A Rare Sight

In a previous blog here, I discussed the sketch below by Frederick Church 

and compared it to a photo I took from the same viewpoint. 

I was not familiar with this scene, as it has not been frequently depicted by other artists. 

I checked my go-to resource, whitemountainart.com here. There are thirty-seven artworks on their page for Crawford Notch here compared to over one-hundred paintings and drawings of Chocorua, and Mount Washington on their website.  

I could not find the location from which Church recorded these mountain profiles among the items for Crawford Notch. 

I did find a similar composition of Crawford Notch from a lookout point at the top Mt Willard. However, that spot is over a mile away from the site I located. I try not to be led astray.  

Using those images from Mt. Willard as a guide, I knew it had to be near there but further south looking in a similar southward direction below the gate of the notch. 

I had to search around to find this vantage point and eventually found it. 

Church made a dozen or more sketches in the White Mountains and some of these are now in the collection of Church's home Olana, now a museum in Hudson NY. 

Here are some details for the study. 

Frederic Edwin Church White Mountain Notch (Crawford Notch), NH, July 1850

Pencil, gouache on paper (11 13/16 x 14 7/8 inches)

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation,

Olana accession #249r

2026 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Church and the artist has been celebrated throughout the year at numerous museums with exhibits and special events. FMI see this link here. 

In Victoria Johnson's fabulous new biography of Frederic Church, Glorious Nation, (available at the Conway Public Library) she covers his July 1850 trip to New Hampshire with Regis Gignoux and Richard Hubbard. 

Thanks to the work of White Mountain art collector, researcher and co-author at whitemountainart.com, Benjamin E. Clark, you can find a transcript of an article published in November of that year about this trip here.

Since I posted my blog in July more connections to this view have come to my attention. 

In August 2026 the site was captured by contemporary artist Patricia Sweet as part of a plein art paint group excursion to the White Mountains (more information on this group below). 

This photo is from her Facebook post here. 

FMI see her website here. 

Her finished rendering resulted in this misty and evocative monochromatic image. 

Patricia helped organize and promote the plein air event. The group is known as "PAPA" which stands for "Preserving a Picturesque America." 

To learn about this group, you can see their website here and their Facebook here. 

The banner below was copied from one of their Facebook posts here. 

As you can see, our own local artist, Erik Koeppel is part of the group, seen here with PAPA founder Scott "Doc" Varn. FMI about Erik and his work see his website here. 

As part of their artistic adventure the group developed a guide with 15 "vantage points" based on prints published in the 1872 book Picturesque America. You can read the section on the White Mountains online here, (vol 1, pp. 150-172). 

You can see images from PAPA's guide here.  

Here is the scene from their guide that relates to the view. 

Their booklet shows the original print from the book with a map, a satellite view, GPS coordinates, and other helpful information.  

In the book Picturesque America the print can be found on p. 15 and is entitled "The Willey Slide" 

The text associated with the print was written in the flowery language of the nineteenth century by William Cullen Bryant and can be found on pp. 158-159. 

 

I find it interesting that they do not actually talk about the story of the Willey Slide in the book. You can learn more about that event in my previous blog here. 

At a recent art show in Effingham I was pleasantly surprised to see that not one, but two artists had painted the same view. 

More on this in a future blog. 

A Sketch in Time

This sketch of Crawford Notch by Frederic Church has recently come to my attention. 

The location of the view is easy to identify. 

It can still be seen today from a parking lot at the south end of Saco Lake. 

A Google street view roughly matching the sketch can be seen here.

When comparing the sketch with the photo you need to realize that the opening through the notch for the Saco River, the road and railroad tracks has been widened and reshaped since the sketch was made.

However, even with those changes, the comparison is clear due to the unique and definitive geological formations and the shapes of the mountain profiles such as Mount Willard on the right and Mount Webster with Elephant Head and Bugle Cliff on the left. A Google map of the area with these landmarks can be found here and a state park map with other useful details here. 

