THE GOLDEN RULE is made by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978 ).

Norman Rockwell was born in New York City, but his family would spend summers on the farm. He was not athletic and could not play ball as well as his brother. All he could really do well was draw pictures, and he spent a lot of time drawing. His parents saw he had talent and arranged for him to take art lessons. Every Saturday he would travel two hours by trolley and subway to get to the art school.

He dropped out of high school to attend an art academy. In 1912 he illustrated a handbook for the Boy Scouts and drew the pictures for Boy Scout calendars. He also drew illustrations for advertisements such as insurance, toothpaste, etc.

Later he submitted drawings for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, a popular magazine. The acceptance of these illustrations was the beginning of a long career with the Post. He painted pictures that told stories. Most of them were humorous stories that people really enjoyed. His pictures were so popular that when the Post would feature a Rockwell painting on the cover, they would print 250,000 extra copies just to meet the public demand.

The featured work on this page is " The Golden Rule" . He wanted to show that "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you" was something on which people of most religions could agree, regardless of their creed or belief. In the picture we see people of many nationalities.

Norman Rockwell used live models for his paintings. He would show them the kind of expression he wanted them to exhibit. Then he would pay them two dollars for posing for him. (He paid his sons one dollar for posing.) As he began to get older, he would hire a photographer to take a picture of people in the various poses, and then he would paint the illustration while looking at the photograph.

One time another magazine offered him twice as much money as he was making at the Saturday Evening Post, but he turned them down. Because of his loyalty, the Post also doubled his salary.

In 1920 America was at war, so Rockwell enlisted in the Navy. His duties consisted of painting portraits of navy officers, sailors, and officer's wives. He was soon discharged.

His first marriage ended in divorce, but in 1930 he married Mary Rhodes Barstow and they raised three sons.

In 1942 he painted four pictures to illustrate" The Four Freedoms"," Freedom of Speech" which shows a man standing and speaking up in a town hall meeting, "Freedom To Worship" which shows people praying, "Freedom From Want " showing a family around a Thanksgiving table, and "Freedom From Fear" which illustrated a couple tucking their children into bed at night. He took them to different government agencies, but they all rejected them. He took them to the Saturday Evening Post where they were printed and became some of his most famous illustrations.

In his later years the pictures he drew were about national events such as the civil rights movement, and fewer were about the humorous side of life. He illustrated the young black girl who was the first to attend an all-white school. It was called "The Problem We All Live With" .

After his wife Mary died, he married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. They were married for seventeen years.

He once said he wanted to be painting when he died. Actually, he painted his last picture six months before his death, and it was an unfinished painting on his easel.

If you visit Vermont be sure to stop by the "Norman Rockwell Museum" and see some of his illustrations.