Notes From the Firehouse - Home of the Annisquam Historical Society Annisquam Sewing Bee

Notes From the Firehouse
Home of the Annisquam Historical Society

                                         January 2021

              Annisquam Sewing Bee
             From the Squam Portraits of Margaret Fitzhugh Browne

                                    by

                           Rita Littlewood Teele

This painting, from 1947, includes portraits of three women: Grace Rice, on the left,
Lela Griffin, in the center and Essie Blanchard, on the right. Other than the double
portrait of Annisquam Lobstermen twenty-two years earlier, all other of Margaret
Fitzhugh Browne’s Squam portraits had featured one person posing. Perhaps this
gentle scene was in reaction to the traumatic years of WWII and MFB’s year of
recuperation from her severe injuries after being run over by a hit and run driver in
December of 1945. It took her months to recover from multiple fractures.

The summer of 1947 had been very busy—one might say, frantic—with friends,
relatives, neighbors, art students, art association members, potential customers
and her little dog Winkee, all spinning in orbit around her.

In common with my prior articles about MFB’s paintings, her diary entries, below,
are in bold typeface. (All her diaries are available online via Digital Commonwealth.)
Compared to MFB’s written entries during creation of prior Squam paintings, her
notes associated with this group portrait are quite spare.

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 1947

 ……Also went to see Mrs. Blanchard about posing for a painting I am planning of
three women sewing--The Sewing Bee. She will do it and suggested some others.
One Mrs Harvey wouldn't do it but Mrs Rice who I went to see after supper will.
Now I only need one more and am going to ask Mrs. Ernie Griffin and hope we
can begin the sketch Friday.

Above, is the first hint of this painting with its working title that I have found in
MFB’s diary. Later, in October, she used Annisquam Sewing Bee for the title and
that is its current listing.

I believe that MFB was using the generic term for a sewing bee: a group of women
who got together to work on a specific project in needlework. Typically, the
outcome was a quilt, but MFB made her own rules in terms of this composition. In
her group portrait, she put her ladies to work at separate projects: patchwork,
cutting a pattern, and possibly embroidery (at the least, handsewing). It is
apparent, from her first diary entry, cited above, that she was having problems
conscripting a trio of ladies.

The label has led to confusion, because there were two “sewing” organizations in
Annisquam during the time that the painting was created. One group was known as
the Sewing Bee; the other was the Sewing Circle. The latter remains in existence.

The origin of the organization, later known as the Annisquam Sewing Bee was
related by Ruth Pappas at a presentation in 1979, and follows in abridged version:

Annie Cunningham Moore, who lived on Arlington Street*, invited a few ladies to
the Lane homestead for a social afternoon in 1902. Mrs. Fred Parsons, who had
been at the initial meeting was expecting a baby. Making a layette for the baby
seemed the perfect project [and excuse] for the group to continue meeting. The
expectant mother hoped that she would have a girl who would be named
“Beatrice.” The ladies of the group decided that they would honor this choice by
calling themselves “The Bee” for Beatrice. Sadly, the baby did not survive, but the
group carried on in her name. The society acted as fundraiser for the Annisquam
Village Church over the years, particularly through providing Saturday Squam
suppers on the lower floor of the Village Hall. Ongoing support of the church was
expanded to include the Red Cross and many other charitable organizations. The
members were well known for their memorial flower fund and for supporting
summer and Christmas fairs.

*This may be a mix-up between street and town. Annie Cunningham Moore,
daughter of James and Ann Cunningham, lived in the town of Arlington after her
marriage to Carlos Moore. The 1900 census of the Moore family included Annie’s
widowed mother, Ann Lane Cunningham who had grown up in the Lane
homestead. She may have attended the meeting with her daughter.

Over the years, membership in “The Bee” dwindled. The remaining members
relinquished needles and thread in 1990. The “Sewing Circle”, however, remains an
Annisquam institution that supports multiple charities.

