Wallace Nutting Was Here

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 27, 2015

If you are familiar with the Colonial Revival style then you should be familiar with Wallace Nutting. He could be referred to as the father of the Colonial Revival movement. His photographs of historic sites with people, mainly women, dressed in colonial inspired dress working or sitting in colonial style settings in historic homes were exceptionally popular during the first decades of the twentieth century. A minister and antiquarian, as well as a photographer and furniture maker, Nutting lectured, taught, wrote books, and was an antiques expert. His reproduction furniture is so good that it can pass as original. But he is most well known for his photographs and at a young age I was taught about these photographs. It was my Father actually who noted quite a few years ago now that this image you see here is a Nutting – we have several of this image in the collection. I do not know who the woman is but she is standing on the back porch of Mitchell House at the entry to the 1825 Kitchen. Not much has changed although you can see that the shingles were once painted – we still have the remnants of this paint on the east side of the house if that lets you know how long those shingles have lasted! So the Mitchell House also got the Nutting treatment at one point. He was here on the island – and lived in Massachusetts where most of his subjects were found. There is at least one other print I know about of an island building – 99 Main Street – though I am sure there are more.


JNLF

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