The Yarmouth area has had a diverse and well-documented history, and local residents have always had a great interest in it. Many local authors have written about it - in 1833 Edward Russell wrote a speech about the early years for the town's Centennial, and a century later William Rowe "summarized" it in 381 pages. The interest in history continues to this day, and is encouraged by the Yarmouth Historical Society, which seeks to collect, preserve and educate the public about the town's history.

The Yarmouth Historical Society's approximately 3,000 objects and archival collections represent all areas of the town's history, and the materials related to art, music, and culture are particularly interesting. Yarmouth's arts and culture have reflected primarily the English Protestant heritage of the majority of its citizens, and the styles of fashion, music, dance, and arts have followed the broader American cultural trends of the period. Evidence of many of the arts can be found in the collections of the Yarmouth Historical Society.

A few small shards in the Historical Society's collection reveal the artistic spirit of the Wabanakis who lived in this area more than 600 years ago. Rim fragments from a hand-worked cooking pot reveal a parallel line design along the rim. Although the clay used for the pots would not have been easy to decorate, most of the shards in the collection display decorative designs made in a variety of styles and techniques.

Some of our traditional arts today, such as needlework, weaving, and quilting for women, and woodworking and the maritime arts for men, were carried out by nearly every early Yarmouth settler as a part of their daily activities. In the colonial and antebellum United States young girls learned needlework early, and very often by the age of 8 had completed a sampler showing that they had learned their stitches and their alphabet. Samplers by Sophia Bisbee and Sarah Mitchell in the Historical Society's collection provide evidence that Yarmouth's girls followed this trend. Likewise, a set of towels woven by Kezia Gray Drinkwater (prior to her marriage May 11, 1786) show that while sewing and weaving skills were necessary to clothe the family and provide household linens, their fancy weaves and patterns indicate that their work also helped fulfill their artistic inclinations. The children who learned to read filled copy books with handwriting that often resembles calligraphy, and probably none can top the white cotton purse made by Olive Gray, with fancy stitched edges, and poetry and other designs in ink on the sides.

To learn a trade, young Yarmouth boys would have been apprenticed to area craftsmen, such as blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, and the many craftsmen who built Yarmouth's nearly 300 vessels. During the colonial period, the easiest way to travel was by water, and vessels were built in the Royal River harbor from about 1740 until 1890. To design these vessels, woodworkers made half models to show the shape of the hull (several adorn the entrance hall of our museum and our public library), and rigging plans to show how the ropes would be strung. The craftsmen in the many shipyards are represented in our collections by their woodworking and caulking tools, a carved piece of woodwork from a ship's cabin, and oil paintings and photographs of the Yarmouth-made vessels.

Following the Revolution, the population in Yarmouth and Maine grew rapidly. Among those moving into Yarmouth during this period were several potters, including Ebenezer Corliss, John Thomas, and Nathaniel Foster, who used the abundant clay in the area to make ancient North Yarmouth one of the most important centers of redware pottery production in early nineteenth century Maine. Although there is a vein of clay running roughly along the Royal River through Yarmouth and North Yarmouth, the clay was most easily obtained in the area once known as "Brickyard Hollow," located at the dip on Main Street around the present day library. At that time, the clay was an inexpensive material from which household items such as mugs, bowls, jugs, pots, and pans in many sizes could be made, and several examples can be found in the collections of the Yarmouth Historical Society. The redware pottery business in Yarmouth continued into the late 1880s, but toward the end of the century, as the industrial revolution provided people with more choices for their household items, the redware market turned increasingly toward flower pot production. In recent years, local potters Peg and Dick Miller have revived the tradition of using local clay, and some of their work can also be found in the Historical Society's collection.

Another craftsman who moved to Yarmouth after the Revolution was Lebbeus Bailey. Lebbeus was living here by 1791, and probably moved here from Hanover, Massachusetts, where his father, two brothers and two nephews were clockmakers. Locally, Lebbeus was described as a jeweler, brass founder, or a clockmaker who "was skillful in his art." In his foundry on East Main Street near the Royal River, where he cast his clock movements and sleigh bells, he was said to be able to make anything out of metal that might be requested. Several Lebbeus Bailey clocks are owned locally in public and private collections, including by the Yarmouth Historical Society. It is possible that the wood cases for Bailey's clocks may have been made in (North) Yarmouth as well.

