2 Photos
Photographer unknown 1936 Sara Houston Chisholm, officially Mrs. S. Kip Farrington Jr. but called Chissie, caught two giant tuna in September 1936 in Nova Scotia. Her husband, a "gentleman sportsman," had been an editor at Field and Stream magazine but retired to East Hampton at a young age to pursue sports and write. Mrs. Farrington, who kept up with her husband on the seas, was the first woman known to land a broadbill swordfish (it weighed 584 pounds), and she received written congratulations from none other than Ernest Hemingway. At her right above is the 493-pound fish she battled for 10 hours and 35 minutes; at her left a 720-pounder she took in 1 hour and 38 minutes.
When Richard Barons, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, describes the society’s new exhibition at the Clinton Academy Museum as “all over the place,” he is half joking and half on the mark.
True, “Halcyon Days, Hurricane Nights,” with its photographs taken over the last century and a quarter, covers multiple facets of life in East Hampton. Here, in images with an immediacy of the moment, is a mix of the buzz-generating events, issues and personalities that commanded attention and influenced the course of East Hampton’s cultural, political and economic life during a critical period.
Adding a fillip of glamor are cameo appearances by some of the celebrities who have always gravitated to East Hampton: Jacqueline Bouvier, her cousin Edie Beale, Willem de Kooning, Billy Joel, Norman Mailer, Dick Cavett, a very dapper John Drew, and a chilling stand-in for Jackson Pollock, whose crushed convertible tells the story of his violent death.
Yet, the exhibition’s subtitle, “Photographs from the East Hampton Star 1885-2010,” confirms that the show does indeed have a focus, putting the spotlight on a community newspaper and the visual history it has preserved.
The inspiration for the show, Mr. Barons confirmed, was the Star’s celebration this year of its 125th anniversary. “It seemed a logical time to see what they have in their archives and what was interesting to us,” Mr. Barons said during a recent tour of the show.
What he found was a little surprising, he said. While it was not unexpected that there would be some photographs created by the paper’s staff that were never published, he said he had not been prepared to find so many more that were taken by citizens and offered to the Star for their use and preservation. Thus, though photographs were first printed in the Star in 1907, some photos in the show were taken as early as 1885. Before 1907, Mr. Barons explained, “it was pretty much engravings, but over the years people have given early photos to the paper.”
With so many fascinating photographs to work with, Mr. Barons thought it an opportune time to double his exhibit space by emptying the upstairs rooms in the Clinton Academy, which have been repainted in quiet colonial colors.
“It’s mostly older photos up here,” he said after climbing the stairs to the second floor. One example is an 1885 shot of a four-rail fence on the Old Montauk Road, of particular interest, he said, because it provides the only known model for historically correct fencing, for which he will soon have a need. Also from 1885 is a view of the East Hampton Lawn Tennis Club with its elegantly dressed players floating over courts on the site where The Circle, off Main Street, is now a shopping hub. The early, innocent days when sports were the province of freckled kids and graceful adults is also evoked in a circa 1910 view of the old baseball field on the south side of Pantigo Road.
Two photos taken within a year of each other provide a strange contrast. One, dating from 1916 and attributed to the Morris Studio, is of a parade float bearing this ominous World War I challenge: “Has the Blood We Shed in ’61 Turned to Water in 1916.” Another, taken circa 1917, is of a decorated touring car presided over by the actor John Drew and carrying the Bouvier twins, future First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier, I.Y. Halsey and George Simons, all in festive finery.
On the main floor, the photographs are arranged somewhat thematically, with a few standout oversized images given pride of place. The first to greet the eye is a circa 1935 shot of Harry Steele, who was the sole officer of the East Hampton Town Police Department at its inception in 1923, and remained on the force until his death in 1957. Mounted on his motorcycle, he is the image of burly authority, though the wide smile he wears makes him look more benign than menacing.
Over the mantel is another iconic photograph taken by an unknown photographer circa 1900. In it, the crew of the “Amagansett” is looking hale, hearty and understandably pleased at the full load of bunker that covers the deck.
Among the most evocative is a classic 1885 photograph of men launching a whaleboat; among the most beautiful compositionally is a 1974 image of Pearl Fine in her studio by an unknown photographer. For drama, the image of the Edwards Theatre fire in 1964, taken by Dave Edwards, is among the most arresting, though the haunting stillness of Jackson Pollock’s ruined 1950 Oldsmobile convertible coupe following the 1956 accident that killed him and a passenger is right up there.
While the plight of Edith “Little Edie” Beale, whose story has been told and retold in film and on stage in “Grey Gardens,” and was no laughing matter to her, the viewer is apt to find Jack Graves’s photo of her on the porch of the dilapidated house that she shared with her mother, “Big Edie,” more amusing than tragic, especially after reading her reaction to the Suffolk County Health Department’s search order issued in October 1971. After deciphering its content with the aid of a magnifying glass, and absorbing its critique of Grey Gardens’ unhygienic condition, she was quoted in a page-one Star story railing against the intrusion as “a raid” engineered by henchmen of a “mean, nasty Republican town.”
Mr. Barons said that when he decided to devote one corner of the show to political photographs, he expected it to be one of the least popular sections. To his surprise, it has been quite the opposite. “The mayor came and spent an hour,” he laughed.
For some, the images of protests and political triumphs of the more recent past will bring back memories of events they may have been part of and political players whose identity is only partially disguised by their mutton chops and funky fashions. In a photograph taken by Rameshwar Das in 1980, Andrew Malone and a friend flank a banner celebrating East Hampton’s tercentennial that reads: “The Next 300 years are Up to You.” In another by Rameshwar Das, a jubilant Judith Hope joins raised arms with Tony Bullock and Randy Parsons at celebrations following her election as supervisor in 1983. “He Almost was Governor” is the heading over a gathering of Perry B. Duryea supporters, among them an enthusiast with a remarkable banner identifying his group as “Scandinavian Americans for Duryea.”
Anyone interested in local history will find treasures here, but, as Mr. Barons suggests, the show has few limits when it comes to areas of interest. Pausing before a photograph titled “Prize Catch,” in which Sara Houston Chisolm (Mrs. S. Kip Farrington Jr.) poses with two giant tuna, including a 493-pounder she landed after an epic 10-and-a-half-hour battle, one highly impressed visitor was overheard praising her remarkably thin ankles and her strong grip on the rod.
The exhibition, presented by the East Hampton Historical Society and the East Hampton Star, remains at the Clinton Academy Museum, 151 Main Street, through October 10. The museum is open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
on Sep 27, 2010