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Maine Historical Society, Portland

Early Printmaking in Maine

489 Congress Street
207.774.1822

September 1 – December 31, 2006
Opening Reception: September 28 @ 7 PM


Orramel Hinckley Throop (b. 1798, d.?)
Trade Card, c. 1823
Engraving on paper
Collections of Maine Historical Society

The Maine Historical Society, Portland, will present a selection of works from the first decades of printmaking in the state, from the late 18th century to about 1880. Drawn from its own and other collections, the exhibition will begin with early illustrated books published in Maine, including Rev. Jonathan Fisher’s Scripture Animals (1834) and a view of Mt. Katahdin from the first geological survey of Maine, published in 1837. Works by several professional engravers who moved to Portland after statehood in 1820 will be shown, along with remarkable efforts by amateur printmakers such as Louisa Day Minot’s early lithographic view of the Kennebec River of about 1826. Rounding out the exhibition will be the colorful innovations of chromolithography, which came to dominate commercial printmaking after the Civil War, including examples of city views, advertisements for railroads and coastal steamers, and sentimental literary and religious images, such as Elizabeth Murray’s 1869 “portrait” of Dotty Dimple, the heroine of several novels by Maine author Sophie May. The exhibition will be organized by guest curator David P. Becker, noted print scholar.


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