Art Collection
The Watertown Free Public Library has a rich cultural history. From the founding of the library, artists have donated their works so that many may enjoy their treasures. Solon Whitney, the first librarian, lamented the lack of a space to display art works in the newly built library on Main Street. From his annual report of 1884: “It is a great disappointment to me that there is no room in the new building which can be a kind of museum of works of art.” He went on to say that he would find places to display the art works as best as he could. Again in 1885, he mentions the lack of space, and makes a case for the purchase of display cases for special collections.
Over 100 years later, we remain committed to Whitney's vision of maintaining and displaying a permanent art collection at the Watertown Free Public Library. These treasures add to the quality of life of the citizens of Watertown and we feel an obligation to publicize and promote them. We hope you take some time to explore our collection by browsing the photographs below and discovering artwork on display throughout the library.
The art works included on this website were researched fully by Ellen Wendruff. Ellen wrote the explanatory text for each work and Scott Levine photographed the artworks.
Donate Artwork to WFPL
If you are interested in donating artwork to the Library, please review our Art Collection Donation Protocol, then send an email to wfplinfo@watertown-ma.gov.
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White Peonies | Ellen Robbins
Watercolor, 1887 | Purchased by subscription, 1888 | 23 1/4” x 35 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Periodicals Room | Ellen Robbins, born in Watertown in 1828, was a recognized watercolorist noted for her exquisite watercolor paintings of fall leaves and wildflowers. Ellen Robbins’ Watertown home on Pleasant Street faced the banks of the Charles River where she would often go with her life-long artist friend Harriet Hosmer to observe nature, especially native wild flowers. These would become a central focus for her art.
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Fall Foliage in a Vase | Ellen Robbins
Watercolor, 1888 | Gift to Library, 1976 | 19 1/2” X 23 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Periodicals Room | Ellen Robbins’ artistic passion coupled with her love of wild flowers can be summed up best through her own words... How plainly I see that wild road, with its trench of water in little pools, while here and there was the snake root with its dusky purplish bell, green outside, drooping its head between the two heart-shaped leaves. It was here we found the dogtooth violet and all the other violets, and the beautiful guelder rose...and the gold thread...whose starry flowers I had never seen. These and many more were the subjects for my pictures. Excerpted from: Robbins, Ellen, “Reminiscences of a Flower Painter,” New England Magazine, 1896.
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Chrysanthemums | Ellen Robbins
Watercolor, 1887 | Gift of the artist, 1888 | 23 3/4” X 34 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Periodicals Room | Robbins studied under Henry T. Tuckerman, (Book of the Artists, 1867, author), at the New England School of Design in Boston. Here she met the sculptor, Margaret Foley, who recognized her ability and helped her gain access to a Boston art gallery where she began to sell her work. As Robbins gained recognition for her artwork and began to teach painting, her local artistic acclaim enabled her to establish three art studios in Boston.
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Goethe | Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Marble medallion, ca. 1849 | 31/2” diameter | Gift of Harriet Hosmer Carr, 1952 | Location: Hosmer display case | As a young woman, Harriet Hosmer set up a studio in her Watertown home and studied drawing and modeling from Peter Stephenson, a Boston sculptor. During this time, Hosmer produced a small marble portrait medallion of German writer Goethe. Set in a wood frame, it is thought to be her earliest marble piece and is considered her very first work.
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Wayman Crow | Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Plaster bust, ca. 1866 | Gift of Mr. Lovell Thompson, 1974 | 4 1/2” high | Location: 2nd floor hallway outside of Periodicals Room | Wayman Crow was an art collector and State Senator from Missouri as well as a valuable friend and patron of Harriet Hosmer. He was also the father of one of Hosmer’s schoolmates in Missouri where she studied anatomy. The medium of this work, plaster, is noteworthy in that plaster models were often transferred to bronze or marble, then discarded. This sculpture is Hosmer’s only known plaster work still in existence.
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Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra | Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Marble bust, 1859 | Gift of Harriet Hosmer Carr, 1923 | 18” high | Location: Local History Room | The marble bust of Zenobia is a smaller version of Hosmer’s most famous work, Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, which stands as a full-length, seven foot high marble statue. Queen Zenobia, an ambitious and extremely well-educated woman of her time, assumed control of Egypt and a large portion of Asia Minor (present- day Asian Turkey) when her husband King Odenathus was assassinated.
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Puck | Harriet Hosmer
Marble, 1856 | Gift of Rev. Joseph L. Curran, in memory of Katherine M. Bell, 1992 | 30” high | Location: Local History Room | Created in Gibson’s studio, Puck was a small-scale “fancy piece” which possessed much viewer appeal. Puck may have been inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream since Shakespeare’s plays were popular then in America, as well as England. Puck remains Hosmer’s most popular work and many replicas were made.
