Name/Title
Barre AcademyEntry/Object ID
2014.60.1314Description
"Barre Academy," by James Franklin Gilman, 1873. Charcoal and white gauche on brown paper. Depicts building with mansard roof and a smaller. Greek Revival building. Right center-many people clustered around it. The left center shows a large gabled house or top of a hill. There is a road which runs betwee the rwo buildings, several horses and carriages on the road.Type of Drawing
CharcoalArtwork Details
Medium
Charcoal, Gouache, PaperSubject
Barre AcademySubject Place
City
Barre CityCounty
Washington CountyState/Province
VermontCountry
United States of AmericaContinent
North AmericaContext
This drawing by itinerant artist James Gilman depicts the Barre Academy (1852-1885) and boarding house. This private school was removed from the site to make way for Spaulding Graded School, the city's new public school, which opened in 1892. The new graded school was named after Jacob Spaulding (1811-1880), the longtime principal of Barre Academy. Spaulding Graded school became Spaulding High School and later middle school - ultimately closing in 1995. It's now the home of the Vermont History Center. Spaulding Graded School was built on the site of the boarding house seen to the right composition and the academy site is now the front lawn and approach to the institution.
James Franklin Gilman was born in 1850 in Woburn, Massachusetts to John and Elizabeth Gilman. His father was a cordwainer and his mother a seamstress. Early census records indicate his mother was born in Vermont. Little is known of his early life or education.
By the late 1860s he evidently made his living as an itinerant artist, often depicting the farm landscape and/or portraits of those providing him with room and board. Works remain of farms and people in Chelmsford, Groton, and Billerica, MA.
In 1872 he arrived in Barre, Vermont, a tall man with red hair and a distinctive red beard. He spent over twenty years in the general vicinity of Barre, Montpelier, Plainfield, and Calais. Most of the time was spent boarding with various farm families, though he did open a studio and school in Montpelier for a time.
At some point in the late 1880s or early 1890s he joined the Church of Christian Scientists and became acquainted with church found Mary Baker Eddy. He ultimately sold all of his works and the contents of his studio, some say in reaction to a lost love, and moved back to Massachusetts. He famously illustrated a poem entitled "Christ and Christmas" by Eddy.
The last decade of his life was spent in Athol, MA were he lived on the edge of poverty.Acquisition
Accession
2014.60Source or Donor
Barre Historical Society, Inc.Acquisition Method
TransferMade/Created
Artist
Gilman, James Franklin (1850-1929)Date made
1873Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
PrintNomenclature Sub-Class
Graphic DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsDimensions
Height
21 inWidth
30-1/4 inRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Spaulding, Jacob Shedd (1811-1880)