Hallowell Mural

by Chris Cart | American

Category: content-midright

  • Stevens School

    Stevens School

    Lillian Ames Stevens

    The Maine Industrial School for Girls or the State School for Girls in Hallowell became commonly called the Stevens School after Lillian Ames Stevens who was a staunch supporter of the school and one of the first 5 trustees in 1885. The school functioned from 1875 to 1920.

    While by today’s standards the treatment of the girls might be considered harsh, at the time of its creation the school was considered progressive in its kindness to “wayward girls”.

    The stated purpose of the school:

    “. . .designed as a refuge for girls between the ages of seven and fifteen years, who, by force of circumstances or associations, are in manifest danger of becoming outcasts of society. It is not a place of punishment, to which its inmates are sent as criminals by criminal process– but a home for the friendless, neglected and vagrant children of the State, where under the genial influences of kind treatment and physical and moral training, they may be won back to ways of virtue and respectability, and fitted for positions of honorable self support and lives of usefulness.”

    the little bronze “water girl” as she is know was originally given in honor of Lillian Ames Stevens. I visually quote it here as a way to remember Stevens part in what we now call Stevens Commons in Hallowell.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Stevens Commons

    The various brick buildings of Stevens Commons were once part of the Maine Industrial School for Girls or Stevens School and the entire campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

    The old brick buildings of the original campus have now been beautifully restored by Mastway Development, LLC of Winthrop, Maine and are currently used by local business and dormitories for students of University of Maine, Augusta.

    photo circa 1920 from Maine Memory Netowrk.
  • Ian Parker Foundation

    Ian Parker Foundation

    an old soul

    The Ian Parker Foundation was set up in memory of much beloved Hallowell musician Ian Parker.

    The Ian Parker Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation and gifts to it are fully tax deductible. The Foundation supports local live music, musicians and music students.

    The Ian Parker Foundation gave a generous grant to support the mural.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Ian William Parker (Oct. 5, 1983-Feb. 28, 2011)at his home in Machias. He was a musician, beginning his career performing as a solo artist throughout the state of Maine, and was an integral vocalist/ guitarist in various bands including the popular bands “Rumble Strip” and “The Returnables.” Ian was also a recording session musician and played on recordings for numerous talented Maine artists.

  • good trouble X

    good trouble X

    heading

    a bit of text about the section of the mural…

    Many important things happened while I was painting the mural—the BLM movement, the murder of George Floyd, and the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the death of Congressman John Lewis.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Nora Winslow Keene

    I’m Nora, a dedicated public interest attorney based in Denver. I’m a graduate of Stanford University.

    Woman on beach, splashing water.
  • Woman’s Suffrage X

    Woman’s Suffrage X

  • 1832 Petition X

    1832 Petition X

    heading

    a bit of text about the section of the mural…

    This is a quote from the artist.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Nora Winslow Keene

    I’m Nora, a dedicated public interest attorney based in Denver. I’m a graduate of Stanford University.

    Woman on beach, splashing water.
  • Sam Webber, historian

    Sam Webber, historian

    historian, teacher

    Hallowell, Maine resident and City Historian, Sumner “Sam” Webber 

    Sam, was no end of help for the mural content. I could not have done this mural without him.

    artist, Chris Cart
  • festivals X

    festivals X

    Old Hallowell Day

    Hallowell is hosts many festivals throughout its year. Old Hallowell Day is the big annual festival that happens every year in mid July.

    October Fest, Festival of Scarecrows, Mardis Gras, Zombie Crawl every Hallowe’en, some come here for a few years and move on—the Luthier Festival, Grantine Symposium—and some are seemingly permanent fixtures in our calendar.

    This is Maggie Warren with her parasol. I needed a bit of color in front of the big granite head. At the 2019 Hallowell Woodstock Revival I sketched Maggie with her tie dyed dress and parasol and k new she was the perfect bit of color to be sitting up on the scaffolding in front of the Faith Statue. Maggie was at the original Woodstock Festival in NY.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Woodstock Revival

    Hallowell boasts several people who were at the original Woodstock Festival.

