Museum of the White Mountains Launches Online Project

"Stark Mountain, Fryeburg" is shown above. 

Plymouth State University’s Museum of the White Mountains (MWM) recently launched Campbell Online, an online database of seminal White Mountains paintings and artists.

MWM named the online project after Catherine Campbell, an artist and art historian, who published New Hampshire Scenery, a comprehensive catalog of nineteenth-century White Mountain artists and their works in the mid-1980s.

A former director of MWM, who previously worked with Campbell, notes that Campbell was profoundly passionate about the White Mountains and its art.

“Catherine’s passion for the White Mountains and White Mountain art was deep and substantial. She began collecting, and later returned to graduate school, where she researched and wrote about White Mountain art for her graduate thesis,” Marcia Schmidt Blaine, former director of the MWM says. “Ultimately, as the McLane family recognizes, she became the leading scholar in the field.”

Collectors, dealers, and those who are intrigued by White Mountain art use Campbell’s book as a go-to reference, which is the basis for the museum's online database.  

A $250,000 donation was made to the museum by P. “Andy” Andrews and Linda McLane. A portion of that gift will support Campbell Online. Avid collectors of White Mountain art, the McLanes have a long-time relationship with MWM and PSU, which the museum’s current director is thankful for.

“We are deeply grateful to the McLane family for inspiring and helping us to bring this project to life,” says Cynthia C. Robinson, director of MWM. “The Museum of the White Mountains and PSU are dedicated to preserving Campbell’s work and are honored to have the role of making this information accessible to a wider audience through the internet.”