A World Observed: The Art of Everett Longley Warner (1877-1963) By Helen K. Fusscas Softcover: 48 pages Publisher: Lyme Historical Society, Florence Griswold Museum (1992) ISBN: 978-1-880897-10-2 Product Size: .187 x 8.5 x 11 inches This catalogue was published to accompany a traveling exhibition of the same name. It began at the Florence Griswold Museum (June 6 – August 9, 1992), went to Westmoreland Museum of Art (August 30 – October 25, 1992) and ended at the Center Gallery of Bucknell University (November 16, 1992 – January 26, 1993). Everett Longley Warner was an artist whose life was devoted to the exploration of visual phenomena in the broadest possible terms.  During his singular career, he not only produced an impressive body of paintings, watercolors, and etchings, but he worked as an art critic; wrote persuasively about the science of perspective and optics as applied to such varied subjects as highway markings and gallery lighting; served his country during both world wars designing naval camouflage; and distinguished himself as a fine teacher. Features historic photos of Warner throughout his life along with 38 black and white images, and 10 full color plates.

Thistles & Crowns: The Painted Chests of the Connecticut Shore By Benjamin Colman Softcover: 72 pages Publisher: Florence Griswold Museum (2014) ISBN-13: 978-1-8808-9726-3 Product Size: 0.25 x 9 x 11 inches Published on the occasion of the 2014 exhibition Thistles & Crowns: The Painted Chests of the Connecticut Shore and written by former Florence Griswold Museum Assistant Curator Benjamin Colman, this catalogue provides a permanent scholarly contribution and encourages further study of this tradition in Connecticut’s material culture. Thistles & Crowns: The Painted Chests of the Connecticut Shore presents a new perspective on an important vernacular tradition in New England furniture making. Following his extensive study of the iconography and construction of the chests, and a careful review of the existing published record, archival sources, and regional history, Benjamin Colman argues persuasively that the stories of their creation, decoration, use, and histories are a good deal more complex than previously thought. Embellished with 74 full-color illustrations, the catalogue stands on its own as a significant contribution to the scholarship of American material culture.

Visions of Mood: Pastels of Henry C. White By Amy Kurtz Lansing Softcover: 32 pages Publisher: Florence Griswold Museum (2009) ISBN-13: 978-0-6152-8439-2 Product Size: 0.1 x 10.5 x 8.5 inches This exhibition catalogue explores an important aspect of the career of the American artist Henry Cooke White (1861-1952). While his oil paintings are widely admired by collectors and museums, his accomplishments in pastel are less well known; and yet, they are breathtaking in their variety, intensity of color, and, at times, abstract boldness. Here is a new side of White’s art making, in which he experimented with color and texture while working out-of-doors. Amy Kurtz Lansing has skillfully undertaken not only to select pastel works from among hundreds of examples, but to discern their meaning to the artist’s career. This catalogue features a remembrance by the artist’s grandson, painter Nelson H. White, an essay by the curator, and a portfolio of 21 color illustrations.

Flora/Fauna: The Naturalist Impulse in American Art  By Jennifer Stettler Parsons with essays by Ellery Foutch and Amy Kurtz Lansing $24.95­­ (cover image: Harry Hoffman, A Coral Cave) Softcover: 120 pages Publisher: Florence Griswold Museum ISBN-13: 978-1-880897-30-0 Product Size: .33 x 9 x 10.75 inches At the heart of the Florence Griswold Museum’s collection stands a tall mahogany chest containing twenty-eight drawers filled with treasures. The contents make up the naturalist collection preserved by the American Impressionist Willard Metcalf, who gathered many of his specimens during summer visits to Florence Griswold’s boardinghouse between 1905 and 1907. Inspired by the Museum’s extensive collection of his work, this exhibition places Metcalf’s dual practice of art-making and natural history within the larger context of American art history. Flora/Fauna surveys the history of artist-naturalists and environmentally-conscious artists in the United States from the dawn of the 19^th century through the mid-20^th century. Together, their works reveal the great diversity and evolution of the ‘naturalist impulse’—the artist’s interest in natural history—across time. Since the country’s founding, artists have participated in forging an American natural history as explorers, collectors, close observers, cataloguers, and early environmentalists. They originated, developed, and challenged notions of nature’s proper scientific and aesthetic representation, and then translated those concerns into fine art. Stemming from the Lyme Art Colony’s history, a large portion of this display emphasizes art produced in Connecticut. This vantage point is appropriate, for one of the main factors motivating urban artists’ visits to rural Connecticut was the opportunity to commune with nature, often at art colonies. This exhibition is a timely endeavor as we think about our role on this fragile planet, and what we leave for future generations. Works in the exhibition reveal how artistic production has corresponded with social developments in American history, from an early concern with establishing a national identity distinct from Europe; to reflecting Americans’ shifting philosophies on evolution and the human relationship to the environment; to the growth of the conservation movement in the United States.  

