"clover" and henry adams at adams national historical park
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National Park ServiceU.S. Department of the Interior
Release Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2012; For Immediate Release
Adams National Historical Park
135 Adams StreetQuincy, MA 02169-1749
617-770-1175 phone617-773-3810 fax
Adams National Historical Park News Release
Art-in-the-Park: Through the Lens of Clover AdamsLectures, Book Signing, Tours, & Exhibits
A Symposium Celebrating the Life and Times of Marian “Clover” Adams and Henry AdamsFriday, Saturday, Sunday
July 27, 28, 29, 2012Adams National Historical Park
“Peace field”135 Adams Street, Quincy
E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C AThe National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.
Lectures & Book Signings
On July 27, 28, and 29, 2012, Adams National Historical Park will promote “Art-in-the-Park” to celebrate the life
and times of Clover Adams with a weekend of talks, tours, and exhibits featuring noted scholars, authors, and
historians of Marion “Clover” Hooper Adams, Henry Adams, and the Adams Family. All programs will take place
at Adams National Historical Park, 135 Adams Street, Quincy MA.
On Friday Evening, July 27, 2012, at 6:30 PM in the Carriage House
Natalie Dykstra: “Who was Clover Adams”
Peter Drummey: “Meet the Adams In-Laws”
Anne Bentley: “Artistry in Light and Shadow”
Marian “Clover” Adams, wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian, Henry Adams, was an accomplished
photographer and chronicler of the people and places of the “Gilded Age.” Clover produced more than 150
evocative photographs that capture the spirit of the age and illuminate the life and times of this remarkable and
enigmatic woman. These compelling and often poignant images of a vanished world are preserved at the
Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.
A Boston “bluestocking,” Clover Adams married into one of America’s first families and presided over a celebrated
salon at the home she shared with her husband Henry Adams in Washington, D.C. Clover Adams was an
accomplished photographer and chronicler of the people and places of the “Gilded Age.” In 1883, Clover began
taking and developing photographs; by 1885, she had produced more than 150 evocative images that capture the
spirit of the age and illuminate the life and times of this remarkable and enigmatic woman. She had, a friend noted,
“all she wanted, all this world could give.” Although she delighted in her craft, her photographs, while often
charming and playful, were sometimes bleak and somber. In December 1885, following an autumn of loss and
uncertainty, Clover drank from a vial of potassium cyanide, a chemical she used to develop her photographs; her
delight had become her demise. Clover’s story has long been shrouded in secrecy, yet there are clues to the mystery
of her bright life and shadowy death. The clues are there in the haunting images that invite the viewer to look
beyond the circumstances of her untimely death to the reality of her brilliant life. Clover Adams’ compelling and
often poignant images of a vanished world are preserved at the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) in Boston.
Explore the life and times of Clover Adams with Natalie Dykstra, Associate Professor of English, Hope College,
Holland, Michigan and Fellow, Massachusetts Historical Society. Ms. Dykstra, in her compelling biography of
Marion “Clover” Adams, reveals how Clover’s photographs illuminate the outwardly charmed existence of one of
America’s first female photographers, and the inner tensions, turmoil, and tragedy in the haunting images she
captured and preserved.
E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C AThe National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.
Examine Clover Adams’ use of the photographic medium to reflect her emotional connections to the arts
and to her subjects with Anne Bentley, Curator of Art, Massachusetts Historical Society. In “Artistry in
Light and Shadow,” Ms. Bentley explores Clover’s images and shares her perspectives on Clover’s
inimitable style and her photographic legacy in selected images from Clover’s collection of photographs
from the Massachusetts Historical Society,
Consider Clover’s dilemma and “Meet the Adams In-Laws” with Peter Drummey, Massachusetts
Historical Society. Clover Adams and her in-laws, Charles Francis and Abigail Brooks Adams, did not
always see eye-to-eye. In a candid image of her in-laws on the porch at Peace field, Clover captured the
dynamics of this relationship in one of her most famous and unsettling photographs. Mr. Drummey
explores this relationship, and others, in his insightful and compelling look at the Adamses and their
tragic and “charming blue.”
Photographers at Peace fieldOn Saturday, July 28, 2012, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Peace field
Amateur and professional photographers alike will fan out across the property at Peace field to capture, in
black and white, photographs that evoke the historic “sense of place” and the vanished world of Henry
and Clover Adams.
Photograph Exhibit
On Sunday, July 29, 2012, from NOON to 5:00 PM in the Carriage House
Photographs taken at Peace field on Saturday, July 28, may be exhibited in the Adams Carriage House on
Sunday, July 29. Guest curators for this special exhibition include photography students Marisa Carson
and Rebecca Ledin, and Professor Hettie Handenschield, Quincy College.
Tours and Exhibits
On Friday, Saturday, Sunday, July 27, 28, 29, 2012
Join the staff of Adams NHP on a “behind-the-scenes” tour of Henry Adams’ third-floor bedroom, which
will be open to the public on this special occasion, and by reservation throughout the season. Call the
Visitor Center at 617-770-1175 for more information. These “focus tours” will provide visitors with the
opportunity to examine furnishings and other artifacts in the Old House at Peace field that illuminate the
life and times of Henry Adams and Clover Adams.
E X P E R I E N C E Y O U R A M E R I C AThe National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.