Selected Works from the Plainfield Public Library's Fine Arts Collection

The Library's Fine Arts Collection includes two original works by Winslow Homer, three early Audubon prints, two oils by John F. Carlson and one by Jonas Lie. Of special interest are works by Plainfield artists Riva Helfond, Arnold Schmidt, and Alonzo Adams, as well as original sketches, drawings and watercolors by various noted children's illustrators. In all there are forty important works. A Cloisonné and Porcelain Collection was donated by the Library's founder Job Male.

In Spring 2012, the article, "Diversity in Art" by Library Director Joe Da Rold, appeared in the quarterly issue of the New Jersey Library Association - History & Preservation Section’s newsletter, The Chronicle.  This piece presents a focused look into the local African-American and Latino artists of Library’s Fine Arts Collection. 

Select an artist to learn more about them and view their artwork:

Images of art or photographs found on this website are not to be used in any manner without the expressed written permission of the Plainfield Public Library Board of Trustees as delegated to the Library Director.

ACOMB, GERALDINE (1907-2000)
Geraldine De M. (Goutiere) Acomb was born in northern India. By 1970, she moved to Plainfield, where she resided for a decade. She attended the Boston Arts School, and became an accomplished artist of portraits and botanicals. While in Plainfield, she was a member of the Plainfield Garden Club. Acomb was also a writer, and authored Leopards in the Garden. She passed away in 2000 at the age of 92, and is buried in Hillside Cemetery.

Portrait of Anne Louise Davis Gift of F. Edgar Davis Jr. & Geoffrey C. Davis in 2003

ADAMS, ALONZO (1961-present)
Plainfield artist Alonzo Adams grew up using the Plainfield Public Library, which is proud to own several of his original paintings and signed prints. The body of his work portrays contemporary Black lifestyles, "inspired by everyday sights and sounds that deserve immortality in a constantly changing world." His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at major public and private venues in the East, including Howard University and the Russell Senate Building in Washington, D.C. His works hang in the collections of Bill Cosby, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou and Senator Bill Bradley, among others. The images below are a selection of the library's holdings of Mr. Adams' work.

Fourth Position Limited Edition Print; n.d. (Donated by the artist in 2011)		Distant Dreams Open Edition Print, n.d. (Donated by the artist in 2011)
Birthplace of Legends Limited Edition Print; n.d. (Donated by the artist in 2011)		Young Wheels Open Edition Print, n.d. (Donated by the artist in 2011)
May We Make Them Proud Limited Edition Print; n.d. (Donated by the artist in 2011)		Blocks Open Edition Print, n.d. (Donated by the artist in 2011)
Tea Time Watercolor; n.d.		Tag Along Lithograph, n.d.
Honorable Thurgood Marshall Oil on canvas; n.d. (Donated by Lincoln University Alumni, Plainfield Chapter)		Mother to Son Oil on canvas; n.d. (Donated by the artist)

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AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES (1785-1851)
Audubon was born in the French colony of Santo Domingo (now Haiti), the son of Captain Jean Audubon, a French sailor and adventurer. As a child he was raised by his father in Nantes, France. He later received naval training, learned to love nature and wildlife, and began to draw. At the age of eighteen he was sent to America to oversee his father's farm in Montgomery County, northwest of Philadelphia. Audubon quickly fell in love with the eastern Pennsylvania countryside and its animals. He became an enthusiastic and skilled hunter, both for sport and for his art. He collected all kinds of wildlife specimens, which he both preserved and sketched. At the age of thirty-five, John James Audubon decided to turn passion into profession, setting out to depict every bird in America, with an eye to publishing the results. It was a remarkable undertaking for a newcomer with no formal training in art or science. His fame rests primarily on his "Birds of America" series, published from 1827 through 1838. The library owns three double-elephant folio prints from the Birds of America series.  The American Flamingo and the Golden Eagle were early gifts to the library's incipient art collection.  The Black Billed Cuckoo Magnolia Grandiflora was donated in 2010.

