We recently received a donation from Dan Huse of Chellis family letters 1895-1927. Most were written by Abbie Chellis 1861-1927, who after graduating from KUA in 1879, taught in Michigan, New York, and NH. She was an accomplished artist who studied art in Paris in 1892-1893. She returned to live in Meriden with her mother in 1901.
In 1900, she and a friend Belle traveled to Europe and did the "Grand Tour" for 9 months. She wrote frequent letters home to her mother.
Here are a few interesting excerpts:
PARIS
“We found an American woman who had a room on her hands. We followed her to 18 Rue Boissonade which at first struck against our N.E. sense of cleanliness and respectability…but it was cheap and she set a woman to cleaning it. It is in the heart of Bohemian Life where studios and art students flourish in profusion. The room is dark, dull and looks as if it had been inhabited by art students from time immemorial. There is good old furniture, a few rugs and a good 2/3 bed—we piece it out by using chair and trunk and sleep cross ways.
We went to buy tickets to a Sarah Bernhardt and Coquelin matinee. Sarah B. read a poem. Lasted from 1:30 to 6:30. (Note: Coquelin was “one of the greatest theatrical figures of the age.”)
We spent the day at the Louvre saw some sculpture and a good deal of painting.
Thanksgiving in a foreign country. We went to a Christian meeting. Afterwards went into Whistler’s studio (cool reception). Whistler is an old dried up fellow who wears black kids-(note: gloves)--draws them off slowly with his elbows out. He is a master of tone. He is very particular to keep his palette just so, uses small round brushes, does not let his brush marks show, rubs in his paint. He paints in a very low-key way, has very small hands. We don’t like his work very well.
Many artists are fools—some wear paint rags for collars and cuffs. So many go about with long hair, baggy corduroy trow to try and see how they can look the most like a fool. We have seen some disgusting sights and horrid things here than we could see in 1000 years in NY. It is certainly a bad city but they say it is nothing to what Italy is! The saints preserve us from anything wusser!
ROME
There has been a carnival in process for a week—very mild, nothing like the Mardi Gras of New Orleans. Sort of a masquerade processions gathered up by the poor.
There are fountains everywhere in Rome.
We took our work over to the Forum to paint the Arch of Titus, but it was so “open and shut” that we came back early and washed our hair and stockings
The Italian coast and southern France had a yellow haze last evening. We noticed it here also the very warm wind. They say it was the dust from the Sahara. In some places there was rain and the drops were red with sand. So the superstitious thought it was the end of the world.
I have worked this year and made $400 go as far as most one person I guess. We have bought our own things all the way up. I have $10 in US money and 4 English sovereigns to change so you see I did not spend all I had. ... See MoreSee Less
We have very exciting news to share. As you may remember, in 2016 we undertook a major project involving many volunteers to scan and digitize over 5,000 glass plate negatives of Ernest Harold Baynes, the naturalist who lived in Meriden from 1904-1925. Among other things, Baynes was founder of the Meriden Bird Club and instrumental in saving the buffalo from extinction. In October 2016 we had a program about Baynes and I showed over 150 of his slides to a large crowd at the town hall. You can see a selection of those slides on our website: www.phsnh.org.
I had invited Ken Burns to that program, and his collaborator Dayton Duncan did come, and we talked very briefly.
Today I received this email from Dayton Duncan:
Dear Ms. Stephenson,
We met in October 2016 at the Plainfield Historical Society's wonderful presentation about Ernest Harold Baynes. I told you that I was trying to get my friend/collaborator Ken Burns interested in doing a documentary about the American buffalo––its near extermination and the people and efforts that saved it from extinction––something I had been pestering him about for a couple of decades.
I'm happy to say that we're now starting to move forward on it. Julie Dunfey (copied here; a fellow producer with Ken and me on the recent Country Music documentary, long-time associate on many other films, and a nearby Hanover resident) will be producing the film; Ken will be directing; I'm writing it and serving as senior creative advisor. We're aiming for finishing the film in time for an early 2024 PBS national broadcast.
I've been reading and researching for about five months now, and just yesterday finished Baynes' biography and two books he wrote (about the buffalo calves War Whoop and Tomahawk, and about wildlife at Blue Mountain Forest), which convinced me even more that he will be a fascinating and important character for us in our second episode.
I'm reaching out now to connect you with Julie Dunfey and reiterate that our hope will be to access the many Baynes glass-plate negative photos which the Historical Society did such heroic work in digitizing and preserving for future generations.
I have also reached out to Margaret Drye of the Meriden Bird Club, who you kindly introduced me to way back in 2016, to inquire about the progress on digitizing Baynes' "Buffalo Scrapbook."
I'm very excited about this project, a long-held passion of mine, and I look forward to meeting you again as we work on it.
All the best to you, Dayton Duncan
Needless to say, we are every excited about the prospect of Ken Burns and his production team creating a documentary that includes a segment about Baynes, our glass slides and scenes in Plainfield. ... See MoreSee Less
We received a generous donation in memory of Lucy Bishop, Bea and Red Clark, that enabled us to have some exterior painting done by George Hadlock and his crew. George also refinished the oak front door and it looks beautiful. We also had a very large dead birch tree that was overhanging the building removed by Tracy Burns of West Lebanon, and he did a great job.
The bad news is that the painters discovered areas of rot in our front porch, so we are exploring options to replace those areas. The areas with orange tape are some of the areas that are rotten.
We have received bids to replace the roof on the rear ell of the building, originally the woodshed, now our archives room. We are applying for some community grants, and hope to have the roof done before winter. ... See MoreSee Less
This Valley News article is a wonderful tribute and history of Hazel McNamara. ... See MoreSee Less
‘She’s a pretty strong role model’ - West Lebanon Valley News
westlebanonvalleynews.nh.newsmemory.com
PLAINFIELD — When she starts a tour of Mac’s Happy Acres, Liz McNamara makes sure to get an important point across: The Plainfield farm that is home to McNamara Dairy is a lot different now than when her grandmother, Hazel, oversaw the place. Looking through the archives for materials for our 4th of July exhibit, I found the first women's voter registrations.
Each woman who registered had to prove she was literate and copy a sentence, then sign her name, and her date and place of her birth. Ninety three women registered to vote, about 36% of the women in town over 21. The oldest woman to register was Lucy Wyman, born in Cornish August 31, 1833. She was 87 when she voted for the first time, and perhaps was able to vote in three more national elections. She died three days before her 101st birthday. ... See MoreSee Less