Art Works 
in the Ipswich Public Library  

Below is a brief tour of the art works on display at the Ipswich Public Library in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  Information about the artists is noted where known.  

The tour begins in the Gaunt Reference Room through the opening on the left from the Main Room.  Facing you are two portraits.  On the left is Portrait of Augustine Heard (1883) by Thomas Bayley Lawson (1807-1888).  Augustine Heard (1785-1868) founded Augustine Heard & Company in 1840 in Canton.  He engaged in the China Trade with his nephews until retiring in 1862.  Establishing a public library in Ipswich became his major interest in the years before his death.  Heard chose the architect, began construction of the building, set up the Board of Trustees, selected the first librarian and approved the first 3,000 books for the collection.  The artist Thomas Bayley Lawson was a portraitist and miniaturist who was born in Newburyport and died in Lowell.  Bayley was commissioned in 1881 to paint the Heard portrait.  He was paid $150.00.  To the right of his portrait is a 19th century oil of Daniel Treadwell [n.d.] by an unknown artist.  Treadwell (1791-1872) was a Yankee original.  Born in Ipswich his parents died when he was a boy.  Largely self-educated, his early interest in tinkering resulted later on in a number of inventions—a machine for making screws, an improved canon, one of the first power printing presses.  He was appointed a professor at Harvard College in 1834.  He left money in his will “…for the purpose of Founding a library.”  Heard’s library was completed before Treadwell could begin constructing his library.  Mr. Treadwell decided, then, to add his bequest to the Heard endowment.  Both founders are honored here with these portraits.  Between these two portraits sits a large ceramic urn [n.d.] (Sevres) given in memory of Daniel Fuller Appleton by his family.   Appleton (1826-1904) was a partner and director of what became the American Waltham Watch Company.  The Appleton family settled in Ipswich in 1638.  Daniel Fuller Appleton reassembled parcels of the original family farm to form the Appleton Farms operated today by the Trustees of Reservations.  On both sides of the ceramic urn are two 19th century bronze sculptures. To the right of the Treadwell portrait, over the map case, is a small oil Landscape [n.d.] by Henry Rodman Kenyon (1861-1926).  Born in Providence, Kenyon attended the Rhode Island School of Design.  He made his home in Ipswich after painting in Brittany with Ipswich artist Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) in the 1880’s.  Kenyon’s American impressionist works are typically small in scale.  On the wall by the window beyond the reference desk in the office hangs Tulips [n.d.] by Ipswich artist Edna Ellis Baylor (1882 -1966), who was a student of Frank Benson (1862-1951). On the brick wall to your right are four oil paintings, three by A.W. Dow, Ipswich’s most well known artist. Highest on the wall are Au Soir (1888) on the right and Les Sables de Raguènes (1888) on the left, both painted in Brittany. Au Soir won an honorable mention at the 1889 Universal Exposition. Les Sables was accepted for viewing in the 1889 Salon in Paris. Dow studied for five years at the Académie Julian in Paris before returning to Ipswich. Below Les Sables is Dow’s Apple Blossom Tree [n.d.], which was painted in Ipswich. Dow taught from 1895-1903 at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and was Director of the Fine Arts Dept. at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, for 18 years. Below Au Soir is Francis Henry Richardson’s Ipswich Meadows in March [n.d.]. Richardson (1859-19340 lived in Ipswich and studied with William Morris Hunt (1824-1879) and at the Académie Julian.

Cross back through to the Rogers Room on the other side of the Main Room.  Over the mantel is Portrait of Abigail Lord Rogers (c.1880) by Edwin Billings (1824-1893).  Billings was a noted 19th century Massachusetts portrait painter.  The donor of the Rogers Room, Elizabeth R. Lathrop of Salem, stipulated in her will that this portrait hang here.  To the left on top of the bookcase is a mid-nineteenth century plaster bust of Augustine Heard. Above the door to his left is the spectacular Chinese portrait of Howqua II (c.1840) by Lamqua (fl. 1825-1860).   Howqua II (Wu Ping-chien, 1769-1843) was the senior Co-Hong merchant in Canton and China’s richest merchant.  Augustine Heard and Howqua were close business associates as well as good friends.  American merchants in China preferred doing business with Howqua II.  The Chinese artist Lamqua was a student of George Chinnery (1774-1852), whose style he imitated in this portrait.  Heard exhibited this painting, along with other Lamqua portraits, at the Boston Athenaeum in 1850.  On the wall to the left is an early 20^th century seascape in an elaborate frame by D.J. Grer (or Gres).  A portrait of Eunice Caldwell Cowles [n.d.] by Alice “Alcie” Heard hangs to the left of the doorway.  Miss Heard (1866-1953) was a local painter who studied at the Museum School in Boston. This painting is most probably a copy of an earlier photograph or portrait. Mrs. Cowles (1811-1903) was principal at the Ipswich Seminary for 32 years. Also in the Rogers Room is the Portrait of Master Heard. George Heard (1870-1872) was the son of John L. Heard and Alice Leeds Heard. John was a nephew of Augustine Heard, one of the founders of the Ipswich Public Library. John accompanied his uncle to China at the age of 17, who later became head of the family firm in China upon the retirement of his uncle. In 1861 John was made Consul to China representing Russia and Portugal. In the style of the period, George is wearing a white dress decorated with bright blue bows and sash. He is shown with a riding stick in one hand and the tether of a toy horse in the other. Young George died in Boston shortly before his second birthday. His younger sister, Alice ‘Alcie’ Heard, was the last member of the Heard family to reside in the family home in Ipswich, now the headquarters of the Ipswich Historical Society.  The Portrait of Master Heard was painted by Richard Morrell Staigg (1817-1881), a Newport painter who studied with Washington Allston (1779-1843).  He specialized in miniatures and oil and crayon portraits. This recently acquired painting is a “… gift to the Children of Ipswich” by Mrs. John Chamberlain.