American Flamingo # 431 Lithograph; 1838		Golden Eagle # 181 Lithograph; 1833
Black Billed Cuckoo Magnolia Grandiflora #7 of Plate 32 Lithograph; 1828 (Donated by the Ladies Home of Plainfield in 2010)

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BAILEY, INDIRA
Indira Bailey is a gifted artist whose passion is creating paintings and drawings that depict daily ‘life scenes’ of people moving, living and ‘doing’ in their environment. Her paintings reflect bold and vibrant colors that remember the past and challenge the present. Even as a child, she knew one day that she would follow her dreams and become a professional artist.

Born in Plainfield, as a little girl she was fascinated by Ernie Barnes’s paintings featured on the TV show Good Times and devoured art books depicting Norman Rockwell’s paintings. Indira entered her first art show in the children’s division of the annual Plainfield Art Festival. This was the beginning of her love affair with art. After high school she majored in illustration at Pratt Institute. She received a BA in Communication Design in 1990, an MA in Educational Leadership in 2004 from Kean University, and is a member of the Society of Illustrators in New York.

Growing up, there were few references to black art even at the college level. This lead to Indira’s commitment to adhere to her roots as evident in her vivid and colorful portrayal of African-American and African life.

Initiation Oil on Canvas; 2007

About Initiation: ISangoma is a traditional Zulu diviner whose main function is to heal and protect the people in the community. An iSangoma contacts the ancestral spirits and other important religious functions. An iSangoma initiate is called a "thwasas" who wears red, symbolizing the transformation process that the apprentice is undergoing. The initiate symbolic death is one's old self and the rebirth of a new iSangoma. A part of the rite of passage is wearing white medicinal clay on skin to symbolize bravery, power and protection against negative forces.

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BARNES, JOE
Born in Richmond, Virginia, African-American photographer Joe Barnes started taking photographs at age 11 with his Brownie camera. He moved to Plainfield in 1968. As a photographer he is self-taught. Red, Black & Blues was shot at the Vancouver Music Festival and was a blue-ribbon winner in the annual Plainfield Art Show.

Red, Black & Blues Photograph (Gift of the artist in 2011)

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BOGARDUS, ELLIE (1935-2002)
Ellie Bogardus was a California-based artist known around the small, coastal community of Cambria. An accomplished painter, Ellie's works have been displayed at several California galleries. She also created the graphic art on some of the earliest television cartoons and features such as Charlie Brown and Garfield.

Encore, Un Peu Acrylic on canvas, 1975 Gift of Joseph Da Rold

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CARLSON, JOHN FABIAN (1875-1945)
At the age of nine, Carlson emigrated with his family from Sweden to New York. In 1902 he won a scholarship to the Art Students League in New York City and six years later became assistant to the director of the league's summer school at Woodstock. Carlson was a proponent of painting directly from nature, and the countryside at Woodstock became an important source of subject matter for his landscapes. He was fond of painting winter scenes, and the compositional strength of trees in winter is evident in the library's two paintings.

Carlson met his future wife, Margaret Goddard, in the idyllic setting of Woodstock, New York, where he taught landscape painting in the summer school of the Art Students League. As teacher and mentor, Carlson inspired her artistically, and by 1910 they became romantically involved. Margaret, who was born in Plainfield in 1882, was also an artist of the first rank, but she sublimated her promising career in favor of managing her husband's career and raising three sons. With her support, John Fabian Carlson went on to win national acclaim. He won numerous awards at the prestigious painting salons at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Although they ultimately lived in Woodstock, the Carlsons always remained close to her family and returned to frequently to Plainfield.

Winter at Roundout Valley Oil on canvas; ca. 1930

Morning Gayety Oil on canvas; ca. 1930

From 2001 through 2004, during the residence of Ambassador Charles A. Heimbold, Jr., the Library's painting Morning Gayety hung in the American Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. It was one of 13 paintings borrowed through the Art in Embassies Program of the U.S. Department of State to augment the ambassador's own fine collection, and it was the only painting not on loan from a gallery or museum. It was beautifully reproduced in the exhibit catalog marking that occasion.