    Hallweool Hexen…

    Cary Colwell

    Bruce Mayo…

    2015 Hallowell Woodstock Revival Poster by Chris Cart
  • National Monument to the Forefathers

    National Monument to the Forefathers

    Faith, 36 foot sculpture

    The National Monument to the Forefathers, formerly known as the Pilgrim Monument, commemorates the Mayflower Pilgrims. Dedicated on August 1, 1889, it honors their ideals as later generally embraced by the United States. It is thought to be the nation’s largest solid granite monument.

    Carved of local granite in Hallowell in the site of the current Camden National Bank

    The “Faith” statue, modelled after the sculptor Hammatt Billings’ mother, stands atop a 45 foot pedestal and ringed by 4 additional figurative sculptures.

    This sculpture was central to the early sketched of the mural.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Carved in Hallowell

    Located at 72 Allerton Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the 81-foot-tall (25 m) monument was commissioned by the Pilgrim Society. The 36 foot solid granite Faith stands on a 45 foot granite pedestal. The original concept dates to around 1820, with actual planning beginning in 1850. The cornerstone was laid August 2, 1859 by the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, under the direction of Grand Master John T. Heard. The monument was completed in October 1888, and was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on August 1, 1889.

    Photo by By T.S. Custadio aka ToddC4176 at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Kelly using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16091399

    Hallowell stonecutters, Hallowell Granite

    Statuary cutter Joseph Archie stands on Faith’s outstretched arm. He was the primary cutter and Italian immigrant, Prostasio Neri, supervised the carving of base statues Morality, Education, Law and Liberty. Although the statue appears solid, it was carved in sections and most likely transported to Plymouth in one of the two large ships owned by the Hallowell Granite Works.

    The photo was taken in the cutting yard on Franklin Street and the one-time steeple of the Baptist church can be seen in the background.

    Creating the granite texture in this large sculpture and the other granite elements in the mural design took a lot of work layering close colors and splattering fine paint drips. Any simpler rolled or brushed texture technique ended up looking like concrete rather than Hallowell’s elegant white granite.

    …a lot of work but I think worth it.

    artist, Chris Cart

    local heritage

    Tony Masciadri, shown on the right with the heavy hammer is the owner of Masciadri Monuments in Hallowell. Tony is the direct descendant of some of Hallowell’s original stone carvers from Italy. The family stone carving business was passed from grandfather to father to Tony, who has spent his life carving granite in Hallowell.

    Jon Doody, on the left, is a local stone sculptor who carved the granite sturgeon that can be seen today in Granite City Park in Hallowell.

    Jon Doody on left with mallet and chisel, Tony Masciadri on right with heavy stone hammer.
    Settimo Masciadri is fifth from the left in the back row.
  • Martha Ballard

    Martha Ballard

    midwife and healer

    Martha Ballard (February 9, 1735 – June 9, 1812) was a midwife and healer in early Hallowell .  Born in colonial Massachusetts, not much is known of her early life but at age 50 she began keeping a diary of her midwifery and healing efforts in the Hallowell/Augusta area.

    With thousands of entries over the 27 years she kept a diary, Ballard writes of delivering 816 babies and being present at more than 1,000 births—amazing when you think the entire population of Hallowell in 1790 was 1194 and the end of her life was only just over 3800. Ballard must have delivered or attended births in most families of the time. 

    Behind Ballard in the mural I included a small writing desk with oil lamp, quill pen and paper to commemorate her writings in her diary, which give us a detailed insight into the daily life of the early nation.

    artist, Chris Cart

    In her diary, Ballard also made note of the daily happenings of her patients, their health, sometimes the weather. It is a great resource for minutia of the day to day lives of 18th century Hallowell people.

    local descendant

    The older woman in the glasses is Alice Ballard Buck, a local resident who was a direct descendant of Martha Ballard.