Proceeding under the Large Type & Audiovisual sign, on the wall to the left, is Henry Curtis Ahl’s Ipswich Dunes and Lighthouse [n.d.].  Ahl (1905-1996) lived in Newbury and was educated at Governor Dummer Academy and Harvard.  He painted his landscapes rapidly, while his father, Henry Hammond Ahl (1869-1953) was a noted painter of religious works.  A small oil painting of the library building [n.d.] painted by local historian Sue Boice (1942-     ) hangs on the wall by the window.  Continuing to the left, on the wall near the elevator, is a watercolor by Samuel M. Green Across the North Common, Ipswich [n.d.]. Greene (1909-1995) lived in Ipswich during the Depression years. He was an art professor who taught at Wellesley College, Wesleyan and Harvard.  He also founded the Fine Arts Dept. at Colby College.  This watercolor, painted from a very low perspective, shows the 1859 Methodist church near the library.   

On the stairway wall is an oil seascape of Rockport [n.d.] by Ipswich artist Angela (Bokron) Galanis (1912-1995).  On the stairway landing below is Mourning Lockerbie, Ipswich (1988?) by William Landmesser (1952-    ), who painted this view from his Ipswich studio shortly after the crash of Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.  To the left of the landing through the door in the granite wall is the Archives Room.  Outside the Archives door hangs a small oil portrait of Nathaniel Lord 3^rd [n.d.] by an unknown artist.  Lord (1780-1852), known as ‘Squire Lord’, a graduate of Harvard in 1798, was the Registrar of Deeds and of Probate in Ipswich from 1815 to 1851.  It was Squire Lord who welcomed General Lafayette to Ipswich in 1824.  Beyond the landing, along the second set of stairs, is Dorothy Kerper Monnelly’s black & white photograph of Pine Island, spring (1991).  Ms Monnelly (1937-    ), an Ipswich resident, has exhibited her large format photographs widely and was one of the founders of the former River Gallery in Ipswich.  Proceeding down to the lower level, on the left, in the Collins Room, hangs a very large oil by Wayne Morrell titled Ipswich Marshes (1969). Morrell (1923-    ), who attended the Famous Artists School, gave this painting of the marshes in Willowdale State Forest to the library in 1970.  He has maintained a studio in Rockport for 40 years. Also in the Collins Room are two color photographs of local scenes by former Ipswich resident and free-lance photographer Andrew Borsari (1940-      ).  Winter Horses [n.d.] was taken on Heartbreak Road, while A Tree on Appleton Farms [n.d.] was shot along Walldingfield Road. Mr. Borsari maintains a gallery in Rockport.  

Returning to the steps and climbing up to the second floor the Bicentennial Quilt (1976) hangs on the wall above the staircase.  This quilt was worked by a group of more than 24 local women.  Dorothy Brigham was the project manager.  The scenes shown are typical of the town. At the top of the stairs to the left is the Gallery.  Arranged on the walls of the Gallery are seven ink washes and one charcoal sketch by Arthur Wesley Dow.  Some of these pictures show Ipswich scenes.  This is the largest collection of Dow’s ink washes on public view.  The influence of Japanese wash drawings is evident in these ink washes.  From 1891 through 1906 Dow ran the Ipswich Summer School, where he incorporated Japanese painting techniques in his classes.  In 1897 Dow was appointed Curator of Japanese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  The oil painting in the Arts & Crafts frame by the door on the far end of the Gallery is Winter Landscape [n.d.] by Charles Harold Davis (1856-1933).  Davis lived in France for 10 years and studied at the Académie Julian.  He died in Amesbury.   On the wall above the glass bookcases in the Annex Meeting Room are three pencil sketches signed R. Feiler: Mother and Children [n.d.], Farmer Babies Await Their Mother [n.d.] and Planting Rice [n.d.].  Down the stairway and to the left is the Main Room of the Ipswich Public Library.  This is the original library building opened in 1869.  The architect was Calvin Ryder (1810-1890), who also designed the Lancaster (MA) Public Library, as well as Thayer Hall and Holyoke House at Harvard University.  Above the wooden shelving in the Main Room, beginning on the left, are the following oil paintings: Racing Gaff Rigged Sloops on a Reach (20^th c.) by Thomas Thomason; a seascape (1933) by Arthur S. Kimball (1856-1937), a professor of music at Oberlin College who summered in Ipswich; a painting of the Ipswich Public Library (1955) by Fred Reinert (1900-1974), a graduate of the Pratt Institute; Still Life with Fruit (19^th c.) by an unknown artist, which resembles work by members of the Peale family; Rocky Coast with Cliffs (c1870-90) by an unknown  (probably European) artist; View in a Summer Garden with Shed in Background (20^th c.) by an unknown American artist; Ships in Harbor (19^th c.) by the British painter George Bunn (fl. 1896-1898); Ship ‘Naomi’ Off Liverpool (1830) attributed to Robert Salmon (c1775-1848).  Over the door of the Library Director’s office behind the Main Desk is an ink wash drawing of the Ipswich Public Library (c1970) by Ipswich artist William Keyworth (1927-    ).  On the back wall of the Director’s Office hangs a sepia-toned aerial photograph of the North Common of Ipswich taken in 1941.  As you exit the library, on the wall opposite the staircase, hangs a watercolor of the Ipswich Public Library, probably painted c1940, as it shows the Rogers Room addition of 1941 and an unbuilt (at that time) addition on the other side of the library.

Victor Dyer Library Director December 2001

© 2002 Ipswich Public Library . All rights reserved.

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