ART, PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM

William Wallace Gilchrist, Jr., was born on March 2, 1879, to Susan "Maudie" Gilchrist and William Wallace Gilchrist, Sr., a celebrated musician and composer. Gilchrist and his siblings were raised with an appreciation for the arts, and William, Jr., showed an early affinity and talent for painting. He began his formal training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied under some of the period's most influential artists, including Cecilia Beaux, Thomas Anshutz, and William Merritt Chase. Gilchrist also received instruction from Winslow Homer during annual summer vacations in Maine. Gilchrist married Lucretia deSchweinitz in 1901; they had three children: Peggy, Nelly, and Bill. The family settled in Philadelphia and spent time each year in Maine. Gilchrist died on November 4, 1926, of heart disease. Peggy's son, Robert Griffin, wrote Affectionately, Wallace, the biography of his grandfather. Paperback 102 pages

From March 26 to June 26, 2016, the UNE Art Gallery featured an exhibit on the art of Mildred G. Burrage. The exhibit traced the 70 year career of Mildred Giddings Burrage (1890-1983. Born in Portland, Maine, but living later in Kennebunkport and Wiscasset, Mildred traveled the world throughout her life. This catalog highlights her work from the France years, World War I, Maine, her portraits, maps, the American West, Mexico and Guatemala, World War II and ending with her mica paintings. A timeline of Mildred's life and work in also included as well as a list of her exhibitions. Color photographs throughout. Paperback. 56 pgs.

This book celebrates the preservation of seventeen brightly painted banners that were carried by members of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association in an 1841 Portland parade. In 2010 these proud emblems of the nineteenth century working class were threatened with dispersal to private collections and out-of-state institutions. Maine's cultural community came to the rescue by purchasing them at auction and placing them at the Maine Historical Society. Each color image of the banner is accompanied with a history of the trade it represents as well as historic photos, prints, or other related documents. Historical background on the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, the Portland banner parade of 1841, Portland's merchantile ecomony in the 1820s, and a history of Mechanic Associations in New England are also included. Paperback. 59 pgs.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks.." so begins the epic poem "Evangeline" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poignant photographs of modern Acadia taken by Mark Marchesi, provide a brilliant tribute to the persistence of Longfellow's vision even in our century. An important and hopeful vision - of a continuing, vibrant tradition of stories woven around a landscape that Longfellow, more than 150 years ago, imagined as forever filled with a dreamy magical light. Color photographs accompany selections from the poem along with an index and afterword by Mark Marchesi. Hardcover. 106 pgs.

The publication of this book documents an unprecedented moment in Maine art history: the collaboration among several museums to form a Folk Art exhibition trail. Many of the artworks contained in these pages are typical of folk art forms found elsewhere in the United States: quilts, painted furniture, family records, pottery, portraits and landscapes. Others are particular to Maine's maritime culture, manifesting an abiding relationship with activities such as lumbering, shipbuilding, seafaring, trading and fishing. Color photographs throughout. hardcover. 143 pgs.

Portraits have an immediacy which makes them compelling windows on the past. As images, they provide tangible information about their subjects and the world in which they lived. As art and cultural artifacts they reveal the dynamic social, aesthetic, and economic forces that shaped them. When Old Sturbridge Village opened the Meet Your Neighbors: New England Portraits, Painters, and Society, 1790-1850 exhibition, it was the entry into a new stage in the Museum's life cycle. It brought public view and scholarly attention to a significant collection of non-academic portraits that had little exposure through exhibition or publication. This book uses portraiture as a prism through which to look at rural New England society. In those years industrialization, immigration, and urbanization undermined the old order and encouraged the emergence of a new class of Americans. This middle class redefined tastes and material standards in a wider cultural movement, creating a new age of abundance. Meet Your Neighbors focuses on artists, their patrons, and the community at large to shed light on these profound and complex social and economic changes. Paperback. 143 pgs.

The city of Portland and its surroundings, including the islands of Casco Bay, have inspired a wide range of art over the past 200 years. The “city by the sea,” as Longfellow famously called it, has been a visual talisman for a host of artists, from early masters like Harrison Bird Brown and John Bradley Hudson to a remarkable roster of contemporary painters. Subjects include many of the city’s signature buildings, including the Custom House and Portland Head Light, as well as street scenes, the waterfront, harbor, back bay, and surrounding landscapes—even the Million Dollar Bridge. Paintings of Portland features a wide range of motifs, in all seasons and represented by an array of styles - historical and contemporary. Hardcover. 136 pgs.