Florence Griswold

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Griswold

Florence Ann Griswold (December 25, 1850 – December 6, 1937) was a resident of Old Lyme, Connecticut, USA who became the nucleus of the "Lyme Art Colony" in the early 20th century. Her home has since been made into the Florence Griswold Museum.

Life and work

Florence Griswold was the youngest daughter of ship captain Robert Harper Griswold. Along with her mother and two sisters, she opened the Griswold Home School for girls in 1878 and taught there for 14 years. Her father, mother, and sister Louise died, leaving Florence and her sister Adele in a precarious financial position. They made ends meet by taking in boarders.

In 1899, artist Henry Ward Ranger, recently returned from Europe and inspired by the example of the French Barbizon artists, rented a room from Griswold (who is still affectionately referred to as 'Miss Florence' in Old Lyme) and encouraged his acquaintances to do likewise. Childe Hassam arrived in 1903; he, in turn, invited Willard Metcalf, who arrived in 1905. Among the women artists who stayed and painted at Miss Florence's were sisters Lydia and Breta Longacre. Many other American Impressionist painters summered at the colony, in Griswold's house, among them Wilson Irvine, who arrived in 1914. Also, Edward Charles Volkert who became known as "America's cattle painter." Ellen Louise Wilson, first wife of president Woodrow Wilson, came as an art student and became friends with Griswold; in 1914 Griswold attended the wedding of Presidential daughter Jessie Sayer Wilson. Many American impressionist paintings of the era are of subjects in and around the Griswold house.

Griswold became the first manager of the Lyme Art Association's gallery when it opened in 1921. Edward Charles Volkert was the first Secretary of the Association.

Florence Griswold Museum / Florence Griswold House http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Griswold_Museum

The Florence Griswold House became the Florence Griswold Museum, exhibiting both art and historical material. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993. In July 2007 the building reopened after a 14-month restoration project.

The museum features a collection of American art and history, including fine art, sculpture, works on paper, artist's studio material, toys and dolls, ceramics, furniture, textiles, decorative arts and historic artifacts, and the Lyme Historical Society archives.

The museum is located at 96 Lyme Street in Old Lyme, CT, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 5, Sunday from 1 to 5.

source: Wikipedia

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The Griswold House, originally the William Noyes House, was designed and built by Samuel Belcher (1779-1849) of Hartford. It was one of the largest houses in Old Lyme and was situated towards the north end of the village. Late Georgian in style, the house featured four imposing columns with ionic capitals, a grand pediment, fan lights over the door as well as in the pediment, and wooden quoins in the corners of the main building. It was one of three buildings in Old Lyme built by Belcher. He also designed the John Sill House (now the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts) and the Lyme Meeting House (now the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme).

The Griswold House is a “very large, commodious, elegant old house [that] is cool in summer, thoroughly warmed in winter, and very pleasantly and delightfully situated in large grounds, on a branch of the Connecticut River, near its mouth.”

~ From the broadside advertising the

Griswold Home School, c. 1885

From Mansion to Museum

The house changed owners and uses several time over its nearly 200 year history. Originally built for the Noyes Family, it was purchased by the Griswold Family in 1841. During the 1880s, the Griswolds converted some rooms into classrooms and ran a finishing school for girls. By the late 1890s, the family needed money and began renting rooms. By 1910, the wood siding was painted yellow, the trim white with yellow insets, and the shutters a rich green. The Griswold boardinghouse was in operation in varying degrees of occupancy until Miss Florence’s death in 1937. It remained unoccupied during the Second World War in the early 1940s, but opened as a local history museum beginning in the summer of 1947. It housed the collection and exhibitions of the Florence Griswold Museum for the second half of the 20th century.

In the summer of 2006, the first floor of the house was reinterpreted as the boardinghouse for the Lyme Art Colony, circa 1910. The rooms on the second floor are used for a long-term installation that documents the Lyme Art Colony in photographs, artifacts, and paintings.

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the Florence Griswold House. Originally built in 1817 for William Noyes, Jr., a son of Judge William Noyes, the house was designed by Hartford builder Samuel Belcher, who was already at work on Old Lyme’s Congregational Church. In 1839, the house was sold to Richard Ely and in 1841 to the sea captain Robert Griswold. His daughter, Florence Griswold, was born in 1850. “Miss Florence” and her sister Adele inherited the house but, left in a precarious financial position, had to take in borders. In 1899, artist Henry Ward Ranger boarded at the house and soon encouraged other artists to stay there. In the following years, a number of notable American Impressionist painters made the home the center of an artist’s colony. The artists included Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Matilda Browne, William Robinson and many others. Several of the artists painted panels in the house’s dining room.

By the 1930s, Florence Griswold was in debt and her property was sold, although the land’s new owner, Judge Robert McCurdy Marsh, who built a new house, allowed her to live in the old house until her death in 1937. In 1941, the house was purchased by the Florence Griswold Association and opened as a museum in 1947. In recent years, the Florece Griswold Museum has expanded, with the gift of the Hartford Steam Boiler and Inspection Company’s art collection in 2001, the construction of the Krieble Gallery in 2002 and the 2005-2006 restoration of the house, which is furnished as it would have been in 1910 at the height of the art colony.