In her article, The Gate of the Notch, Catherine Crawford Campbell lists 27 other artists who depicted this scene in sketches, paintings, prints, and photographs.

Thanks to Victoria Johnson we can add Frederic Church to that list. Her fabulous new biography of Church, Glorious Nation, covers his 1850 trip to New Hampshire with Regis Gignoux and Richard Hubbard. 

Church made a dozen or more sketches in the White Mountains and some of these sketches are now in the collection of Church's home Olana, now a museum in Hudson NY. 

Here are the details for the sketch above

Frederic Edwin Church White Mountain Notch (Crawford Notch), NH, July 1850

Pencil, gouache on paper (11 13/16 x 14 7/8 inches)

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation,

Olana accession #249r

2026 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Church and the artist is being celebrated throughout the year at numerous museums with exhibits and special events. FMI see this link here. 

This view of the gate of the notch in Crawford Notch was and continues to be a well-known spot for landscape artists. It has often been mistaken as the spot of the infamous Willey slide of August 28, 1826, two hundred years ago. However, it is not. FMI see my previous blog here. 

While the location for sketch above is well known, the location for another sketch he did has not been frequently depicted by artists and is a little harder to identify immediately.  

However, after looking around a bit, I believe that the view Church sketched from where this parking area is now, just a few miles south of Saco Lake. 

I look forward to working with more of Church's New Hampshire sketches and will post my research in this blog as I do.

Rocks in his Head...

 

... that is what some people say about me

I have to admit it is true. 

Today for example, we stopped by the White Mountain Museum and Gallery in North Conway NH. Among the extensive display of White Mountain art, I was particularly struck by the painting above by Byran Carr. It is a large painting (24" x 30") of Champney Falls along the nearby Kancamagus Highway. The falls themselves are named after local artist Benjamin Champney whose works can also be seen (and purchased) in the gallery. 

I was taken by the color and modeling of the rocks, the amazing patterns of dappled light, the illusion of depth, the depiction of flora, and the animated sense of the water as it drizzles over the stone. 

FMI see this link to the museum and gallery here. 

While I was there, I talked with gallery owner Paul Mayer a lot about rocks, including ochre villages and flumed waterside stone quarries in France, Frederic Church's renowned photographic memory of rock colors and another local artist Erik Koeppel's mountain sculpting glacier painting with a view of Mount Washington, complete with a paleontologically accurate mastodon skeleton and evidence of ancient indigenous life. 

 

The painting is called “Dawn of the Holocene” and depicts his vision of Mt. Washington 12 to 13 thousand years ago when it was emerging from the glacier. On his Facebook page, Koeppel writes that the scene comes from much geological discussion with experts and has an element of moving through time as the viewer moves through space. The painting is 56" x 102."  While this commissioned painting is now in a private collection, you can view and purchase Erik's work at the gallery. You can learn more about Erik and his work through his website here. 

We also went to an exhibit opening at the Bartlett NH Historical Society which commemorates the 200th anniversary of the infamous Willey slide in nearby Crawford Notch in which rocks killed a family but spared their home which later became a tourist attraction. FMI see this link to the museum here and my previous blog about the art of the event here. 

I will be presenting a program on the Willey slide on Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 at the Conway Public Library. 

FMI follow this link here.

I will present the same program on Thursday, August 27, 2026 at the White Mountain Museum & Gallery in North Conway for those who can't make the first program. FMI see this link here. 

If you want more rocks, I am leading a tour of the Redstone quarry on Wednesday, July 15. FMI see this link here. 

I hope to see you at one or more of these events and I can put some rocks in your head too. 

It's About Time for a New Year

 

Happy New Year!

We are experiencing a colder than usual winter in New England this year. 

I find it interesting that the calendar new year, the astronomical start of winter, and the meteorological start of winter do not match up. 

Sun Dec 21, was the winter solstice. It was the longest night of the year at around 15 hours of darkness and consequently the shortest day of the year with about 9 hours of sunlight. 

