Recent Acquisitions
By Matthew Powers
The Woodstock History Center has recently acquired seven paintings for its collection. Five of the paintings were donated by one of Woodstock’s benefactors, Mimi Baird. Her donation includes two paintings by Arthur Wilder, one painting by Frederick Wilder, one painting by Ellen Kidder, and a drawing by Irwin Hoffman. We are grateful to Mimi Baird for this generous gift, and we are looking forward to showcasing these paintings, along with others in our collection, in a summer art project. Mimi has also donated two exquisite quilts made by Mary Wentworth Williams (wife of Norman Williams) who lived in a house on the site of the Norman Williams Public Library. The quilts will be highlighted in another article as they deserve their own recognition.
The other paintings recently added to our collection were purchased utilizing monies from our Collections Fund. This fund provides for acquisitions and for the direct care of the collection including conservation and preservation efforts. If you are interested in giving to the Collections Fund and helping us build and directly care for our collections, please contact Matthew Powers, Executive Director at 457-1822 or director@woodstockhistorycenter.org.
The two acquired paintings were created by Mark E. Slayton. Slayton was the son of Thomas Jefferson and Lucy (Hayes) Slayton of South Woodstock. As a younger man, he studied at the District School and the Green Mountain Perkins Academy. He married Mary Jane “Jennie” Parkhurst, daughter of Nathaniel Parkhurst, in 1867. They had four daughters and a son. Mark Slayton also had siblings in the local area; his brother Edwin H. Slayton was probably the property developer for whom Slayton Terrace in Woodstock was named. There were two homes attributed to the family, one on College Hill and the other at the end of Slayton Terrace. It is unknown at this time which house Mark and Lucy lived in. Mark was a member of the Lakota Club, member of the Woodstock Cornet Band, and was well known locally as an amateur artist with an interest in landscapes. He was also in the house painting business in Woodstock with John Angell on Central Street. He later bought out Seth Churchill’s business, and went into partnership with Owen T. Marsh, with whom he was associated from 1863-1881. Marsh looked after the business while Slayton served in the Civil War as a volunteer in Co. B, 12th Vermont Volunteers.
From 1881-1903, Slayton lived in Malden, Massachusetts, where he worked for the Valentine Varnish Company as a traveling salesman. He retained a residence in Woodstock as well. Slayton showed his work in exhibitions at the Windsor County Fair from about 1879-1897. He also had a show in 1901 at E. F. Merrill’s Drug Store in Woodstock.
Photograph of the locomotive A. G. Dewey with ornamentation painted by Mark E. Slayton of the firm Marsh & Slayton. ©Woodstock History Center. Slayton was noted for his “skill and taste in ornamental work.” The Vermont Standard, Woodstock, Vermont, May 25, 1876
Untitled. Arthur Wilder. 1884. ©Woodstock History Center. Donated by Mimi Baird. This painting shows a view from the gardens behind the Lightbourne-Kidder House looking towards the Dana House and the back of the Standard Block on Elm Street. Arthur Wilder had moved to Woodstock around the time of this painting and purchased the Eagle Hotel (the hotel before the 1892 Woodstock Inn). After he sold the hotel a few years later, he and wife moved in with the Dana family. His daughter was born in this historic house, now the Woodstock History Center. Arthur later became the manager of the new Woodstock Inn and moved his family to Mountain Avenue.
Mark E. Slayton
Slayton was known for painting signs and other lettering, house painting, carriage and ornamental painting, Vermont scenes, and portraits.
A Good Day for Trout on the Quechee. Oil on canvas. Mark E. Slayton. Circa 1890. ©Woodstock History Center.