Sandoz Conference this week

Opening the conference will be the keynote speech by Wendy Katz, associate professor of art and art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, at 7 p.m. Thursday (March 25) in CSC Student Center. Katz’s address will be entitled “My People: Mari Sandoz, Robert Henri and the Hidden History of American Progress.” It will be open to the public without charge.

After a full-day of sessions in the Student Center on Friday and a banquet that evening, the conference will conclude with several gaming contests in the historic Olde Main Street Inn at 115 Main Street in Chadron.

Robert Henri was the son of a gamblin’ man, but he was born Robert Henry Cozad. His father, John Jackson Cozad, was the founder of Cozad, the town in central Nebraska.

As a young man while working on riverboats on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, John Cozad developed a fondness for gambling and became a card shark. Cozad initially settled in the Cincinnati area, purchased land and attempted to develop a townsite called Cozaddale, but without much success. The family eventually moved to Dawson County, Neb., where he founded Cozad. This time his community flourished, but there were conflicts between cattlemen and homesteaders, he was involved in an argument, shot a man and was indicted for murder.

The family fled to the East Coast and both Robert, who was 17 at the time (1882), and his older brother adopted new surnames. Robert Cozad switched to Robert Henri (pronounced Hen-rye) and became a famous artist. Sandoz’s book unraveled the identity mystery. During her talk Thursday night, Katz will tell how the book developed and discuss Henri’s success.

A dozen of Henri’s paintings that are in the collection at the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney will be on display in the Sandoz Center at CSC on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. A discussion on his work will be given at 5 p.m. Friday by museum staff member Kristin Gebhardt.

Much more about Henri will be presented on Friday at 10:30 a.m. in the Student Center by two speakers affiliated with the Robert Henri Museum in Cozad. They are Jane Rohman of Lincoln, a member of the museum’s board of directors, and Jan Patterson, the executive director.

Other conference presenters will include Rob Foresman of Papillion, a Chadron State student, and Dr. George Watson, professor of legal studies at CSC and an attorney. Foresman will discuss Robert’s brother, Johnny Cozad, who became Dr. Frank Southrn after the family fled Nebraska. Watson’s topic will be “Frontier Justice.”

The “In the Spirit of Mari Sandoz Award” will be presented during the dinner Friday night. This year’s recipient will be Dr. Diane Quantic, an English professor at Wichita State University from 1973 until she retired at the end of the 2006-07 school year. She is a long-time admirer of Mari Sandoz’s work and is a former member of the board of directors of the Sandoz Heritage Society.

Registrations for the conference are still being accepted. The cost is $65 for Sandoz Society members and $85 for non-members. Those with questions may call the Sandoz Center at Chadron State at 308-432-6401.