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Born and raised in Maine, Glidden Parker (1913-1980) began his studies at Bates College in order to become a writer. He graduated in 1935 with a B.A. in literature, and spent the following year in Vienna, studying an array of topics, including philosophy, film, comparative literature, and German literature. After returning home to Maine, where he worked for a time on a never-published novel, Parker travelled to Alfred, New York, to visit with relatives in 1937. In Alfred, he became familiar with the ceramics department at Alfred University and fell in love with the medium of clay. Parker enrolled as a ceramics student and studied at the university from 1937 to 1939. Read More

Born in Portland, Maine, Walter Parson Shaw Griffin (1861-1935) was an American landscape painter. Griffin studied painting in Boston, and later traveled to Paris, France in both 1910 and 1923 to continue his studies. In Paris, Griffin was taught by prominent painters Louis Raphaël Collin and Jean-Paul Laurens. Griffin also befriended the French painter Jean-François Millet during his travels to the rural villages of Fleury and Fontainebleau. Millet was a founder of the Barbizon school of painters, an artistic movement that is generally seen as a transition between the dominant Romantic movement and the developing Realism movement. Through Millet and his time in rural France, Griffin began to concentrate on landscape painting. Griffin’s European sojourn also allowed him to visit Venice. Read More

Given that the Great Depression caused a worldwide economic downturn that specifically ravaged the United States, it may be surprising to learn that in the 1930s refrigerators became commonplace in American homes. Their newfound prominence in the kitchen distanced modern refrigerator-owners from the outmoded use of iceboxes and cellar storage. Refrigerators were marketed as sanitary and modern. High demand for the household appliances meant that competition between retailers was fierce. Read More

A few weeks ago, we shared a blog post about a painting by Beatrice Wose-Smith in the collection of the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts that was included in the Golden Gate International Exposition. This was just one example of the Syracuse Museum’s (today the Everson Museum of Art) involvement in the 1939 San Francisco World’s Fair. The Golden Gate International Exposition had five divisions within the department of fine arts: European Art, Decorative Arts, American Art, Pacific Cultures, and Education. While the Syracuse Museum’s Wose-Smith painting was shown within the context of the American Art division, the Museum played a far bigger role in the fair’s Decorative Arts division. Read More

Humorous and sly, Mildred Beltré's (b. New York, NY, 1969) Where My Dream At? presents an everyday domestic object as a question: a white, linen pillow with black wool script, asking, “where my dream at?” Based in Brooklyn, Beltré is an artist, educator, and community organizer whose diverse works explore social change. For Beltré, her creative framework involves the history of political movements, their participants, structures, and how those experiences impact social lives. She often addresses themes of racism, sexism, capitalism, and imperialism, particularly when envisioning a post-revolution world. Humor, empathy, and social justice are fundamental building blocks for Beltré's work. Read More