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DAVIS, ANNE LOUISE (1913-2000)
Born on March 27, 1913, Miss Anne Louise Davis was a lifelong resident of Plainfield, NJ (view obituary). She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Davis, and sister of F. Edgar Davis. Miss Davis graduated from The Hartridge School in 1930. Finishing high school during the Depression, she attended Katherine Gibbs to learn secretarial skills and went to work as a secretary for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in New York City. After six years there, she was the company's liaison to its public relations office and moved on to become a literary agent handling contracts for non-fiction magazine articles, radio, T.V. and movies. She would work full time during the week in New York and then would volunteer in the evening as a nurse's aide at Muhlenberg Hospital.

Anne Louise Davis was dedicated to the city of Plainfield and served on numerous community organizations and boards, including the Friends of the Plainfield Public Library and as President of the Library's Board of Trustees for many years. The Library's Anne Louise Davis Gallery room is named in her honor. In addition, she was an accomplished sculptor who learned at the Jewish Community Center in Plainfield; African mahogany was her favorite medium.

Hope African mahogany, circa 1980s.

DAVIS, WARREN B. (1865-1928)
Best known for his paintings of idealized female figures, Warren Davis studied at the Art Students League in New York. He was also a magazine illustrator, and many of his depictions of ethereal appearing goddesses were on the covers of Vanity Fair. Later in his career he became a skilled etcher and exhibited in Europe and the United States including the Pennsylvania Academy and the Salmagundi Club.

Lady in Repose Watercolor; 1892

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GARRETT, ADAMS (1908-2000)
Born in Texas, Garrett died at the age of 92 in Plainfield, where he had lived for many years. He began his formal study at the Art Students League in NYC, where he later worked as a graphic arts instructor from 1947 to 1951. He was a prolific artist who painted in the Impressionist style. Exhibition venues included the Parsons School of Design for the WPA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the San Francisco Museum of Art. His works are in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institute, Zimmerli Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Untitled [The Farmer] Acrylic on paper; ca. 1975

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GRANDÉ, DONNA (Contemporary)
Donna Grandé, an award-winning artist and teacher, studied at the Art Students League in NY, NJ School of Visual Arts, Koho School of Sumi Painting, NY, Montclair State University (BA, Arts, Speech & Theatre, Dance) and the Institute of Design in New York.  She has been on the faculty of the Bloomfield (NJ) Art League and has been a painting instructor since 1998.

Donna has exhibited extensively in juried shows and has won numerous awards for her art throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maine.  She is currently represented by galleries in Vermont and Maine, in addition to Art Forms Galleries in Red Bank. In 2007, she had a solo exhibit at the Plainfield Public Library. Although the primary focus of her work is landscape, she also paints abstracts; she works in pastel, acrylic and oil. 

South Mountain Reservation Pastel, 2007 Gift of the Artist

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HASLAM, CLARENCE (1931-2002)
Jamaican-born sculptor Clarence "Fish" Haslam was a self-taught artist who immigrated to Plainfield in the 1980s. The wood sculpture, Missionary, was a gift to the Library where he was employed for several years.

Missionary Wood sculpture Gift of the Artist

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HELFOND (BARRETT), RIVA (1910-2002)
Born in New York City, Helfond moved to Russia with her parents in 1914 but returned in 1921. She enrolled in the Art Students League in NYC and later became affiliated with the Harlem Art Center, where she studied with Louis Lozowick. She taught lithography there in the Graphic Arts Division and later transferred to the Silkscreen Division. As with many artists of her generation, she worked with the WPA. She is represented in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOMA, et al. She taught at New York University and Union County College. In her later life she lived in Plainfield, where she owned an art store and gallery on East Front Street.

Ship in Construction Intaglio; 1940's Gift of the artist		Vista Collograph; ca. 1975 Gift of the artist
Untitled Lithograph; 1963		Aegean Oil on canvas; ca. 1940s Donated by Victoria Griswold.
Landscape Oil on canvas; 1965 Donated by Victoria Griswold.