May Night: Willard Metcalf at Old Lyme By Bruce W. Chambers with an essay by Amy Ellis and entries by Emily M. Weeks Softcover: 144 pages Publisher: Florence Griswold Museum (2005) ISBN-10: 1-8808-9722-9 ISBN-13: 978-1-8808-9722-5 Product Size: 0.5 x 9 x 11 inches Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925), perhaps America’s most important Impressionist landscape painter, spent only three summers living and working at the Lyme Art Colony. Though only a brief episode in what would ultimately be a fifty-year career, the landscapes Metcalf created at Old Lyme were acclaimed by critics, sought out by collectors and museums, and central to his subsequent reputation as a major figure in American art. This catalogue accompanied the 2005 exhibition, May Night: Willard Metcalf at Old Lyme, referring to Metcalf’s most famous painting, a moonlit view of the Griswold House that earned the artist his first national prize. This full-color catalogue contains 16 plates and 55 illustrations exploring the union of Metcalf’s art with his deep knowledge of the natural world. Home to the largest public collection of Metcalf’s work, the Florence Griswold Museum has collaborated with guest curator Bruce W. Chambers to produce this scholarly discussion of the life and work of a highly influential artist.

Clark G. Voorhees (1871-1933) By Barbara J. MacAdam Softcover: 32 pages Publisher: Lyme Historical Society, Florence Griswold Museum (1981) ISBN: 978-1-880897-13-3 Product Size: .187 x 8.5 x 10.5 inches This catalogue was published to accompany an exhibition of the same name at the Florence Griswold Museum (June 13 – August 30, 1981). Clark Voorhees felt a close identification both with Old Lyme and its artist community. Clark G. Voorhees (1871-1933) presents a selection of paintings, drawings, and etchings produced during a career that spans approximately forty years.  The majority are landscape subjects depicting three areas that the artist loved to paint and among which he sought to divide his time: Old Lyme; Lenox, Massachusetts; and Somerset, Bermuda.  Like most American landscapists of this period, Voorhees was strongly influenced by the closely related Barbazon, Tonalist, and Impressionist styles. Features historic photos of Voorhees throughout his life along with 21 black and white images, and 4 full color plates.

The Freedom Business: Connecticut Landscapes Through the Eyes of Venture Smith By Marilyn Nelson Softcover: 32 pages Publisher: Lyme Historical Society (2006) ISBN-10: 1-8808-9723-7 ISBN-13: 978-1-8808-9723-2 Product Size: 0.5 x 9 x 10.5 inches This catalogue tells the true narrative of a slave from Africa, crafted in verse by Marilyn Nelson. Born an African prince, Broteer Furro was captured by slave traders at age six. As he boarded a cargo ship, the vessel's steward purchased the boy and gave him a new name: Venture. He landed in Rhode Island and worked through a lifetime of slavery to buy not only his own freedom, but also the freedom of his wife and children. Remarkable in his own time for his ambition and physical stature, Venture Smith became history's first man to document both his capture from Africa and life as an American slave. This catalogue accompanied a 2006-2007 exhibition of The Freedom Business: Connecticut Landscapes Through the Eyes of Venture Smith at the Florence Griswold Museum. This volume features 14 original poems by Marilyn Nelson paired with Impressionist paintings from the Museum’s collection that retell the remarkable life of Venture Smith.