We are lucky here at the Greenwich Historical Society to be the benefactors of the many local history lovers who entrust us with their artifacts. As collectors and stewards of Greenwich history, we see the full gamut of historical objects. The extraordinary and the mundane – from a handwritten letter by Arthur Conan Doyle to … Read more
“Elmer picked grapes and before Mrs. June left she did 30 glasses of grape jell. Elmer’s heart is full – likewise his belly…” Emma Constant Holley MacRae to her mother, Josephine Holley, October 1, 1902 This letter from Emma Constant Holley MacRae to her mother reveals more than just the fondness her husband, the artist … Read more
The Crispus Attucks Association was a community organization formally started in 1941 with the mission to provide programming for the Black population of Greenwich. The home of the Association, the Crispus Attucks Center, moved from the Bethel AME Church basement to 33 Railroad Avenue and then to 6 Lewis Street, and served as the heart … Read more
While the history of the Cos Cob art colony has become well known to scholars of American Impressionism, its role in the development of American Modernism is less familiar. In December 1911 Elmer MacRae was among the group who founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in New York.
In the summer of 1896, Elmer MacRae arrived at the Holley Inn. He was a student from the Art Students League who was there for a class in outdoor painting, but he also found Constant Holley. They fell in love. From the beginning Constant encouraged Elmer to draw and paint flowers.
The parlor, the most fashionable and public room in the Bush house is furnished to reflect the transitional period between Justus Luke Bush’s marriage to Sally St. John in 1821, and the death of his mother, Sarah Bush, in 1824. Older, eighteenth-century furnishings, representing the styles popular during David and Sarah’s time, are mixed with new furnishings, many bearing neoclassical motifs prevalent during the period of Justus Luke and Sally Bush’s marriage.