National Scavanger Hunt!

elementaryhistoryteacher at History is Elementary has issued An Internet Challange!

Here's what we're looking for:


So why are we trying to find this?

It all started in 1930 when the Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest company in the United States until World War I, commissioned the artist, N.C. Wyeth, to complete a series of images for a poster series titled “Building the Nation”. There were supposed to be twelve images but only four were ever known to be completed. Pennsylvania Railroad later became Penn Central and in 1976 was taken over by Conrail.

The White House would love to know the whereabouts of the painting as it is a rare image of George Washington with a scaffolded White House. Wyeth is the only known artist to have painted the White House under construction. Estimates state the painting could be worth well over $1 million dollars.

Posters of the image do exist, however, the original painting the posters were taken from has been lost. The last time the painting was documented was in an Appendix dated 1976 for the Pennsylvania Railroad listing items that were to be turned over to Conrail. The painting was listed as having minor surface damage.

elementaryhistoryteacher seems to think that if we spread the word far and wide that we can find this National Treasure. She has more information about the painting, the search and how to contact her on her blog.

Nothing to post today? Suffering from writers block? Hijack this post like I did and spread the word!