Hearthside - The House That Love Built

MAJOR ART EXHIBIT FEATURING 20TH CENTURY PRINTS OF HEARTHSIDE TO BE HELD THIS SUMMER

Friends of Hearthside has received a grant which will allow for our very first major art exhibit. The exhibit will feature the hand-tinted photographs of Hearthside done by David Davidson and Rufus Waterman around 1910-1912. The exhibit, entitled "Color & Light: Early 20th Century Portraits of Hearthside," will open on June 22nd and run through July 29th. A $15,000 grant has been awarded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities to make this exhibit possible.

An Early Arrival "An Early Arrival" by David Davidson is just one of the many prints done of Hearthside around 1910. Davidson took black and white photos and then the color was added in after the photo was developed.

The grant will provide funds for the conservation,framing and installation of the 50 original prints which were discovered and donated by Bill Talbot, grandson of Arnold and Katharine Talbot who owned Hearthside at the time the photographs were taken. The prints had been stored in a box since the time they were taken and are in excellent condition, with vivid detailing and coloring as if they had just been completed. Funds will also provide for developing a display system so that the prints may be displayed without damaging any wall surfaces and be well lit. Advising us on this project is Jan Howard, curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs at the RISD Museum.

A series of openings and special events will be held throughout the course of the exhibit, making it possible for antique lovers, photography enthusiasts, historians and vacationers to come discover Hearthside.

David Davidson was from Providence and he became so skilled at hand-tinted photography that he was considered one of the top photographers in the country at that time, along with Wallace Nutting, who happened to be his friend and mentor. Making the event even more special is that Davidson's family is now working with us to enhance the exhibit with his cameras and several other artifacts.

At the time that Davidson took these photos at Hearthside, Arnold G. Talbot was running a nationally-renowned handweaving business at his home, known as the "Hearthside Looms." In fact, it was because of his business that "Hearthside" got its name that has endured through the years. Mrs. Talbot is even pictured in one of the Davidson prints. With these early photographs, we are getting a glimpse of how Hearthside was decorated back then and is providing us with a whole new vision for interpreting the house in the future. The first is to transform the attic space back to the way it was when the looms filled those rooms during the early part of the 20th century, which will become part of our regular tours of the house. This exhibit is expected to be completed in time for the art exhibit.

Hearthside Attic The third-floor attic space is being transformed into an exhibit about the Hearthside Looms.

The Humanities grant follows an earlier grant we received last year from Historic New England. With that grant we were able to get these photographs digitized so that the images may be preserved for the next 100 years or more.

Announcements of the opening times for Color & Light and dates of special events will be posted with the release of the 2012 Schedule of Events in February.

Hearthside Attic"Color & Light" is made possible through major funding support from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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