Museum Showcases Religious Heritage Room For Easter Weekend

(Le Mars) — This weekend is Holy Week with church services across the region being held on Thursday, Good Friday, and on Sunday for sunrise services, as well as regularly scheduled services.  The Plymouth County Historical Museum is inviting people to come visit, and possibly meditate in the Religious Heritage Room, where you can view the painting of “The Morning of the Crucifixion” as portrayed by artist Astley David Middleton Cooper.

The painting, which measures 11 feet by 13 feet shows Christ as he is nearing his moment of death on the cross.  The painting was initially donated to Westmar College in 1988 by the Rev. Mark Fiester and his wife, Westmar alumni Roberta Dexheimer Fiester, of Denver, Colorado.  The city of Le Mars took ownership of the painting when the college had closed in 1997.

Al and Delores Maser of Le Mars stepped forward to have the painting restored and to find a home for it in Le Mars.  The Masers and other volunteers worked with the Plymouth County Historical Museum to create the Religious Heritage Room on the second floor of the museum.  The space and its contents, including the painting, were dedicated Sunday, November 30th, 2003.  The city of Le Mars gifted the painting to the museum in 2005.

The first public Good Friday morning meditation occurred in the Religious Heritage Room on April 10, 2009.

Thanks to the Plymouth County Historical Museum for its contribution to this story.