This was a more significant factor in people's lives in the past at a time when most people were involved in farming with less daylight to work. 

However as you can see in this painting, winter did provide snow covered roads with less friction to move logs for firewood. 

Here is a detail:

FMI on this artwork follow this link here. 

Here is another artwork showing an empty sled and a pile of logs to the right. 

FMI on this artwork follow this link here. 

Here is a detail:

On the left you can see a good example of marcescence. For more on that topic see our previous blog here. 

Some firewood enthusiasts enjoy creating a wide variety of artistic firewood piles. Here are some round ones.  

Winter was also a time for bringing livestock to market. 

Here is a detail with the teamsters, cattle, sheep and a dog. 

You still had to do you laundry even if it froze on the line while drying. 

On the left is another good example of marcescence. 

FMI on this artwork follow the links here and here. 

Of course, there are also more to work during the season. There are seasonally specific joys such as ice skating. 

For more on this artwork follow the link here 

For even more White Mountain winter scenes follow this link here. 

If you want to experience some real winter fun yourself and learn about historic New England winters you should come to the Chocorua Winterfest on Saturday February 7, 2026. 

 

It starts at 10 am with cold-water dip in the lake followed by a sauna, then sledding, snowshoeing, storytelling, a winter camping expo. a display of historical winter items such as handmade snowshoes, dog sleds and trapping gear, winter tree id, bonfires, treats and hot drinks ending with a dinner and barn dance.  

For more info follow this link here. 

November Rowen

While we don't know the identity of the artist, the cover painting on Cornelius Weygandt's 1941 book, November Rowen, captures many key elements of this time of the year quite well. It depicts a traveler emerging from a horse-drawn sleigh greeting friends and/or family in a landscape covered with snow. One of the book's themes is the importance of maintaining family and community connections.

The long hard work of harvesting crops is over and there is more free time for visiting. 

"The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

through the white and drifted snow"

The theme of traveling to visit is central to the song "Over the river and through the wood" published in 1844 and written by Lydia Maria Child.   

The book's title "November Rowen" comes from a saying one of Weygandt's neighbors in Sandwich NH would repeat as if it were the refrain of a song: "There be no hay so sweet as November Rowen." Rowen is defined as a second harvest of hay in one growing season.

The book's subtitle, "A Late Harvest from the Hills of New Hampshire" locates the geographical focus of the book and is a metaphor for the reflections of an older man during a period Weygandt refers to as one in which he "feels the menace of evening and winter coming on together," referring to the passing of friends and family and the eventuality of one's own passing.

The smoke we see rising from the chimney suggests a warm seasonal homecoming meal to welcome visitors.

Next week is Thanksgiving, which is November's main attraction for many people. Thanksgiving is essentially a continuation of the age old traditional harvest festival. Flanked by Halloween and Christmas, celebrating Thanksgiving is comparatively simple and thrifty. There are less expensive decorations and no required gifts. It is basically a "traditional" meal of turkey and all the "fixins." 

Apple cider plays a role in the Thanksgiving day feast for many people. Today is National Apple Cider Day. According to historian Thomas Hubka's time chart (here) one of the main activities for New England farmers in November was pressing cider. 

Cider can be used fresh (which spoils soon) or it can be fermented into what we call "hard cider." 

Apples can also be preserved well in a number of other forms.  Hard cider from the previous year played a role in the traditional apple-bee of the season. See our previous blog here about that event and more on preserving apples. 

While today, we can get fresh fruit and vegetables any time of the year, historically November was the beginning of a long period of physical and psychological struggle to survive. 

Many late fall harvest crops harvest were designed to prepare for the coming seasons of hardship. 

November has two other days to honor past ways of preserving food. November 14 was National Pickle Day and November 17 was National Butter Day. 

For many years our family has presented living history programs to commemorate the traditional New England Thanksgiving and to teach about historical methods of preserving food. 

