Governor Rell: CT’s Weir Farm National Historic Site

to be Honored on U.S. Quarter

            Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that the United States Mint has selected the Weir Farm National Historic Site in Wilton and Ridgefield – the only National Park Service site in the nation dedicated to painting – as the Connecticut location to be honored in the new United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters program.

            Weir Farm was among several locations in the state nominated by Governor Rell for the honor. Currently undergoing an extensive renovation, the 60-acre farmstead was home to three generations of American artists: Julian Alden Weir, a leading figure in the development of American Impressionism, who acquired the farm in 1882; his daughter, painter Dorothy Weir Young and her husband, sculptor and painter Mahonri Young; and painters Sperry and Doris Andrews.

            “Weir Farm is an outstanding example of Connecticut’s natural beauty and historic past and it is an ideal spot to be honored in the Mint’s new series of quarters,” Governor Rell said. “The farm has been home to decades of great art and artists. It stands as a living memorial to those works and to the pastoral wonders that inspired them – a marvel of rural peace that led J. Alden Weir and his friends to nickname the place ‘The Land of Nod.’

            “Not only can visitors tour the locations where these great artists were motivated to create their works, young and old can try their own hand at new works with free colored pencils, pastels and, on weekends, watercolors,” the Governor noted. “There are also activities for children such as hiking and letterboxing. Weir Farm is a treasure – long-hidden – that this program will give a share of the recognition it deserves.”

            The Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters Program is a 12-year initiative authorized by Congress. The Mint will strike and issue 56 circulating quarters with reverse (“tails” side) designs emblematic of a national park or other national site in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

            The quarters will be issued in the order in which the featured site was first established as a national park or site (the Weir Farm site was established on October 31, 1990). The coins’ obverse (“heads”) will feature the familiar “restored” 1932 portrait of George Washington.

            Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner approved the list of sites recommended by the United States Mint on August 25. Mint artists will now begin developing three to five designs of each location, which will be reviewed for accuracy, authenticity and overall composition.

            The complete National Site Registry, which lists all 56 sites to be honored, is available at www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProgram/?action=siteRegister.