"Barter" is the title of the large 9' x 5' semicircular mural painting hanging over the fireplace in the Quiet Room at the newly remodeled Monona Public Library. It was painted in 1924 by James E. McBurney for the Belmont Hotel (now the YWCA on the corner of East Mifflin and North Pinckney) and given to the Piper brothers, who were the owners of the new hotel which had been built on the site of their grocery store, by the builders of the hotel, the Bailey-Kasson Company of Chicago. Mr. McBurney was a professional artist working in Chicago. He came to Madison to view the location and the water in the background represents a portion of Lake Mendota. The painting portrays the early French traders who came to Wisconsin and represents an imagined bartering episode between the Ho-Chunk and the traders on the site of an Indian village near Madison.
The painting was plastered to the wall in the lobby of the Belmont Hotel until 1966 when it was removed by the Vogel Brothers Construction Co. during the remodeling that created the YWCA. The mural was taken to Ludwig Neuhaus's studio to be removed from its plaster backing, preserved and made pliable. At first the Wisconsin Historical Society was going to pay for the restoration and add it to their collection but they decided they didn't want it. The Vogel Brothers, two of whom lived in Monona, offered it to the Monona Public Library, which was planning for a new building at the tine, provided the library pay for the cost of salvage and restoration. The Library Board accepted the painting and the Monona Fine Arts Committee agreed to pay the $96 salvage bill and the $450 restoration bill. Vogel Brothers agreed to provide the frame and mounting board for the painting at a cost of $161. When the new building was completed in 1968, the mural was hung over the fireplace in the lower lever Fireside Room.
When the Monona Public Library expanded its facilities in 2002 the mural was refurbished once again with a gift from John and Lynda Weinberger and has found its latest home over the fireplace in the Quiet Room in the new addition to the Monona Public Library.
Ann Waidelich