USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 23
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Despite passionate and sometimes eccentric devotion to these causes, Sarah Cleghorn was much admired in Manchester. The Bennington Banner once said "Miss Cleghorn's opinions never ap- peal to us, we think she is all off on most subjects, but never mind, we love her just the same."1 Her writings reflected her views. She wrote some lyrical poetry, but the bulk of her verse, in ballad form, protested against racial prejudice, child labor, and war. Probably Sally Cleghorn's most quoted lines, originally sent to Franklin P. Adams' column in the New York Herald Tribune, are :
The golf links lie so near the mill That almost every day The laboring children can look out And watch the men, at play.
Miss Cleghorn published a volume of verse, Portraits and Pro- tests; an autobiography, Three Score; two novels, Turnpike Lady and The Spinster; and a book of religious philosophy, The Seamless Robe. In collaboration with Dorothy Canfield Fisher, she wrote Fellow Captains and Nothing Ever Happens, a collection of true stories of Vermonters. After becoming a Quaker, Sarah Cleghorn lectured for the Friends Council on Education.
WALTER HARD (1882- ) is noted for his Vermont poetry and in Manchester for his active participation in the life of the community. The son of Jesse and Eliza Jane (Pennock) Hard, he belongs to the fifth generation of Hards in the Battenkill Valley. A graduate of Burr and Burton Seminary, class of 1900, he attended Williams College, where he was later awarded an honorary degree.
Walter Hard has represented Manchester in the Legislature two terms and has three times been elected State Senator. He has been an officer, director, or trustee of many organizations including Burr and Burton Seminary, Burr and Burton Seminary Alumni As- sociation, Dellwood Cemetery, Manchester Historical Society, Mark Skinner Library, Factory Point National Bank, the Village of Manchester, and Southern Vermont Artists, Inc. He has been a member of the Vermont League of Writers and the Vermont His- torical Society.
1. Charles Edward Crane, Let Me Show You Vermont (New York, 1937), p. 26.
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Southern Vermont Art Center acquired by S.V.A., Inc., in 1950. In dyllic surroundings on the side of Mount Equinox, this cultural center attracts nearly 10,000 visitors each summer.
Nathaniel ("Nat") Canfield (1867-1942), beloved Manchester musician and friend.
Above, left: Walter Hard, Man- chester poet who has been ranked by Louis Untermeyer as one of the top thirty New Eng- land poets since 1776. Above, right: Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn (1876-1959), Manchester writer whom Robert Frost has called "a saint, poet-and reformer." Left: Albert Smith (1878-1958), Village photographer.
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Hard's first book, Some Vermonters, was published in 1928. He has written eight books of verse, all characterized by a nonrhyming irregular rhythm that he feels "fits in with the unexpected but never-broken lines of our Vermont landscape." Louis Untermeyer has ranked Walter Hard among the top thirty New England poets since 1776.
Most of his poems have appeared in his weekly newspaper col- umns-"Hard Lines and Old Times" in the Rutland Herald and since 1926, "Fouls and Base Hits" in the Manchester Journal. He has also written magazine articles and plays, one of which, The Scarecrow, has been produced by local summer theaters. He is au- thor of The Connecticut, thirty-second in the Rivers of America se- ries, and co-author, with his wife, of This Is Vermont. A contribut- ing editor to Vermont Life magazine, Walter Hard writes the regular column, "Only Yesterday, A Remembrance of Vermont." His work appears in several anthologies.
MARGARET STEEL HARD, born in Manchester, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Steel, attended Pratt Institute High School, Brooklyn, New York, and the Ethical Culture School. She later taught at the Maria B. Chapin School. She married Walter Hard in 1912. Their children are Walter Rice Hard, Jr., editor of Vermont Life and author of Vermont Guide, and Ruth Hard Bonner, news- paper book reviewer who has worked in the publishing field and who was first proprietor of the Johnny Appleseed Bookshop, which her parents now operate.
Margaret Hard has published articles and poetry in many maga- zines. She is the author of This Is Kate, a novel which was accepted in 1948 for translation into French. She also wrote a story of Ver- mont, "Thimble Mountain," for a young people's series, Children of the U.S.A., which is also published in Braille.
ELIZABETH PAGE (1889- ), whose home in Manchester Vil- lage has been in her family many generations, is the author of three historical novels. Miss Page was educated at the New York Col- legiate Institute and Vassar College, class of 1912. She received a master's degree in history from Columbia University and later taught at the Walnut Hill School, Natick, Massachusetts.