Essie was the given name of Mrs. George Blanchard, the first to accept the
invitation to pose for MFB’s painting. She lived at 846 Washington Street, which is
very near the Annisquam Village Church. Her husband, George, was listed as a retail
grocery clerk in the census of 1940 and as a musician in the Gloucester City
Directory of 1948. George also played the organ at the church; Essie sang in the
choir. She was about 65 years old in 1947.

(You will see that MFB never refers to the ladies by their first names, but to their
marital names, throughout her diary entries.)

Thursday, Sept. 4

    I saw Mrs. Griffin and she will pose so I'm all set for to-morrow.
In 1923, Lela Griffin was “the woman with the parasol” when the stagecoach was in
Gloucester’s 300th parade. By 1940, Ernest had retired as carpenter and house
builder and lived with Lela on Arbor Street. She was about 73 years old in 1947.

AHS 1614                                                                         1923

Friday, Sept 5

   I had the three ladies Mrs Rice, Mrs. Griffin and Mrs Blanchard and planned
out the sketch for the Sewing Bee. Made a sketch but it wasn't very good but
think I can change it a little on the big canvas and it may be all right.

Grace Rice, widow of Joseph Rice, ran the family business, “Rice’s Annisquam Ice
Co.” from 1944 until 1953. She was 75 or 76 years old at the time of the painting.
Grace would have known the artist—and not only from meeting her in the village.
Her husband, Joe Rice, had posed for MFB in 1930. Portraits of MFB’s subjects were
typically en face and accompanied by actual or contrived backgrounds. The portrait
of Joe Rice is unusual: he was painted in profile, head and upper body only, without
background details.
https://www.capeannmuseum.org/collections/objects/portrait-joe-rice-annisquam/

Monday, Sept. 8, 1947
Mrs. Rice, Mrs Blanchard and Mrs. Griffin came early and I started the big picture.
Like the composition better.

Sept 9, 11, 15, 16, 17
(Sittings with one or two of the women were noted without details)

Thursday, Sept. 18
Mrs Griffin came to pose. I felt more like painting and did better.

Tuesday, Sept. 23,
Clear and very cold. Mrs. Rice said it was 35 degrees at 6:30. However with a fire
in the studio I managed to paint and Mrs Rice and Mrs Griffin (for a while) to
pose.

Wednesday, Sept. 24
Mrs. Griffin came to pose.

Saturday, Sept. 27,
I didn't expect the roofers this morning but they came and it made it a little hard
to paint over the hammering. However I had Mrs Blanchard and Mrs Griffin and
think I can finish it now when we get back from our trip.

Monday, October 6.
I got our mail at the P.O. and called for Mrs. Blanchard and painted on my
Annisquam Sewing Bee.
                                          Tuesday October 7
                                          Painted on Mrs Rice and Mrs Griffin and
                                          finished the picture.

                                        This portrait does not seem as well finished
                                        as many of MFB’s prior works. Close-up
                                        view of Essie Blanchard shows smudged
                                        borders of her right shoulder. And the tips
                                        of fingers of her left hand are blurred. (It is
                                        possible that the smudges are later
                                        artifacts rather than occurring when the
                                        painting was created.) Essie seems to be
                                        folding fabric rather than sewing—although
                                        there is a thimble on her right hand.

To force the position of the three ladies into a pyramidal composition, Lela Griffin is
placed higher than the others. She also has more of the foreground, with her large
piece of fabric, paper pattern and large shears. Her dress is certainly the most
colorful. She appears to dominate the others; one wonders if that was also her
personality. Lela was on top in the photograph of the stagecoach after all!
Note the use of each brooch/décolletage as focal points.

The placement of the yellow patterned fabric is theatrical rather than practical. It is
is roughly folded and draped over the edge of the table. It is complementary in
color to Lela’s lavender dress. Some of the same fabric that is being handled by
Essie Blanchard is underneath Lela’s right hand. MFB’s favorite splash of red is in
her signature, in pink threads and in the pink patchwork. (Grace Rice is working on
prairie points at the edge of a quilt.)

It will be ten years until MFB creates another Squam painting, and it will be her last.
Fittingly, The Punch and Judy Show will bring down the curtain in 1957.