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Born into the wealthy Longworth family of Cincinnati, Ohio, Maria Longworth Nichols (1849-1932) used her family money to found one of the most successful art potteries in the United States. Nichols’ interest in ceramics began with learning how to paint on china, a pastime—and ultimately a livelihood—that became popular for women in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. Nichols first learned china painting in 1873 from Karl Langenbeck, a ceramic chemist, and expanded her skills in classes taught by Benn Pittman at the Cincinnati School of Design. Read More

Last year, the Everson acquired two wax portraits of Vera S. Bragg and her daughter Polly by miniaturist and Syracuse native Ethel Mundy (1876-1964). Mundy is remembered for being a pioneer in revitalizing the field of wax miniature portraits in the United States and was known throughout the country and in Europe for her talent. Read More

Oliver Ingraham Lay (1845-1890) was born in New York City to parents George Cowles Lay and Julia Anna Hartness Lay. George Lay was a lawyer, and he and his wife raised their family in Manhattan with summers spent visiting Old Lyme, Connecticut, where Lay’s ancestors settled in the seventeenth century. Lay completed his earliest sketches while summering in Old Lyme on his grandfather’s farm. Read More

Last year, the Everson included Judy Natal’s video The Custodian in the summer exhibition Time Returns: A Continuous Now, a mostly photo-based exhibition dedicated to exploring representations of nature in photographs made in the past 150 years. After the exhibition closed, the Museum purchased the video for its collection. Read More

J. Alden Weir (1852-1919) was born to a family of artists in West Point, New York. His father, an accomplished painter, was a drawing professor at the Military Academy in West Point, and his older brother was a landscape painter and ultimately served as a professor of painting at Yale University. In 1870, with his family’s support, Weir moved to New York City at age seventeen to study at the National Academy of Design. Three years later, in 1873, he traveled to Paris and spent the next four years studying at the École des Beaux-Arts. In this time, Weir traveled all over Europe, absorbing history and culture. Read More