Her first book, Wagons West, was published in 1930, followed by Wild Horses and Gold in 1932 and Tree of Liberty in 1939. The latter
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was a best seller and a successful moving picture. Wilderness Adven- ture was published in 1946.
PHYLLIS FENNER, one of the nation's best-known authorities on children's books, now claims Manchester as her home. Born in Al- mond, New York, she was librarian in Manhasset, Long Island, public schools from 1923 to 1955. A book reviewer and author of many articles on library work, reading, and books, she is on the editorial board of Cadmus Books and the advisory board of Chil- dren 's Digest.
Miss Fenner has written several books and edited many antholo- gies. Among them are Our Library: The Story of a School Library That Works; The Proof of the Pudding: What Children Read; and Kick-Off.
BERNIECE BEANE GRAHAM, Manchester teacher-writer, has writ- ten a weekly column in the Manchester Journal since 1938 and has been book review editor for that newspaper and the Bennington Banner. She has published articles in The Vermonter magazine and poetry in various publications. In 1939 her work appeared in a major anthology. A member of the League of Vermont Writers, Mrs. Gra- ham has been on the staff of Yankee magazine and has been poetry editor of the magazine Driftwood.
THE REV. CARROLL SIMCOX, Episcopal rector, completed a trilogy of religious philosophy during his five-year Manchester pas- torate, Living the Creed, Living the Lord's Prayer, and Living the Ten Commandments. He has also written several other books.
DR. RICHARD C. OVERTON, teacher, writer, and railroad con- sultant, has written The First Ninety Years (1940), Burlington West (1941), "Westward Expansion since the Homestead Act" in Growth of the American Economy (1944), Milepost 100 (1949), and Gulf to Rockies (1953). He has also had many articles published in history and railroad magazines.
§ The Musicians
DANIEL PEABODY in 1838 advertised a twenty-four lesson course in the "Science of Sacred Music" by the "Pestilozian System" Sat- urday nights "in the schoolhouse near the Episcopal Church at Factory Point" for $1. These were probably the town's first music
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lessons. Since then, musical instruction has been given by a score of teachers.
The first orchestral music was undoubtedly played at the Equi- nox House, where the "Parlor Orchestra" was conducted for many years during the middle nineteenth century by Professor Farber. He was succeeded about 1900 by a cellist, Franz Lorenz, who was very popular in the community and did much to give Manchester an interest in orchestral music. With his brother, Ernst, and his pianist daughter, Yolanda, he often gave concerts at Burr and Bur- ton Seminary.
Probably Manchester's best-known entertainers were the cele- brated Hoyt sisters, Frances and Grace, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Russel P. Hoyt. Talented and pretty, the sisters sang at all the Vil- lage socials. In 1907 they studied in Paris under De Reszke and en- tertained in London under royal patronage. Frances had a reper- toire of monologues which she presented in costume in society drawing rooms and on the public stage. These were later published under the title Mis' Stone. Critics called her "a rare artist."
The sisters toured the United States and Canada in 1909 with Sousa's band, and during World War I joined General L. C. Ed- wards' Yankee Division as entertainers. The Hoyts also taught violin and piano in New York schools and in Manchester, summers. Frances died December 29, 1935, aged sixty-seven. Grace Hoyt continued to give readings locally until about 1940. She died Octo- ber 18, 1950, aged seventy-nine.
Most early concerts were held in the Village Music Hall or at the Factory Point Opera House. In 1925 Manchester's first concert series "by artists of international reputation" was held in the Semi- nary gymnasium. During the 1930s, concerts were given at the Equinox House Pavilion. Manchester's first symphony concert was given out of doors at the Fair Grounds in 1938 by the Vermont Sym- phony Orchestra, then in its fourth year. Henry B. Robinson, cell- ist, was Manchester's first resident to join the group. In 1941 bene- fit concerts were given at summer homes, and in 1945 townspeople as well as hotel guests were invited to informal Sunday evening concerts given by the Equinox House orchestra.
Since the development of the Southern Vermont Art Center in 1950, most of Manchester's major musical events have been spon-
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sored by the Southern Vermont Artists, Inc., in the "Musical Arts Series." The modest beginnings were four small concerts in an out- door amphitheater. In 1956 Mrs. Bartlett Arkell and Dean Fausett were principal fund raisers in a drive to construct a pavilion. In 1959 "Madama Butterfly," the Art Center's first full-scale opera, was presented. The Art Center has also sponsored a chorus and ballet school. Two musicians, part-time Manchester residents who appear regularly at the Art Center, are pianist Eugene List and his wife, Carroll Glenn, violinist. Choreographer-dancer Joyce Hurley of Manchester has also appeared at the Art Center, directing her own school of dance in several successful programs.