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Will-O-The-Wisp | Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Marble, ca. 1858 | Gift of Watertown Library Trustees and friends, 1992 | 32” high (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | After the creation of Puck, Hosmer had little trouble finding a market for her artwork and her economic footing became secure. She began producing companion pieces for some of her statues sought after by Victorians who often chose to adorn both sides of a door with a statue. The Will-o’-the Wisp was created as one such companion piece to her Puck sculpture. Hosmer only created three or four Will-o’-the Wisps and Watertown Library’s statue is distinguished by the presence of a bird (owl) perched atop its head.
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Hesper | Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Marble bust, 1852 | Gift of Mrs. Mary Emerson Mead, 1913 (in memory of her husband Dr. Julian Mead, a Library Trustee for 23 years) | 24” high | Location: Local History Room | Upon returning to Watertown from her studies in Missouri, Hosmer began to sculpt the marble bust of Hesper, a personification of the Evening Star in Greek mythology. Hesper is life-size and is Hosmer’s first work produced in the neoclassical style. Hesper is considered to be Hosmer’s first major artwork in marble and reflects an interest in mythological subjects popular among neoclassical sculptors.
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Lady Constance Talbot | Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Marble medallion, 1857 | Gift of Harriet Hosmer Carr, 1923 | 15 1/2” diameter | Location: Periodicals Room | During the period in Hosmer’s career spent studying and working in Rome, she attracted friends with little difficulty. Some were members of the British nobility with whom she would spend summer vacations in England. Lady Constance Talbot depicts an aristocratic associate of Hosmer’s. The marble portrait medallion is sculpted in bas-relief.
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John Gibson | Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Marble medallion, ca. 1866 | Gift of Harriet Hosmer Carr, 1923 | 11 1/2” diameter | Location: Periodicals Room | The marble portrait medallion was sculpted by Harriet Hosmer in tribute to her teacher, John Gibson. Gibson was the most significant British neoclassical sculptor working in Rome in the mid- 1800s. In 1852, he generously offered Hosmer space in his studio and she became his devoted pupil. Created as a tribute to Gibson after his death, the medallion was sculpted in bas-relief, a popular neoclassical form of sculpture in which figures are projected slightly outward from the surrounding flat surface.
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Ideal Feminine Italian Head | Margaret Foley
Marble medallion, 1875 | Gift of A.L. Richards & the artist’s brother | 19 1/2” diameter | Location: Periodicals Room | Born in Vermont, Foley moved to Boston in 1848 and there learned to carve cameos. As she advanced in this area, she was able to support herself by carving portraits and ideal heads. However, Foley aspired to work in Rome. Margaret Foley’s white marble medallion of an ideal feminine Italian head is sculpted in bas-relief. This carving illustrates one example of neoclassical sculpture where the concept of ideal beauty, derived from Ancient Greek portraiture, takes precedence over an individual’s actual characteristics.
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John Keats | Anne Whitney
Plaster bust, 1873 | Gift of Mr. Whitney, the artist’s brother, 1906 | 24” high | Location: Local History Room | Anne Whitney, a sculptor and descendant of early Watertown settlers of 1635, was born in Watertown in 1821. She is considered to be one of the distinguished women sculptors of the 19th century, much of whose art reflects her lifelong interest in the problems of social injustice. Whitney was largely a self-taught artist who began her career as a poet until she turned to sculpture in her thirties. This John Keats sculpture is an example of 19th century neoclassical sculpture. Literary figures (including English Romantic poets such as Keats) served as one source of inspiration for artists working in the neoclassical idiom.
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Charles Sumner | Anne Whitney
Plaster model, 1875 | Gift of Mr. Whitney, the artist’s brother, 1889 | 29 1/2” high | Location: Periodicals Room | Not long after the death of Charles Sumner, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, there was a national competition to create a memorial statue. All artists were required to anonymously submit 2 ft. high models. Anne Whitney’s model won the contest (1875), but when the Victorian era judges realized the winner was female, they overturned their decision. Not until 24 years later did Whitney finally begin to create the finished statue from this plaster model. Today, the finished statue sits in Harvard Square on Massachusetts Avenue near Harvard Yard and the First Parish Church in Cambridge.
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Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream | Anne Whitney
Plaster model, 1897 | On loan from the Watertown Historical Society | 31” high | Location: Periodicals Room | Anne Whitney created this plaster model as a rough draft for a fountain. Depicted in the spirit of Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an Elizabethan figure - Shakespeare himself - is seen sitting on a wall accompanied by Bottom, a character from the play, who is minimally sculpted in bas-relief. Also represented are lines of verse adapted from Ben Jonson, as well as a lion’s head protruding from the wall’s opposite side. Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, along with Whitney’s Charles Sumner model are unique in that they exist as the artist’s original plaster casts.