However, our first historical programs on the topic... were in Florida... with foods like swamp cabbage, gator tail, fried chicken, collard greens, grits and corn bread. 

Many people do not know that the first Thanksgiving was not held in New England with the Pilgrims, but rather was held 56 years before in Florida.  See our previous blog here for more on that.  

While this a season for community celebration, farm work does continue as depicted on the cover of Weygandt's book by the the young boy working oxen pulling a sled of logs in the foreground of the painting. 

Beyond the split rail fence hay is stacked tall with a central pole and thatched "roof" to shed the rain. The hay will be brought to the livestock in the barn over the winter. 

The trees behind the house have lost most of their leaves leaving "skeletal" trees that many refer to as stick season.  

Notice however that not all the leaves are gone. If you look closely, you can see a "shotgun" like spray of leaves on those trees along the back fence line. These are probably oak trees which do not shed all their leaves. 

This is a phenomenon known as "marcescence" 

To the right of the haystack is a splotch of brown which I believe represents a small beech tree. Beech trees retain most of their leaves throughout the winter. 

Beyond the fence and across the field at the base of the mountains is a row of evergreens, most likely White Pine.  

Beyond the evergreens you can see grey misty mountains and a cloudy sky so common this time of the year.  

Weygandt's book is a love letter to "the hills of New Hampshire" and capture's both the pleasures and pain of this time of the year and of one's lifetime. I encourage you to take a look!

Bellwether Trees

Astronomical Autumn began on Sept 22 this year. These photos above and below were taken around that time to document the progress of this year's fall foliage. 

The color began creeping in slowly around mid-September. It can start with a single leaf or a handful of leaves on an otherwise green tree. It seems to start in the swamps and stressed trees along the road. 

Here is what I call a "bellwether" tree. 

While this tree has almost entirely cloaked itself in its autumn attire, the rest of the trees in the photo have not even begun the process. 

A wether is a castrated male sheep. The term "bellwether" refers to the dominant sheep fitted with a bell around its neck that leads the flock. The bell tells the shepherd where the flock is heading. The term then refers to something that helps predict where things are going.

Notice that the tree above already has a good start on a fluffy bed of leaf drop to help facilitate our annual Snoopy and Charlie Brown ritual. 

You rake, I jump. 

I chose to post this blog this afternoon to correspond to the sketch by Thomas Cole below that I believe was done 197 years ago today. 

It captures the spirit of our early foliage season and hints at the profuse and brilliant reds, oranges and yellows of the peak season to come, so these are bellwether trees.  

Entitled View Near Tamworth, New Hampshire; In The White Mountains, the sketch now resides in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. FMI follow this link here. 

You can download a high resolution TIFF from that website, enlarge the image and check my observations. The website describes the medium as watercolor, graphite pencil, pen and black ink on off-white wove paper

The image is not dated, but using evidence in the artwork itself, combined with Cole's record of his trip, I conclude it was probably drawn on Oct 2, 1828, the day before he and a fellow artist Henry Cheever Pratt climbed Mount Chocorua. 

At the top of the page Cole wrote "View near Tamworth NH." In the middle of the page he continued "In the W. Mountains" 

Looking at the top half of the sketch, one might assume that is a view of Chocorua...

 

...but it is not. 

Chocorua was a very popular subject for artists. They painted it from many directions. To see some of their many artworks see this White Mountain Art website here. 

The actual mountain peaks depicted in the sketch are well known to those of us who live in and love the White Mountains. For those of you "from away," the answer can be found if you start with the most famous view of Chocorua and visit this pull over along rt 16 known as the Chocorua Basin View. To get directions go and information about the view go to this website here.  

To learn about the mountain peaks you can see from here you can use this handy interpretive sign... 

... showing the profile of the mountains in front of you. Click on images to enlarge them for easy reading and study.  

Notice in the photo and sign above that the pyramid shaped peak of Chocorua is only at its top, that its shoulders are relatively level and that it has three knobs along the ridge to the right known at the Three Sisters. The mountain seen in the sketch is a larger, deeper pyramid that has no knobs on either dramatically sloping side. This helps confirm that the sketch is not of Chocorua. 