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HEYDT, GERRY (Contemporary)
A resident of Plainfield since 1975, Gerry holds a BFA in fashion illustration, and an MFA in drawing and printmaking. After working in etching and lithography early in her career, she started oil painting in 1987 and now works almost exclusively with oils for their lush effects and versatility.

In addition to teaching art, Gerry has played an active role in many of Plainfield ’s cultural organizations. She is currently represented by several art galleries in New Jersey and New York .

The Bank Oil on linen

Anne Louise Davis Oil on Canvas; ca. 1990 Donated by F. Edgar (Ted) Davis.

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HOLSTON, MEL (Contemporary)
A lifelong Jerseyan, Mel studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and Jersey City State College. Holston works in a variety of media, but is widely recognized for his finely detailed pen-and-ink renderings drawing on African themes and traditions, using these to offer insights into common themes around the world. Many of his pieces are enhanced by semi-abstract color washes which add to the emotional intensity of the drawing while suggesting elements of the setting.

His museum and gallery shows include: Logoa Duncan Gallery, New York and Paris; Jersey City Museum, Rochester Museum & Science Center; Chicago Museum of Science & Industry; Renaissance Gallery; Brockman Gallery, and the Association of Caribbean-American Artists.

Mel has lived in Plainfield since 1993, and is well-known in local arts and culture circles. He is a member of Plainfield's Cultural and Heritage Commission.

Rhinoceros Pen and Ink, 2006

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HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-1910)
The Plainfield Public Library owns two original artworks by Winslow Homer. They were donated to the Library in 1931 by Benjamin F. Day, who had spent his boyhood in North Plainfield before moving to New York City. Homer was born in Boston in 1836 and died in Maine in 1910. He began his career as a free-lance magazine illustrator in 1857 and won praise for many of his paintings, his watercolors in particular. His first mature oil paintings, dating from 1862, were of Civil War subjects. In these, he was concerned with the effect of light and shade, much like the early French Impressionists of the same period. He lived in France for a year (1867), and the impact of Impressionist composition appears in many of his later works of all periods. Homer's work took him to many locations, which appear frequently in his paintings. In addition to the coasts of New England and Cullercoats, he also painted in the West Indies, and Long Branch, New Jersey.

The Library owns over 50 original engravings that appeared in Harpers Weekly magazine from 1858 through 1874. Homer contributed drawings and engravings for major publications between 1857 and 1875, when he was employed as a journalist/illustrator.

Looking Over the Cliff Watercolor on paper; 1882

Yachting Girl Lithograph; ca. 1890

The finest and most often reproduced painting in our collection, this work was painted in Cullercoats, England. The image of two women standing together is repeated in many of his works from the period.  This watercolor has been included in several important museum exhibitions, including the Art Institute of Chicago’s 2008 exhibit Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light and the 1986 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Winslow Homer Watercolors.  Color reproductions appear in three publications: 1. Winslow Homer Watercolors, the 1986 exhibition catalog by Helen A. Cooper; 2. The Watercolors of Winslow Homer a 2001 publication by Miles Unger; and 3. Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, the 2008 exhibition catalog by Martha Tedeschi.  An image of the work will be appearing in a catalog being prepared by Harvard University Art Museum, entitled American Paintings at Harvard: Artists Born from 1826 to 1856, in juxtaposition with a wash drawing by Homer in their own collection.

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KESKULLA, CAROLYN (1912-2003)
The work of Carolyn Keskulla was exhibited in museums and galleries all over the United States, including the Library of Congress, the San Francisco Museum, the Cleveland Museum, the Butler Art Institute, and Riverside Museum (NY), and the major museums of New Jersey, where she lived before moving to Santa Fe in 1976. Her work is unusually varied, ranging through oils, watercolors, collages, graphics, and sculpture. Her watercolors, which have a fresh, vibrant, quality, are perhaps predominant, but the woodcuts and etchings are next.

