The Cornish Colony Museum is run by the Cornish Colony Museum Foundation and was established to display and promote the acclaimed artists, sculptors and writers who lived in New Hampshire and Vermont, either side of the Connecticut River. The museum is housed in the historic brick old firehouse with its distinct five arched entrances.
The Cornish Colony is seen as being instrumental in contributing to American art and culture at the turn of the 20th century. It takes its name from the town of Cornish, one of three towns, including Plainfield and Windsor, that were the focus for this gathering of artists. The Museum exhibits include the watercolors, oils and lithographs of Maxfield Parrish, one of the prominent members of the Colony. Parrish became a children's book illustrator and following his success illustrating Mother Goose in Prose and Washington Irving's Knickerbocker History of New York, he later found fame for his illustrations in Louise Saunder's Knave of Hearts. The Museum has also hosted a rare exhibition in oils of Parrish's teacher, his father Stephen Parrish.
The museum has recently honored the 100th anniversary of the death of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of the Colony's most renowned artists and accredited with being its founder. The exhibition features original pieces of artists who joined Saint-Gaudens and formed the Colony, including Thomas Dewing, Herbert Adams, Frances Grimes and Chester French. The exhibition also features the Diana of the Tower sculpture which was originally created by Saint-Gaudens for Madison Square Garden and commissioned by architect Stanford White.
