An extensive collection of American holiday prints from the mid to late 19th century, the collection of Hamilton Religious Studies Professor Jay Williams, was on display at the Kirkland Art Center in Clinton, from November 17 to December 5. "Around the Seasons with Winslow Homer and Thomas Nast," a collection of wood block prints depicting the seasons beginning with Christmas, gave viewers a glimpse of American celebrations more than a hundred years ago.
The prints span a period of 30 years, from 1858 to 1888, a period that included the bloodiest war in our nation's history and the Gilded Age during which America was transformed from a nation of rural farmers into a dynamo of manufacturing and industry. Thomas Nast produced Christmas pictures for Harper's Weekly yearly and the exhibition includes several:
•"Twas the Night Before Christmas - A Chance to Test Santa Claus' Generoisity"
•"A Christmas Sketch - Five O'clock in the Morning,"
•"The Dear Little Boy Who Thought Christmas Came Oftener,"
•"The Sleighing Season - The Upset,"
•"Central Park in Winter,"
•"Skating Season 1862"
•"A Snow Slide in the City" and
•"New Year's Day: North and South."
Thomas Nast is credited with being the artist who created the images with which we still visually define Uncle Sam, Santa Claus, the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey. He illustrated and commented on the world in Harper's Weekly from 1862 until 1886 and was widely recognized as the most significant political cartoonist of his day. Winslow Homer, well know for his watercolors and oil paintings, was also a freelance illustrator for Harper's Weekly in the early years of his career.
The Kirkland Art Center is located in the village of Clinton, a mile from the Hamilton College campus. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday 2 - 4 p.m. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, November 21 from 3 - 5 p.m.
Professor Williams became interested in collecting Nast prints when a Hamilton alumnus who was closing his rare print store sent Williams 20 of them. That was five years ago, and Williams now has over 500 Nast prints. Nast led Williams to begin his Winslow Homer collection and, according to Williams, "an obsession began."
