Art on Paper
The Stewart-Swift Research Center houses a small but diverse collection of art on paper that provides insight into the creative output of Addison County artists and documents the collecting interests of its residents. The collection includes original drawings in pencil, ink and pastel; watercolors; and a variety of prints and other media.
Among the subjects are portraits of men and women, views of Middlebury and its surroundings, bridges, falls, buildings and farmland. Some of the depicted structures and places were transformed over time or no longer exist. The pieces in the collection provide their only visual documentation.
Among early views of Middlebury are a c. 1810 watercolor by Canadian artist George Heriot; an unattributed view of the town from 1808; several sketches of the Middlebury Female Seminary building; a view of Middlebury Grammar School, and many others.
One rare and priceless collection comprises over sixty drawings of the earliest-known textile machine maker’s workshop drawings by a local textile mechanic, Isaac Ebenezer Markham (1795-1825), executed between 1814 and 1825. Also included is an earliest-known view of the Boston Manufacturing Co. mills at Waltham, MA. Markham’s visual collection is complemented by his collection of papers housed at the Center.
Among the portraits is a drawing of Cynthia Stewart (1772-1857), relative of the future governor of Vermont and of the benefactress of the Stewart-Swift Research Center, Jessica Stewart Swift. The Center’s archive also holds Stewart’s notebooks, correspondence and photographic portraits adding to the richness of information about her and the locally prominent Stewart family.
There is also a chalk drawing of a young Lady Anne Grenfell (1885-1938) who, with her husband, Sir Wilfred Grenfell, established the Labrador Industries and opened the Dog Team Tavern, a known restaurant in Brooksville, a section of New Haven.
A small engraving of Col. Thomas Sheldon in the Center’s collection was recently attributed to an early New England artist, Richard Brunton (1742-1832), by Deborah M. Child in her book Soldier, Engraver, Forger (2015).
The Center’s collection also includes multiple renditions of farm animals by brothers Luther and Frank Webster of Shoreham, Vermont. Luther (1858-1944) became one of the best-known livestock artists travelling across the United States and making drawings of prize animals. The Center’s archives houses original drawings and prints of rams, hogs and photogenic merino sheep executed by both brothers. Merinos were successfully raised in Addison County during first half of the 19th century and largely contributed to the wealth and development of the area.
Solomon W. Jewett, a Weybridge native and a successful businessman, merino sheep farmer and believer in spiritualism, compiled a collection of “spirit” drawings by Wella P. Anderson. The Anderson drawings are unique because they are most likely the only surviving original drawings by this early spirit artist in any American museum. The Jewett collection also includes a pastel drawing of Tecumseh, an early 19th-century Shawnee leader, by British artist James Carling.
Spirit drawing of Tecumseh by James Carling, pastel, 1878
Spirit drawing of Hiram Abiff by Wella Anderson, 1869
