The Scoville Farm and James Henry Moser's Cornwall Sketches

James Henry Moser, Cream Hill, March 1882
Martha's Album, Collection of Cornwall Historical Society

The Scoville Farm dates back to the 1700s. Ralph Ingersoll Scoville (1829-1887) ran the farm during the second half of the 1800s. In 1870, it was one of the largest dairy operations in Cornwall, with 27 cows producing 12,500 gallons of milk for sale.

David Johnson's Housatonic River

Christmas has come early to the Cornwall Historical Society! We are delighted to share the most recent donation to our collection--a wonderful oil painting of the Housatonic River at West Cornwall by David Johnson (1827-1908).

David Johnson, Housatonic River at West Cornwall, 1870s.

Johnson was born and raised in New York City and began his art career by painting landscapes in the Catskills, studying with Jasper Crospsey. Johnson joined the National Academy of Design in 1859 and continued traveling in the Northeast, painting landscapes in the White Mountains, at Lake George, and in central New York state. He painted at West Cornwall and other Connecticut locations during the 1870s.

Detail showing a man fishing and smoking a pipe.

Johnson won a first-class medal for art at the 1876 Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia and an award from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association of Boston in 1878. He exhibit a painting of the Housatonic River at the Paris Salon of 1877.

Detail showing two people on the opposite bank of the river, possibly on a boat.

Reverse of the painting, showing Johnson's signature and the painting's title.

Another painting of West Cornwall, done in 1875 by David Johnson, is in the collection of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT.

Intern Update: Janet Payne

Our intern, Ryan Bachman, has been spending the summer transferring our historic documents to archival folders and boxes, improving their storage and making them more accessible for research. This is the fourth in a series of blog posts he is writing about some of the interesting or surprising documents he finds in our vault.

This week, I worked on sorting the papers of Emily E. Marsh. Ms. Marsh was a lifelong resident of Cornwall who ironically lived in the building that currently houses the historical society. She was perhaps best known for her job as a librarian, which she held for over forty years. As Cornwall librarian, Ms. Marsh received hundreds of letters from genealogy enthusiasts interested in their Cornwall roots, and over the course of her life, she collected countless items associated with Cornwall families, and town history in general. One item I uncovered this week that really stands out is a book of artwork and poetry made by twenty year old Cornwall resident Janet E. Payne in 1838. The images call to mind the artwork found in the friendship album made for Cherry Stone in 1824 by Wu Lan, a student of the Foreign Mission School. It’s interesting to speculate what influences or connections there may be between these two volumes.

Sedgwick's Statue at Hartford

Major General John Sedgwick (1813-1864), who grew up in Cornwall Hollow, has been called Connecticut's most illustrious Civil War soldier. The state commissioned an equestrian statue of Sedgwick at Gettysburg which was unveiled in 1913. A decade later, the state requisitioned funds for another Sedgwick statue, to be placed on the south facade of the Capitol building at Hartford.

Connecticut commissioned Berthold Nebel, a sculptor based in New York City, to create the statue for the Capitol. A plaster cast was positioned in the niche on the side of the building for final design approval in August, 1928. The final marble statue was installed in March, 1929 (as reported in the Hartford Courant).

Sedgwick statue, south facade of the Capitol building, Hartford.

Nebel's design shows a significant amount of artistic license: rather than being a literal depiction of how Sedgwick appeared in life, the artist chose to create a heroic interpretation of how he thought a Civil War General ought to look.

For comparison, take a look at this 1864 depiction of Sedgwick in a Johnson, Fry & Co. engraving based on a painting by Thomas Nast:

Major General John Sedgwick (detail), 1864.
Collection of Cornwall Historical Society.

The 1864 engraving show Sedgwick as he typically appeared in photographs. The most obvious differences between this image and the statue at Hartford include the way Sedgwick wore his pants over his boots, the absence of gloves, the thickness of his coat (which seems cotton-thin on the statue), and the dishevelment of his hair and beard.