§ The Artists
PROBABLY the first notable painter of Manchester scenery was W. C. Boutelle, who came here summers in the middle nineteenth century. Mount Dorset was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1871. Another of his large paintings of the valley occupied "a place of honor in the parlors of the Equinox House." Another early painter of the local scene was Walter Shir- law, noted New Yorker who spent summers here sketching.
Zephine Humphrey in Story of Dorset says the earliest exhibit in this area was the work of ""the mountains painter of Dorset," John Lillie. It was sponsored in 1923 by hotel patrons on the lawn of the Equinox House. Twenty-four pictures were sold that day. Another art exhibit was held at the Equinox House Pavilion in late August 1924 by Frank C. Vanderhoof and Francis S. Dixon. There were also paintings by Lillie, Mary S. Powers, Herbert Meyer, Wallace Fahnestock, and Edwin B. Child. Another one-day exhibit was held in 1925.
In August 1926 a number of Bennington and Rutland people motored to Manchester to see another Lillie exhibit, again at the Pavilion. Early in September, a larger exhibit showed photographic work, hooked rugs, sculpture, and a piece of illuminated text. New artists appearing were H. E. Schnakenberg, Horace Brown, and Della Shull.
The artists shared a common interest-
a fascination for the lushness of the Green Mountain landscape, for the
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peace and serenity of Vermont life, for the texture of weathered barn wood and covered bridges, and for the distinctive character of each Ver- monter rooted for generations in his land. Each painter, according to his fashion, recreated on canvas those aspects of Vermont which mnoved him. . . . 2
In 1927 Michel Jacobs, director of the Metropolitan Art School, New York City, ran a summer art school in East Manchester. That year the "Fourth Annual Exhibition of Artists of Southern Ver- mont" was held at the Pavilion with 1,600 spectators from thirty- three states and nine countries. Most of the executive work of this exhibit and others until 1934 was handled by Mary S. Powers. In the 1928 exhibit, artists of established reputation shared hanging space with those of lesser experience and fame. There were 150 en- tries, some the work of children under sixteen.
The press, from the beginning, gave excellent reviews of the Manchester exhibits. Royal Cortissoz, distinguished author-art critic of the New York Herald Tribune and a frequent summer visi- tor to Manchester, suggested that the great success of the exhibits might be due to "something in the air up here, something of stimu- lus in beauty of scene ... favorable to the heightening of artistic activity."
Art critic Edward Alden Jewell wrote:
All Manchester is on tiptoe with excitement; the surrounding country- side as well. For Art has taken hold in Vermont. You realize, in fact, without being told the moment you enter the gallery that this is a Ver- mont show; for in picture after picture the valleys and hills of the beauti- ful State reappear, transformed, it is true, by individual imagination, but in spirit immediately recognizable.3
The exhibit at Manchester is superlatively American ... in that it re- flects the American temperament and scene at first hand and .. . em- bodies so much of our rich diversity of taste. Here is Carl Ruggles, a young modern composer; and he paints .. . music because it is the thing he knows best. Here is the remarkable John Lillie, a true primitive, who, self-taught and self-communing, paints ... the mountains .. . among
2. S. J. Conti, "A Brief Look at the Southern Vermont Art Center," Manchester Journal, July 21, 1960.
3. The New York Times, September 2, 1928.
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which he has lived since boyhood. Here is W. W. Fahnestock, breathing poetry and light ... and at home with singing greens. .. . 4
The Rutland Herald was also appreciative :
Manchester-in-the-Mountains may never take its place in the sun as the center of a world famous art colony or the home of an annual art show of international importance but it is bound to receive recognition for the work which has already been done and which is planned for the future of art.5
The annual exhibits proved to be a source of invaluable publicity for the state as well as an educational and cultural advantage. The Manchester Journal said, "No feature of Vermont life, either politi- cal or social, has been awarded so much space in metropolitan papers."
David L. Bulkley, Manchester photographer, was appointed ship- ping and receiving agent for the annual shows. His packing and sending of oil paintings and sculpture was an art in itself and a great service for many years to the southern Vermont artists.
Robert McIntyre was especially notable in encouraging the early exhibits. His ownership of the Macbeth Gallery in New York City made him an important connection for the Manchester artists.