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Solon F. Whitney | James H. Rattigan
Oil painting, 1912 | 29 1/2” X 24 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | James H. Rattigan, a portrait painter born in Ireland,was a resident of Watertown most of his life where he attended public schools. He studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, under American Impressionist painters - Frank W. Benson and Edmund C. Tarbell. The portrait is of Solon F. Whitney, Watertown Library’s first Librarian, who retained this position for 49 years (from 1868-1917). Solon Whitney was also one of the original members of the Watertown Historical Society. This work reflects one of James Rattigan’s chosen genres - portrait painting, through which, along with church mural painting, he achieved prominence as an artist.
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Rev. Convers Francis | Frances Alexander
Oil Painting, 19th Century | 28 3/4” X 23 3/4” (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | This portrait represents the Reverend Convers Francis (1795-1863). An educator, as well as clergyman, he was Watertown’s last town-supported pastor, serving from 1819-1842. During his tenure the congregation chose Unitarianism. By 1833, the Massachusetts General Court required the complete separation of church and state and Convers Francis led Watertown peacefully through this period. The painting may possibly be attributed to internationally known artist, Francis Alexander (1800-ca.1880), some of whose works are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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Horatio Hollis Hunnewell | Ernest Ipsen
Oil painting, 1905 | Commissioned by the Watertown Library Trustees, 1905 | 47 1/2” X 36 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Reference Department, behind the Reference Desk | Ernest Ipsen, a portrait painter, was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1869. Ipsen was commissioned by the Watertown Library Trustees to paint this portrait of Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, a major benefactor of the Library, in recognition of his contribution of a library wing known as the Hunnewell Room. In 1898, Hunnewell offered to build this wing in memory of his own father, Dr. Walter Hunnewell, a noted Watertown physician for approximately sixty years.
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Rev. John Weiss | H. Adelaide Coolidge
Charcoal, 1889 | Gift of J. Coolidge, 1890 | 21 3/4” X 16” (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | H. Adelaide Coolidge’s portrait of the Reverend John Weiss reveals an individual who assumed a significant role in the founding of Watertown’s first “free public library” which opened in the Town Hall of 1869. The first Chairman of the Library Board of Trustees, John Weiss, an anti-slavery advocate, served as pastor of the First Parish (Unitarian Church) in Watertown from 1843-1847 and 1862-1869.
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Joshua Coolidge | H. Adelaide Coolidge
Charcoal, 1888 | Gift of the artist, 1890 | 21 3/4” X 16” (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | Joshua Coolidge, 1813-1908, was a grandson of Watertown patriot Joshua Coolidge. He was a member of the original ten member Board of Library Trustees, who along with two others, including Charles J. Barry, founded the Watertown Savings Bank, the town’s oldest bank.
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Dr. Julian A. Mead | Mary Rosamond Coolidge
Oil painting, date unknown | Gift of Mr. Warren Wright, Julian Mead’s nephew, 1925 | 24 1/2” X 19 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | Mary Rosamond Coolidge, a widely recognized and acclaimed portrait painter, was born in Watertown in 1884. A daughter of Watertown Library Trustee Joshua Coolidge, she lived on Belmont Street in the family home. Though known for her portraits in oil and pastels and her still lifes, she also painted landscapes. Dr. Julian A. Mead was a well-regarded Watertown physician who was active in civic affairs, having served as Town Selectman and Watertown Library Trustee from 1891-1913.
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George Washington | William Matthew Prior
Oil painting (on canvas),1850 | Gift of Matthew Prior, the artist’s son, 1940 | 28 3/4” X 24” (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | William Matthew Prior, a 19th century New England Primitive painter, was born in Bath, Maine. An itinerant painter before finally settling in Boston in 1841, he set up a portrait studio there with his wife and brothers. Known in part for his landscapes and large portraits in oil, he also produced portrait paintings on glass (including several of George Washington) in addition to painting with tempera on artist’s board.
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Charles J. Barry | Emma McLaughlin
Charcoal, 1888 | Gift of Mrs. Barry, 1889 | 26 1/2” X 19 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Local History Room | This portrait represents Charles J. Barry, one of the original ten Library Trustees, elected in 1868, to serve the town’s first “free public library” which opened to the public in the Town Hall of 1869. An innovative businessman who was active in civic affairs, Barry served on the Board until 1883. When the Library outgrew its Town Hall quarters, Barry was among the donors who contributed funds toward a new building (1884). Charles Barry helped found a local savings bank after the Civil War and became its first president. Still in existence today, the Watertown Savings Bank is the oldest bank in Watertown.
