The SHS Speaker Series continues on November 11 at 7:00 pm in the Marion Music Hall with a special Veterans Day event. Local collector Benjamin Dunham will offer an in-person lecture/slideshow on the etchings of British artist J. Alphege Brewer, which will be on display before and during the presentation.
In the second decade of the 20th century, Brewer made his fame producing large, color etchings of European cathedrals and other historical buildings damaged or threatened during WWI. In both the United States and Great Britain, these etchings and reproductions were proudly hung on parlor walls in solidarity with the Allied cause and as a remembrance of the devastating cultural losses inflicted by the onslaught of war.
A selection of Brewer’s original WWI etchings will be on display at the Marion Music Hall from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm on November 11 and in the half-hour before the lecture.
This event complements the exhibit beginning November 4 at the Sippican Historical Society of the WWI illustrations of Charles Dana Gibson. In the years surrounding the turn of the 20th century, Gibson (creator of the “Gibson Girl”) summered in Marion along with his journalist friend Richard Harding Davis and other renowned artists. During WWI, Gibson led the Division of Pictorial Publicity for the Committee on Public Information, an independent government agency created by President Wilson. In 1914, Davis wrote colorful reports of the German invasion of Belgium and the threat to some of the same buildings pictured in Brewer’s etchings. The exhibit at the SHS will run through January 15.
Copies of Dunham’s newly published book, “Etched in Memory: The Elevated Art of J. Alphege Brewer,” are currently available for purchase at the Sippican Historical Society Shop. Following the lecture on November 11, Dunham will sign purchased copies of the book, which is based on the material at his website, www.JAlphegeBrewer.info.
Please note that masks will be required for attendance, and chairs will be spaced to comply with health and safety recommendations.