    I wanted to have Alice helping her ancestor Martha Ballard with the delivery in this birthing scene. When I asked Alice if she would mind my including her, her whole face lit up—the biggest smile you can imagine.

    artist, Chris Cart

    For further reading Ballard’s diary is a fascinating read, The Diary of Martha Ballard 1785-1812, as is A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, based on Ballard’s diary. Both available at libraries and bookstores.

    developing an idea

    I worked a lot in the early sketches of this scene with Martha Ballard. I wanted to show the drama and importance of the days of her life. The crescent shaped space next to the river was challenging to depict the birth scene.

    I painted both Martha Ballard and Benjamin Vaughan in the top center of the mural, opposite each other. This placement was no accident. I felt they both represented different, yet essential aspects of the early life in Hallowell on the wild shores of the Kennebec. Vaughan brought his wealth, his vast library and his associations with the important minds of the time. Ballard’s life was no less important to the daily life with her knowledge of healing, herbal medicines and vast experience as a midwife. Her diary gives us a window into the daily life with all its joy, grief and the neighborly gestures of community.

    artist, Chris Cart

    history of the diary

    Ballard’s diary was more than 1400 pages long, some early entries very short but in her later years her writings became longer and more detailed.

    The last entry, dated May 7th, 1812, a month before her death, ends with the words: “Revd mr Tippin Came and Converst Swetly and made A Prayer adapted to my Case.”

    After her death the diary was kept by the Lambard family for 2 generations, when Sarah and Hannah Lambard gifted the diary to Martha Ballard’s great-great-granddaughter Mary Hobart.

    Mary Hobart was one of the first female physicians to be graduated from the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1884. This was the year she was given her ancestor’s diary.

    In 1930 Hobart donated the diary to the Maine State Library, in Augusta, Maine. The diary was referenced in a history of the area in 1961.

    Robert R. McCausland and Cynthia MacAlman McCausland spent ten years transcribing the handwritten diary.

    Historian  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, seeing the importance of Ballard’s diary as a record of the day to day life of early America, spent 8 years working with the diary. She published A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard in 1989. The book received much acclaim:

    In 1991, A Midwife’s Tale received the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the John H. Dunning Prize, the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women’s History, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize, the Society for Historians of the Early Republic Book Prize, the William Henry Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the New England Historical Association Award.

    In 1997, the PBS series The American Experience aired A Midwife’s Tale a movie documentary based on Martha Ballard’s life and diary and Ulrich’s book.

    Hallowell’s official Historian Sam Webber was a consultant for the movie.

    early study of historian Sam Webber for the mural.
  • Hallowell Academies

    Hallowell Academies

    An educated youth

    Education for the children was important to the early settlers of Hallowell, Maine. The first Academy was founded on August 31, 1791 in an Act signed by Governor Hancock. This academy was very successful teaching students from the Hallowell, Augusta and Gardiner region.

    “Here I show a youth running with school books to symbolize the enthusiasm for education.

    The model was a young kid I saw running on Front Street one day. I asked him to run back and forth while I took photos . Great kid. I neglected to write down his name. “ ~ Chris Cart

    In the 1800’s The Hallowell Lyceum, a debating forum for education and entertainment, met at the old Hallowell Town House, the building on Second Street and Perley’s Lane, which later became the Hallowell Fire Department. At the lyceum debating “club” youths were expected to debate the important matters of the day.

    Hallowell’s ship-owning merchants, wanting capable officers and crews, established a Navigation School at the Academy to teach advanced mathematics to boys who wished to pursue careers at sea.

    a classical education

    The Classical and Scientific Academy was chartered in 1872 to teach youth of both sexes. It was a high school level boarding as well as day school. Its board of trustees and management, some of them clergymen, were affiliated with the Congregational denomination in Maine. Hallowell secondary level students attended day school.