Thomas Cole, “Corway Peak, New Hampshire”

Art of Our Time: Selections by the Class of 1974 
May 4 – August 4, 2024
Gallery 1

Thomas Cole, Corway Peak, New Hampshire
1844, oil on canvas, Purchase made possible by the Fine Arts Fund, 1948; 37th Annual Exhibition.
Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

I do not remember this painting during my time at R-MWC; however, I have a story. Since 2012, my girlfriends from R-MWC  – Liz Robertson Rowe, Karen Horstman Kamerick, Margaret Gallalee Burks, Kathy Graham Wood, and Jody Wren – have gotten together – most years – for a reunion. In July of 2017, all but Kathy met at Liz’s home in Tamworth, NH. Of course, having graduated from a Liberal Arts college we assigned a book to read before gathering (usually about the place we gather). Our book for this reunion was Look to the Mountain by LeGrand Cannon, Jr (1942). The mountain in the story is Mount Chocorua – once known as Corway Peak. So, of course, we went to “look” to the mountain.  ~ Patricia Childress ’74