 

Another sign with this same profile of mountain peaks in the sketch can be seen from nearby White Lake State Park. 

Again with an interpretive sign. Here is a detail of the view and the sign below. 

 

 

You can see here the mountain peaks identified as Paugus, Passaconaway and Whiteface have the profile outline that matches the signs, the photos and the sketch. Again, the major difference between Chocorua and Passaconaway is that the mountain seen in the sketch is a larger, deeper pyramid that has no knobs on either side so that identifies it as Passaconaway.

While the general view of these mountains are known, the exact location from which this sketch was made could be from any number of places. Unlike Chocorua, this part of the Sandwich Range was not as popular a vista for artists, so it takes a bit more sleuthing. For this we will turn to maps.  

Part of problem to id the specific location it that the area is now 80-90% forested. We can't just drive around and find the exact spot. During Cole's time the area would be 80-90% clear due to farming, so one may not even be able to find a place to get an exact match. 

However to get a rough idea we will start with an 1816 map to identify roads Cole and Pratt could have traveled on twelve years later. You can view the map online here. This website has an excellent zoom feature to study the map closely. 

 

We will combine our study of the map with  clues in the artwork and Cole's journal of his 2nd trip to the White Mountains which leads me to conclude it was probably painting on Oct 2, 1828. Follow along with me to see if you agree. 

To read Cole's manuscript original manuscript follow this link here. 

You can also read a typescript of the account through the Jstor website here. You can register for a free account to read the essay. 

While we will try to follow their trip using the map and the journal, we must realize that some of the roads shown on this 1816 map have been abandoned and current roads don't necessarily follow the path of the older roads. However, we will get as close as we can to follow in their footsteps. 
 

From Cole's journal
"We left Concord (New Hampshire) at 4 o'clock in the morning of the 2 Oct. 1828 it was very dark and the rain fell in torrents..."
 

From the journal and other sketches we know that they traveled through Center Harbor, and passed Red Hill and Squam Lake, most likely following the roads identified on the map as dotted lines. Rivers are depicted as solid lines.  

 

He goes on to write "...Leaving Centre harbour, the magnificent range of the Sandwich Mountains opened upon us - ... This range without exception - (in forms & colour) is the most picturesque in the United states."
 

Cole repeats this sentiment in his Essay on American Scenery, that the Sandwich Range is the best. This is high praise indeed for a man who knew New England 's landscape so well from the Catskills in upstate New York to Mount Desert Island in Maine.    
 

To follow in their footsteps today, the closest option is to drive north from Center Harbor along Bean Road which then changes to Squam Lake Road into Sandwich Village. This seems to follow the 1816 map pretty well. 

 

This 1816 map does not actually show Paugus or Passaconaway. They would be on that ill defined hatch marked ridge line seen below labeled Sandwich Mountains between Chocorua (spelled Corway) Peak in the town of Burton (now Albany) and Whiteface Mt. in then ungranted land (now Waterville Valley). 

Continuing on, they probably went through Center Sandwich village, where 5 points converge just above the "h" in Sandwich on the map above. 

Then they probably took what is now Church Street to what is now Route 113. 

 

The shape of that early road on the 1816 map nearly matches current route 113 to 113A. This road is depicted as leading slightly northeast out of Sandwich village then it takes a sharp turn east and crosses the town line into Tamworth. 

 

The road then heads north again and then east around Great Hill Pond, then southeast down to Tamworth Village identified on the 1861 map as Gilman M (for Gilman Mill) where they wrote that they stayed the night.  

 

All this of course but only conjecture and there are other viable options to get from Center Harbor to Tamworth. Without more evidence we can't be sure which route they took. 