She received many prizes in juried exhibitions, and her work is in public and private collections throughout the country. Her watercolors, woodcuts, and etchings were shown in many one-person exhibitions in galleries, libraries, colleges, etc., over a period of years. Several traveling exhibitions included her work, such as the Associated Artists of New Jersey (of which she was president), the New Jersey Water Color Society, Artists Equity Association, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She worked for many years to improve the status of Art and Artists in that state.

After her move to New Mexico in 1976 her work took on a southwestern flavor, especially in renderings of the high mountains, canyons, and mesas, where she and her husband spent many pleasant years hiking and backpacking with the Sierra Club. Her prints and paintings appeared in various galleries in Santa Fe. In 1985 her work was included in an exhibition of the work of American women in Nairobi, Kenya.

Flute Player (Jean) Woodcut, 1960.

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KUPER, ROSE (1888-1987)
Noted for her strong abstract compositions and particular skill with colors, Rose Kuper used many media, ranging from oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, lithographs, collages, monoprints, crayon impressions, ink and others. Her style ranged from realist in the beginning through abstract impressionism. Her most original contribution has been the use of printers' ink on the reverse of glass, culminating in a solo show at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York.

Born October 9, 1888, in Riga Latvia, Rose Kuper moved at the age of six months with her family to London, where she lived until the age of 5, when they came to New York City. She became primarily a New York City artist, belonged to the Manhattan Group, although she also did much painting in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

She was active with the Brooklyn Art Association, the Art Students League and the National Association of Women Artists, which she served on the Executive Board from 1951 to 1954. She was also an instructor in the New York public schools and was married to Theodore Kuper.

In New York, she earned a B.A. Degree at Hunter College and studied with Abstract Expressionists Hans Hoffmann and Abraham Rattner. Her first teacher was Teresa Bernstein, with whom she studied in 1927. Kuper began as an independent artist with a painting trip to Brittany in 1930, and ended with a retrospective show at the Whittier Museum in October, 1984. In between, she gained representation in the permanent collections of seventeen public institutions: colleges, museums and libraries, and had 18 one-artist exhibitions.

Lovers Monoprint on paper, 1956. Gift of Joe Da Rold

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LIE, JONAS (1880-1940)
Jonas Lie was born in Moss, Norway, the son of an American mother and a Norwegian father. He first studied art in Paris at the age of twelve. With the death of his father, Jonas moved with his mother to Plainfield in 1893. After finishing school in 1897, he worked full time as a textile designer to support his mother and sisters but continued his studies at night at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. By 1901 he was already exhibiting his paintings, and by 1904 was garnering the first of the many prizes he would receive for his work. Although he chose to live and work in the United States, and was later elected President of the National Academy of Design, Lie returned regularly to Norway to paint.

The painting, "Standing Alone," was originally owned by Eliza E. Kenyon, Head-Mistress of the old Plainfield Seminary and founder of the Kenyon School for Girls. Miss Kenyon gave the painting to her great niece, Eleanor Stimson Brooks, wife of noted literary critic and Plainfield resident, Van Wyck Brooks. Later, Mr. Brooks gave the painting to the Library as a bequest of his wife upon her passing. Other works by Lie can been seen at Plainfield's Drake House and All Souls Unitarian Church.

Standing Alone Oil on canvas; n.d.

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LORIAN, DOLIA (1902-1952)
Dolia Lorian was born in Odessa, Russia on December 25, 1902; she resided in New York City. Dolia died on March 24, 1952, and is buried in South Plainfield, NJ. She is noted for abstract modern urban landscapes. Her works are in the collections of Yale University, the Georgia Museum of Art, the Newark Museum, and the Whitney Museum of Art.

Composition Charcoal; n.d.

