Contributed by Maine Historical Society
Description
In 1985, photographer Elijah Cobb photographed the "Yellow House," also known as the Laura E. Richards House, a historic home in Gardiner. Built around 1810, it was famous for its connection to the Pulitzer Prize winning author who lived there for the majority of her writing career.
Cobb's mother and aunt, Rosalind Cobb Wiggins and Laura E. Putnam, authored a series of essay-length labels to accompany his portfolio. The south parlour (door to the porch) photograph essay reads:
"Easy access to the long south-facing porch made moving the tea things outside on a sunny late autumn day enticing. Laura Wiggins used it until just a year or so before her death. There are merry ghosts here, children swinging the Gloucester hammock, a canvas-walled mattress hung from the ceiling, until it dumped them out. Huge wicker chairs with high enclosing hoods that one faced into the March sun, legs sticking out straight, to bake in the warmth… until displaced by an elder with lap desk and a brace of fountain pens in her pocket. Sparkling snow or flaming trees made up for the glories of the summer garden. Almost. For summer was the time that as many meals as possible were served here.
Summer visitors almost always came here at tea-time. Oaklands cousins would come up the front steps and walk around to the left of the front door, under flowering trees and high ferns, then out into the bright spread of lawn and phlox and mallow and roses and larkspur. More often than not they paused to look before calling, 'Cousin Rosalind?' and joining the family around the shiny tea pot."
About This Item
- Title: South Parlour (Door to the Porch), Yellow House, Gardiner, ca. 1985
- Creator: Elijah Cobb
- Creation Date: circa 1985
- Subject Date: circa 1985
- Location: Gardiner, Kennebec County, ME
- Media: photographic print
- Dimensions: 35.6 cm x 27.9 cm
- Local Code: Coll. 2085, RG 39/8
- Collection: The Yellow House papers, Laura E. Richards collection
- Object Type: Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Doors
- House furnishings
- Interior architecture
- Living room furniture
- Living rooms
- Porches
- Private libraries
- Stoves, Wood
- Women authors, American--Maine--Gardiner
- Yellow House (Gardiner, Me.)
People
For more information about this item, contact:
Maine Historical Society485 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-1822 x230
Website
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. No Permission is required to use the low-resolution watermarked image for educational use, or as allowed by the applicable copyright. For all other uses, permission is required.
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