The New Collectors Gallery, where small paintings by well- known artists could be purchased at low prices, first appeared in 1933. This was also the year that the Southern Vermont Artists in- corporated, eleven members signing the articles of association: Mrs. George Orvis, Bartlett Arkell, Walter Hard, H. E. Schnaken- berg, Lincoln Isham, Harlan Miller, Luther R. Graves, 2nd, Wil- liam H. Roberts, Ernest H. West, Edward F. Rochester, and Ed- ward Griffith.
The principal purposes of S.V.A. were given as follows:
"To promote education in art exclusively, and for that purpose to hold and conduct exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, and other objects of art, and especially to promote the study of art in all of its branches by the young people of Vermont." SVA was set up as a non-profit organization dependent upon public support to carry out its objectives. From its in-
4. The New York Times, September 6, 1929.
5. Manchester Journal, December 27, 1928.
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ception, the group set down only one basic requirement for exhibition- that of residence. An artist must have lived within a fifty mile radius of Manchester for at least three months out of each year to qualify for in- clusion. ... All paintings entered were submitted to a jury selected from among the established members of the group.
A feature of the SVA annual show, which became known as the "Man- chester Idea" was that any artist who had satisfied the residence require- ment could enter four paintings in the show with the guarantee that at least one .. . would gain acceptance. The "Manchester Idea" is rooted in the essence of democracy and it insured the growth of the Southern Ver- mont Artists. 6
From 1934 to 1950 the annual exhibitions were held in the Burr and Burton Seminary gymnasium. Among the new exhibitors in the early 1930s were Reginald Marsh, whose paintings, engravings, and etchings have been exhibited in many museums and belong to im- portant permanent collections; Henrik Willem Van Loon; and the three young daughters of Chinese philosopher Lin Yutang. No prizes were given nor was there a charge for admission or cata- logues. All operating expenses of the show were paid from modest commissions charged on paintings sold.
Because of the war, the 1941 and 1942 exhibits were small and the 1943 through 1945 exhibits were cancelled. Among the new ex- hibitors were Leale Towsley, Hilda Belcher, Paul Sample, Anne and Felicia Meyer, Bernadine Custer, Clay Bartlett, Theodore Hussa, Harriette de Sanchez, Francis Colburn, John Koch, Dean Fausett, and Arthur K. D. Healy. David Humphreys and his wife, Beatrice Jackson, also painters of the American School, began to receive wide recognition in the country.
"Friends of the Southern Vermont Artists" organized at the sug- gestion of Walter Hard to lend financial assistance and assume re- sponsibility for hanging the show. This group provided a perma- nence and continuity for the annual exhibits. One of its first contri- butions was a new type of floodlighting designed to increase the vitality and quality of the total effect. Mrs. Bartlett Arkell continued to be a leader in this group.
In 1949 the twentieth annual exhibit was celebrated with an anni- versary jamboree on the Seminary athletic field. Grandma Moses,
6. S. J. Conti, "A Brief Look .... "
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guest of honor as she was again in 1960, was one of 220 artists showing 424 paintings. Sales totaled nearly $13,000 and over 7,000 visitors attended. Edith Dulles Snare supervised this and several later exhibits. The paintings of Ogden Pleissner, Luigi Lucioni, and Robert Strong Woodward were voted the most popular, in that order.
The first S.V.A. "Traveling Show" opened in Detroit in 1949 to acquaint the country through leading galleries and dealers with the organization's work. Other cities on the winter-spring itinerary were St. Louis, Dallas, Salt Lake City, and Chicago.
The idea of a permanent gallery and cultural center for Manches- ter was long considered. Instrumental in promoting the idea were Herbert Meyer and Dean Fausett. Meyer, a member of the National Academy, had exhibited all over the country, and Fausett was a prize winner who had works in permanent collections of many lead- ing museums. In the summer of 1950, S.V.A., Inc., bought the Ger- trude Divine Webster estate, 300 acres of forest and meadow on the side of Mount Equinox. A committee headed by Fausett "and in- cluding Mrs. Bartlett Arkell, James F. Ashley, and Richard M. Ketchum, set about to raise funds. A long list of supporters headed by George Merck, Gerard B. Lambert, and Mrs. W. S. Barstow, contributed enough to purchase the property, to renovate it, and to operate it for an entire season."7
The house with more than twenty well-proportioned rooms was ideal for a gallery. A natural outdoor amphitheater seemed excel- lent, too, for the four concerts quickly scheduled for that first season. Stell Anderson, pianist, was the first performer. In 1951 a full program composed the Art Center's first season. It included a memorial exhibit of work done by late distinguished southern Ver- mont artists: John Lillie, Horace Brown, Edwin Child, Lorenzo Hatch, Walter Shirlaw, Frank Osborn, Jean Blin, and Louise Martin.