Now to field work. Again, as the area is now heavily forested, we have to find areas that have a clear view of the mountain range, known in New England as intervales. As a result, today there are only a few open  spots along this route that you can see a view similar to the one in the sketch. Options include Ferncroft, Wonalancet, Whiteface, Beede Flats, and Fellows Hill Road.  

 

After checking out all these spots, I feel the best match is on Fellows Hill Road in Sandwich NH, the adjacent town just west of Tamworth, where thanks to local residents mowing their fields, we can get a glimpse of an approximate location that was likely near here 

The sketch above matches up pretty well with the photo below

 

The peak on the right is Paugus (3,198 ft) and the one in the center Passaconaway (4,043 ft) in the Sandwich Range Wilderness of the White Mountain National Forest. 

Now to the watercolor section in the bottom half of the page. 

In the center of this section, Cole used watercolor to depict the "tints" of a group of about eleven trees.  

Cole's journal continues "The forests in the valley below the Sandwich Mountains are rich and varied and as we passed them in many places - they called forth our admiration - The rich tints of autumn were upon them. Every variety of tints and form, light and shadow was upon them and the sun which now in his decline shone upon them with full splendour. The foliage of the American forest is wonderfully beautiful in colour in the early part of Autumn - Every tint is on them from the lightest to the darkest green - from the straw colour to bright yellow from orange to scarlet, from crimson to purple. with all the browns olives &c and these more brilliant than the artist can place on his pallet and yet often so blended and harmonized together as to make a delightful whole."

To add watercolor to his sketches in the field, Cole could have used a variety of watercolor paint sets that were available during the early 19th century. 

The traveling desk set above was made by American George C. Osborne. 

Osborne was was one of the few 19th century American makers of artists paint. Many artists of the time believed the especially clear paint colors by Osborne to be equal or better to any made in Europe. The paints for an Osborne paint box were made by Smith & Hodgson which later became the Bullock & Crenshaw's Drug and chemical store, in Philadelphia from 1820 to around the 1840's. Lewis Haehnlen took over manufacturing the watercolor paints around the 1850's to possibly 1860's This large box is earlier from 1830's to 1840's

They also had smaller sets 

Watercolor boxed set Manufactured by George C Osborne in Philadelphia around 1827-30. The lid of this box slides out to reveal a wonderful of 10 different watercolors. The colors won them an award for being as good as the best British made paints of the time; as noted on the label not for sale The re-wettable paint cakes have a embossed Eagle on one side and the name on the color on the back side. FMI follow this link here. 

During Cole's life watercolor was used primarily as a study to help later when working in the studio with oil paint. While we don't have an example of Cole's watercolor set, we do have an oil paint box known to have been used by Thomas Cole. 

 

Note the oil paints stored in pig bladders at the bottom left. FMI on this paint box follow this link here. 

While I have not found any finished Cole oil paintings to match the sketch above, we do have an example of his work "from sketch to canvas." In 1839 after his third and final trip to New Hampshire, Thomas Cole applied his careful observation and analysis of autumn colors and his research into color theory when he took a sketch he did in summer and used it as a basis to turn the scene into a portrait of full autumn foliage. 

FMI on this view see our previous blog here. 

During the later part of the 19th century watercolor become more acceptable as a finished work of art on its own accord. Societies devoted to elevating watercolor's status were established to promote its diversity and encourage popularity among professional artists and amateurs. 

To learn more about this trend be sure to catch the upcoming Winslow Homer watercolor exhibit at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts from November 2, 2025 to January 19, 2026. FMI follow this link here. 

Back to nature. The peak period for Fall foliage (and tourists) in the White Mountains is usually around Oct 10th or so.

It is also around that time that the weather turns crisp, tart and dry like the taste of Northern Spy apple. 

According to tradition, that apple was named for its reputation as a "spy" apple because its late bloom helped farmers "detect" frost in their orchards. So it is in fact, a bellwether apple tree. FMI on apples and Autumn see our previous blogs here. 

Now it is time for you to do your own fieldwork.

Use the map above as your guide and enjoy the show!