Photo Cover
Remembering Batavia’s moment on the front of The Saturday Evening Post, starring the Fox River By Jonathan Bilyk | “Fox River Skating” image provided by Batavia Park District
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s Dave Brown tells it, not everyone believed Batavia could revive that iconic moment from long ago, frozen in time.
The doubt primarily grew out of skepticism that the ice on the body of water now known as Depot Pond could still freeze solid enough, says Brown, a 67-year-old lifelong Batavian and former alderman. “They said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t get that cold much anymore,” Brown says. “But as it turned out, we had some of the coldest weather we’d had in a long time that weekend. “And the people loved it.” Sixty years earlier, in a bit of serendipity, that pond — at that time, a small channel of the Fox River — had placed Batavia on the map of America’s consciousness in a way it perhaps hasn’t been since. In 1957, one of America’s most beloved illustrators, John Philip Falter, found himself in Batavia in the middle of winter, traveling once more to the Windmill City to visit his sister. For decades, Falter had garnered steady work, if not fame, creating illustrations for magazines, advertisements and posters throughout the country as he moved about from his native Nebraska, to New York,
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OUTDOORS & FOX RIVER JUNE 2022
Kansas City, California and Philadelphia, and other points in between. In 1943, however, Falter’s work was catapulted across the country as he began a longstanding stint as a cover illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post magazine. In all, Falter painted 129 covers, usually in the style of the Post’s most prominent illustrator, Norman Rockwell, giving Americans a fresh, often romantic glimpse into the scenes of their everyday lives. On a cold winter day along the Fox River, Falter found inspiration in the scene of dozens of Batavians out enjoying an afternoon skate on the ice-covered inlet of the Fox River. According to published accounts, Falter said “that by the time he had finished painting all those portraits he had a sore wrist.” One year later, in January 1958, the oil painting Falter created that clear, cold day — which he dubbed “Fox River Skating” — landed on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, putting his idyllic image before millions of readers.
for decades since. The original painting was acquired from Falter by the Batavia Woman’s Club in 1962, and has been reproduced countless times since. Most recently, it was acquired by the Batavia Public Library to be reproduced as an 80-inch-by-66-inch canvas mural, now mounted as part of the library’s permanent art collection in the northeast reading area in the upper level. Copies of the cover are peppered throughout Batavia. Mounted prints and copies can be found at Batavia City Hall, the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, the offices of Batavia MainStreet, and in various private homes and businesses — just about anywhere Batavia civic pride shines. Both Brown and fellow lifelong Batavia booster Bob Hansen, owner of Funway, say they have copies of their own. Hansen notes some Batavia residents have passed down family stories of relatives being among those painted by Falter that day in 1957.
It was an honor not afforded to most small towns anywhere, notes Brown.
“It was quite the thing, back in the day,” Hansen says. “And in some ways, it still is.”
“For Batavia to make the cover, it was a big deal,” he says.
Batavia’s biggest celebration of the work, however, came in 2018 for the 60th anniversary of the painting’s publication.
While the illustration didn’t necessarily change the community, it has served as a source of local civic pride
To mark the occasion, Hansen and Brown helped