Osborn, noted for his imaginative and decorative groups of horses, invented a revolutionary airbrush technique, a new type of canvas stretcher, and an improved painting easel. Edwin B. Child won distinction for portraiture. His was the first one-man show at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. (1930). Lorenzo
7. S. J. Conti, "A Brief Look .... "
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Hatch, landscape and portrait painter, was one of the best bank- note engravers in the country.
The Art Center, within the next two years, added a concert series, photography, flower and craftsmen's shows; evening art courses; film festivals; penny prints shows; instructors' shows; and instruc- tion in oil and watercolor painting, rug hooking, and ceramics. To stimulate interest, pictures were hung in the main lobby and class- rooms of the Manchester Elementary School. Jay Connaway, who has his own art school in North Rupert, gave weekly instruction to upper grades. He has also offered weekly lectures and criticism at the Art Center. A member of the National Academy, Connaway now gives time to teach Mount Laurel School children.
The Southern Vermont Art Center has a permanent collection and has continuous exhibitions from mid-June through mid-Octo- ber. The artists number about 500, and public attendance each summer has been close to 10,000. Average gallery sales are $20,000 each season.
A number of the artists are or have been residents of Dorset and Arlington-Marsh, Fahnestock, the Meyers, Elsa Bley, Fausett, James Ashley, Charles Cagle, Harriette Miller, Lee Ehrich. Hazel Kitts Wires from Peru holds art classes in Manchester. Most closely associated with Manchester itself are Lucioni, Dorothy and Law- rence McCoy, and Leonebel Jacobs.
Luigi Lucioni, who has spent much of his time here since 1929, might be called "painter laureate" of Vermont. An able interpreter of the regional landscape, Lucioni has also done etchings, por- traits, and still life painting. He came to America from Italy when he was ten and has attended Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League.
Described as a man who "keeps his temperament and his imagi- nation well in bounds both in his life and on his canvas,"8 "8 Lucioni paints very slowly. His popularity and small output, therefore, make a ready market. On several occasions he has been awarded the popular prize at the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D. C. His portrait of Ethel Waters received a similar award at the Carnegie
8. Current Biography, October, 1943.
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Institute and in 1947 he received $1,000 in the Second National Print Exhibition in New York.
Lawrence and Dorothy McCoy have been members of the Sara- sota, Florida, Art Association as well as the Southern Vermont Ar- tists. An exhibitor and award winner in many eastern art shows, McCoy won the best portrait prize in the 1951 Connecticut Acad- emy of Fine Arts exhibit and the Ruth V. Ross award at the 55th Annual National Arts Club exhibition, New York City. His portrait of Dr. Claude M. Campbell hangs in the Manchester Elementary School. Mrs. McCoy, prize winner in the Berkshire Art Show, Pitts- field, Massachusetts, has shown her work in many exhibits and one- man shows.
Leonebel Jacobs has had one-man shows of her portraiture in Paris, Pekin, Boston, New York, and at the Southern Vermont Art Center. A member of the National Association of Woman Painters and Sculptors, she has painted many distinguished people, and her book containing portraits of well-known authors was published in 1937.
A second Manchester gallery in which artists from all over the state could exhibit existed between 1940 and 1945 in the old Methodist church at Manchester Center. The Vermont Artists Guild, Inc., Art Gallery officially opened November 25, 1940 and was operated daily on a nonprofit basis. Among artists affiliated with it were Theodore Hussa, Ella Fillmore Lillie, Claude Dern, and John Lillie. In the summer of 1944 the gallery was taken over by Cecil V. Grant of Londonderry as the "Manchester Art Gallery." Grant was the landscape painter who sold over 1,500 pictures of the Vermont scene, which he perennially exhibited on the Village green.
Vinnie Ream, sculptress, once resided in the Village. Her full- length statue of Abraham Lincoln is in the Capitol rotunda in Washington and her marble Sappho is in the National Gallery.
Albert Smith (July 7, 1878-February 11, 1958), Village photog- rapher, will be remembered by his excellent woodland photographs, many of which were made into postcards. These did much in the early part of the century to advertise the Manchester scene.
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