We have some other evidence of Yarmouth woodworkers in the collections of the Yarmouth Historical Society. A yellow box with stenciled designs on the top and sides may provide an important key to identifying locally-made stenciled furniture. The box, labeled on the inside as made by Thomas Greene Corliss, who died in 1830 at the age of 26, may soon be matched to some stenciled chairs in a Maine private collection. A Samuel Soule (there were at least 7 in the area) made a cello in the early nineteenth-century and was kind enough to put a label inside so that we could identify it and save it nearly two centuries later. Augustus True, a carpenter who worked in the Yarmouth shipyards, made 103 violins. Mr. True sold many of them, but he gave more than 50 of them to young people who were interested in music, and one has found its way into the Museum's collections. He also made an unusual style of five-drawer table with inlaid wood in the top. Two of these tables are known to exist, one in the collection of the Yarmouth Historical Society.

The musical instrument makers remind us that there were probably many more musicians in town than are currently documented. One of the best-known musical groups was the Yarmouth Band, formed in 1866 and disbanding around 1941. Early band members, instructed almost single-handedly by Prof. Enos A. Blanchard, won third prize in a statewide band tournament in 1881. The Yarmouth Historical Society collections contain Yarmouth Band record books and several instruments, including a drum. Other musical groups that have operated in Yarmouth include the Amateur Musical Group (1891-92), a Cadet Band (c. 1900), Yarmouth Chorus (c. 1887 - c. 1900), Yarmouth Drum Corps (c. 1879), and The Doc Harmon Band which included several Yarmouth residents. A women's vocal group from the 1930s, called The Charmers, may have been one of the predecessors of today's award-winning vocal group, The Royal River Chorus of the Sweet Adelines.

There is also a rich history of theater in Yarmouth. A vaudeville performance was a part of the Village Improvement Society's first fair in 1911, but this was probably not the first time vaudeville was performed in town. Minstrel shows, which started in the early 1800s nationally, probably started in Yarmouth sometime in the nineteenth century. Minstrel shows and vaudeville performances continued in Yarmouth into the 1950s. Yarmouth also hosted the Yarmouth Dramatic Club from 1898 until 1900, the Royal River Players in the 1990s, and innumerable student plays at North Yarmouth Academy and Yarmouth High School.

A number of Yarmouth-based or Yarmouth-born visual artists have achieved success in the world. One of the first was Edward Thaxter, a young sculptor from Yarmouth who went to Italy in the late nineteenth-century to learn his art. He produced only a handful of pieces before he died (of 'brain fever') at the age of 24 in Italy, but his skill was such that one of his pieces, "Meg Merrilles" is currently in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Leila Small Merrill, a good friend of Thaxter's, was an artist in her own right, but remained at home, and was often referred to as "the well-known crayon artist," although her known works are in oil and watercolor. Edith Widing Yaffee, a portrait artist who lived on Cousins Island from 1930 into the 1960s, counted among her clients some Roosevelts, and many local families. Alfred Kantor and Alfred Chadbourne are both artists and authors who were working in Yarmouth until very recently. Mr. Chadbourne was a colorist who wrote books on color and painting, while Mr. Kantor's watercolors illustrated his book about life in a Nazi concentration camp, and his portraits of local homes and businesses are displayed in private homes all over Yarmouth.

Photographers have also been active in Yarmouth. In the late nineteenth century J. O. Durgan and Charles G. Gooding focused primarily on individual portraits, and the street scenes around Yarmouth for which historians are so grateful today. In the early twentieth century F. M. Corliss also took views around town, but often was more interested in group or organization photographs. Herbert Detjens was a photographer active in Yarmouth in the 1960s, and Yarmouth resident Bill Curtsinger continues this tradition today to nationwide acclaim.

Finally, and probably most prolific, have been Yarmouth's authors. One of Yarmouth's earliest authors was probably also the most famous. Elizabeth Prince, after marrying Seba Smith, became known as the prominent mid-nineteenth century author and lyceum speaker Elizabeth Oaks Smith. William Rowe, town clerk and local pharmacist in the early 20th century, wrote four books and several booklets, mostly about Yarmouth and area history. His most well-known book, The Maritime History of Maine, was reprinted in the 1990s because it was still the best maritime history of Maine available. Edward Clarence Plummer and Augustus Corliss are famous locally for having written excellent histories of Yarmouth, and there may be hundreds of other Yarmouth-related authors who have been published through the years.

Marilyn Hinkley
Director/Curator of Collections, Yarmouth Historical Society