WASHINGTON

Earthquake damage keeps momument closed to public

The National Park Service says the Washington Monument remains closed indefinitely to visitors because of damage sustained during the August earthquake.

Officials say there’s no timetable for reopening the structure.

Structural engineers have done a preliminary inspection inside the monument, where numerous cracks and chips were found after the 5.8-magnitude quake on Aug. 23. Last week, engineers were to begin rappelling down the sides of the monument to check for damage outside.

Dozens of pieces of stone fell inside the monument, and officials say they need to make sure the obelisk is safe before the public is allowed inside.

CHADDS FORD, PA.

‘Treasure Island’ images by N.C. Wyeth on display

A century after N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations of the pirates and scalawags of “Treasure Island” first appeared, the iconic images considered the definitive version of the classic tale are reunited.

The Brandywine Museum has reassembled them in a new exhibit marking the 100th anniversary of Wyeth’s “Treasure Island” and the 40th anniversary of the museum, not far from an old carriage house where Wyeth created the 17 large oils on canvas for publishing house Charles Scribner’s Sons.

The only painting from the series not in the exhibit was destroyed in a fire in 1952.

Scribner’s displayed the paintings in their New York bookstore and sold several, but the bulk of the paintings are owned either by the museum or the Wyeth family. The New York Public Library owns two, one is in private hands and one is owned by the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.

“From his correspondence, we found that these paintings were done in about three and a half months, which is an incredibly rapid pace,” curator Christine Podmaniczky said. “He didn’t make drawings of everything first, worked spontaneously right on the canvas.”