MID-AMERICA + THE PLAINS. Home Decor / Kitchen Decor, Decorative Plate, Souvenir, c. 1970.
The fact that this decorative plate, anchored by an illustration of Mark Twain’s home and museum in Hannibal, MO, was manufactured in Japan, is something the world traveling humorist would likely have appreciated. The “Tramps Abroad” author wrote often of how leaving familiar environs was critical to opening up one’s mind. Yet the man born Samuel L. Clemens in Florida, Missouri, located 40 miles southwest of Hannibal, remained close at heart to the Mississippi River towns that had shaped him. They inspired many of his most beloved, but also controversial, stories. Circling the outer edge of this ceramic dinner-sized plate are these images: “Becky Thatcher House”, “Life on the Mississippi”, “Tom & Huck Statue”, “Treasure Chamber Mark Twain Cave”, “Tom Sawyer’s Room”, “Mark Twain Cave”, “Statue of Mark Twain”, and “Mark Twain Memorial Bridge”. Samuel Clemens lived in Hannibal from age four to age seventeen, moving in 1853 to begin life as a writer. He took his pen name from what was called out by boat workers when the depth of the river reached two fathoms, or ‘mark twain’. Hannibal, Missouri, was probably the place where he heard the term as a child, a boy whose head was filled with thoughts of the wider world, but whose heart belonged to the Big Muddy.
Condition: Used Very Good. Local / Regional Areas. Dimensions: 10” diameter / 1.1 lb
