You Know at Least One of Adelaide Palmer’s Works
In addition to her talent, two facts will stick with you about artist Adelaide Palmer: 1) She was born in the Upper Valley, specifically Orford NH, and 2) You are already familiar with her work. She is credited as the creator of the first commercial logo for Fruit of the Loom.
Adelaide Coburne Palmer, a nationally known artist whose life spanned the Civil War and World War I, will be celebrated in Piermont NH on Sunday, June 4, 2023. Palmer lived in Piermont from the late 1800s until 1928 and gained acclaim for her landscapes and still-life paintings.
The Sunday, June 4 event, part of a project created by a committee of members from the Piermont Historical Society and the Piermont Public Library Trustees, will feature over a dozen of the artist’s works at the Piermont Village School from 1 PM to 3 PM. Speakers will also talk about her life, painting style, and art restoration.
For me, Ms. Palmer’s paintings of fruits are particularly tantalizing. Raspberries are featured in more than one of her works, and each evoked summer days and berry-stained fingers; I imagined the small joy of plucking them one by one from this glass coupe for a late afternoon snack or a champagne brunch.
In 1882, after a brief stint as a schoolteacher and a self-taught artist, Palmer enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She also studied under one of Boston’s most celebrated artists, John Joseph Enneking (1841-1916), and soon embarked upon a successful career in the fine arts, maintaining a lifelong connection with the Boston art world. She would later become an art teacher herself, both in Boston and in Piermont, New Hampshire.
As for her more commercial venture, here is an evolution of the Fruit of the Loom (a company now owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway) logo:
(Thank you to Bernie Marvin of Piermont NH for alerting me to the art and history of Adelaide Palmer, and to Piermont Historical Society and the Piermont Public Library Trustees.)
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.