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Harriet Hosmer | Artist Unknown
Charcoal or pencil, ca. 1850 | Gift of Harriet Hosmer Carr, 1923 | 22” X 17” oval | Location: Local History Room | “Although this portrait is believed to have been executed about 1850, the costume suggests that the portrait might have been done after Hosmer went to Rome. It is not unlike sketches done of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John Gibson by Field Talfourd in 1859.” Excerpted from: Dolly Sherwood’s Harriet Hosmer, American Sculptor, 1830-1908, p. 57
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Deacon Simon Stone Homestead | Josephine M. Stone
Oil painting, 19th C. | On permanent loan from the Stone Family Association | 15 1/2” X 19 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Periodicals Room | This painting of the Stone farmhouse represents the ancestral dwelling of the Deacon Simon Stone and his family who migrated from England in 1635 to settle in East Watertown. A working family farm for seven generations, it began on 71 acres and increased through additional family purchases to about 150 acres.
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Watertown Library 1885 | Kathleen Desmond Devaney
Oil painting | Gift of the artist, ca. early 1980s | 15 3/4” X 19 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Reference Department, near the public computers | Kathleen Desmond Devaney, born at the turn of the century in Newton, has lived in Watertown most of her life. She embarked upon a painting career later in life in her 70s after having gained an extremely positive experience from a painting class at the Watertown Library. From here, she went on to study painting and to become a locally known artist. Her subjects comprise mostly portraits, along with still lifes and landscapes. Though Devaney has painted in various media, she prefers oils to express her artistic vision.
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Boothbay Harbor | Joseph Santoro
Watercolor | Gift of the artist,1985 | 20” X 29” (approx.) | Location: Reference Department | Joseph Santoro, an internationally known contemporary watercolorist, was originally from Cambridge. He served on the art faculty of the Cambridge public schools for 38 years in addition to teaching at various art colleges. Santoro also lived and worked in Watertown for over 40 years where he contributed his special skills to local art community. Joseph Santoro’s works are part of the permanent collections of various museums such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln; and the Peabody Museum, Salem. Santoro’s honors include induction into the National Academy.
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From the River | Lisa B. Tiemann
Stained glass window, 1994 | Grant funded | 4 ft. X 8 ft. | Location: Children’s Room | Commissioned by the Watertown Library, stained glass artist Lisa Tiemann created this four-paneled stained glass window to embody the historical essence of the Charles River as it flows through Watertown. The artist drew her inspiration from countless walks along its banks, observing the present, while envisioning the past.
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Two Terra Cotta Fireplaces | Henry S. Hunnewell and George Russell Shaw
Terra Cotta, 1883 | 37 ft. X 5 ft. (approx.) | Location: Periodicals Room | The Library’s twin terra cotta fireplaces were, according to research by Nancy K. Jones, produced by the former Boston Terra Cotta Company, (established in 1880), and designed by architects Shaw and Hunnewell. These attractive russet colored fireplaces appear to be neither painted nor glazed and were installed in the Library’s original building of 1884. Their highly ornamental style appealed to Victorians of this era.
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Untitled | Kathleen Desmond Devaney
Oil painting | Gift of the artist, ca. 1990-91 | 29 1/2” X 23 1/2” (approx.) | Location: Circulation Department | Kathleen Desmond Devaney, born at the turn of the century in Newton, has lived in Watertown most of her life. She embarked upon a painting career later in life in her 70s after having gained an extremely positive experience from a painting class at the Watertown Library. From here, she went on to study painting and to become a locally known artist. Her subjects comprise mostly portraits, along with still lifes and landscapes. Though Devaney has painted in various media, she prefers oils to express her artistic vision.
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Fahrenheit 451 Revisited | Ruth T. Segaloff
Found Objects, 2016 | Donated by artist, 2019 | Location: Reference Department | “Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953. In Bradbury’s book, a demagogue declares books illegal, and firefighters become burn squads... What better place than a library for this artwork? In our deeply divided world, libraries remain places containing diverse opinions through book collections and media, and in community meetings which encourage discussion & debate. Here at the Watertown Free Public Library, at the very least, we can begin the conversation.” Excerpted from Ruth T. Segaloff artist statement, 2019.
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City Reds and Blue | Suzanne Hodes
Painting | Donated by artist, 2019 | Location: Reference Department | Suzanne Hodes grew up in New York City and lived in Waltham, MA, for over 50 years where she helped found the Waltham Mills Artist Association. After time at the Radcliffe Institute, Hodes completed her graduate thesis at Columbia University, “The Comparison of Form and Structure in the Paintings of Vermeer and Mondrian.” Her career spans mediums and styles, heavily influenced by abstract expressionism and an interest in urban environments and memory. Her artwork can be found in numerous public and private collections around the world, including the MoMA in New York, the Harvard Art Museums, the Rose Museum, and DeCordova Museum.