ADK Forever Wild: Norman Bethune

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Norman Bethune

Norman Bethune was an artist, doctor and politician that was very influential in the early 20th century. Mainly tied to the Canadian Communist party, he was popularized in his duty serving to protect–you guessed it– the Chinese Communist hegemony from the threatening Japan. However, his actions throughout the years raised the eyebrows of many Americans weary of his passion for Communism.

His connection to the Adirondacks is on very different terms. He suffered from Tuberculosis throughout his life, battling with the use of art and other means of expression. Bethune was treated at the Trudeau Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Saranac Lake, and in return for their dutiful work, gifted them a 60 foot long mural entitled T.B.'s Progress, A Drama in one act and nine painful scenes in 1927. The "scenes" feature odd animals, spirits, and angels that help him document what the process of the disease has been to him. It ends with a scene at a graveyard featuring the tombstones of him and all his fellow diseased friends including the years they were all predicted to die–1932 being his final predicted year.

Bethune was immortalized by the Communist parties as a martyr. He died trying to globalize this political mindset with no regard for national origin. His mural, however, went missing in 1967 when the director of the Saranac Lake facility retired and received a letter from the US Army's Center of Special Warfare asking him to send them the painting for the sake of political content examination. It is unclear if the painting remains somewhere in the Adirondacks, if it has traveled to China, if it has been destroyed by the US government, or something else entirely. Regardless, there is some suspicion regarding the government's influence on this fascinating mural created by someone celebrated by so many in the Adirondack region.