and "Swanee River," which is also known as "Old Folks at Home."
" 'Old Folks at Home' is the Florida state song, and, of course, the lyrics were changed; [the] racist lyrics were removed per legislation. Same thing with 'My Old Kentucky Home,' " she says. "There's evidence of this problematic and racist history that underpins the United States, including music like Stephen Foster's."
Swift says Foster said he was trying to be sensitive and empathetic to enslaved people, and later distanced himself from some of his songs, like "Old Folks at Home."
"Christy's Minstrels took the piece and performed it in a very racialized, harmful, brutally comedic fashion," Swift explains, talking about a blackface performance troupe in the 1840s. "And [Foster] said 'This is not what I intended.' "
Swift says Foster was a product of his time but, ultimately, it's up to the listener to decide what his intentions were.
Around Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati Libraries has a large collection of Foster material, including recordings, sheet music and images. Much of it was donated by former UC President Raymond Walters, and Josiah Lilly, of the Lilly Pharmaceutical company.
In 1937, Lilly visited Cincinnati's Alms Park to oversee the dedication of a Stephen Foster statue which he donated. A Cincinnati Enquirer article from June 18, 1937, previewing the dedication says the statue overlooks Foster's "beloved Ohio River."
"Why particularly there and not somewhere else gazing at the Kentucky foothills, I don't exactly know," Swift says. "Of course, today, if you're nearby the statue you cannot really see Kentucky because there's significant tree and foliage growth."
Another Cincinnati Enquirer article from April 27, 1989, reports that, according to legend, Foster stood at that spot and was inspired to write "My Old Kentucky Home."
Elsewhere around Cincinnati, there's also a bust of the composer on the second floor of Music Hall. It was created by the same sculptor of the Alms Park statue, Arthur Ivone. However, it was completed in 1928, nine years before the Alms Park statue was dedicated.
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