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LOZOWICK, LOUIS (1892-1973)
From 1903 to 1905, Louis Lozowick attended the Kiev Art School in Russia. He immigrated by himself to America at the age of fourteen and became a student at the National Academy of Design in New York. Lozowick's cubistic and futuristic style was formed while he was traveling throughout Europe in the early 1920s. A painter, printmaker, and illustrator, Lozowick's bold, elegant style helped revive interest in printmaking at a time when it was not popular as an art form. He worked primarily with lithography and developed many innovative techniques in that medium. During the Depression, Lozowick became interested in portraying the human condition, which led him towards realism and an interest in the figure. His work in the late 1930's focused on the dynamic between the worker and the machine, with a similar approach to his near-contemporary Fernand Léger. Museums and public collections containing his work include the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Newark Museum.

Above the City Lithograph; 1932

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MARTINEZ, FERMIN (Contemporary)
Fermin Martinez has been creating art since he was a teen in his native Dominican Republic. His subjects are wide-ranging, but his palette and themes are rich with warm yet vibrant colors, predominantly depicting the tropical fauna of the Caribbean. A resident of Watchung, he is a founder of "RAICES: Hispanic Cultural Association." The painting Las Damas Balcony was a gift of Joe Da Rold in 2007.

Las Damas Balcony Acrylic on canvas, n.d.

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NATHAN, ELIZABETH (1903-1953)

Night scene in Taxco, Mexico Oil on canvas; n.d.

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ORTIZ, JULIO (1975- )
Born in 1975 in a farming village in northern Honduras, Julio Cesar Ortiz discovered his artistic talent for drawing and painting in elementary school. Following elementary school graduation, Julio started his artistic training with three years of correspondence enrollment in the Modern Art School in Miami, where he earned a degree in drawing. He then studied and attended workshops with distinguished Honduran painters. After a few years he began painting on his own and developed his unique style. While living in Honduras, Julio participated in several exhibitions with other national well-known artists. In 1996 Julio immigrated to United States, and embarked in a new phase in his artistic career. Julio has been in several art shows in New Jersey where he lives.

Village Scene Acrylic, 1998. (Donated by Francisco (Paco) Ortiz in 2011)

Coffee Trader Oil on canvas, 2003. (Gift of the artist, 2012)

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PASQUALOTTO, MARIO (1953-present)
Barcelona artist Mario Pasqualotto is a frequent visitor to Plainfield. His works are in museum collections in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Japan. Pasqualotto's work is "bold, controlled, and elegant." This assemblage was donated by the artist from his Plainfield Stories series. It illustrates the impressions and sensations of this European artist in the Plainfield community. Almost all of his gallery works take place in series:

Plainfield Stories #1 Mixed media; 1998 Gift of the artist

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POVEDA, RAUL
Ecuadorian-born artist Raul Poveda displays a wide variety styles and subjects, from still lifes and portraits to mountain village scenes of his native country. He studied Architecture and Urbanism at the Central University of Ecuador. The Library's most recent acquisition suggests the influence of Diego Rivera. The painting, La Candela, was a gift of the artist through a grant from the Plainfield Cultural & Heritage Association in 2011.

La Candela Gift of the artist

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SCHMIDT, ARNOLD (1930-1993)
Schmidt, who was born in Plainfield, is represented in the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Newark Museum, among others. This unusual canvas in the form of an "x" is an excellent, exciting example of Op Art and is the only painting of this period in the collection.

Four Arrows Make a White Square Oil on canvas; 1966

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SCOTT, JULIAN (1846-1901)
Julian Scott was born in Vermont. He joined the army in 1861 serving as a drummer boy and nurse. His sketches of scenes of hospital life attracted the attention of a philanthropist who enrolled Scott at the National Academy of Design. Scott became known for his oil paintings of the Civil War and Native Americans as well as for his exquisitely detailed portraits. On July 4, 1901, Scott died in Plainfield, New Jersey and was buried with military honors in Hillside Cemetery. His work is in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Newark Museum, the New Jersey State Museum, as well as many throughout the Western and Southern United States. The Portrait of Job Male, Plainfield's first mayor and library founder, is unsigned, but it has been attributed to Scott as it bears the mark of his style and technical prowess.

Portrait of Job Male [attributed to Julian Scott] Oil on canvas; n.d.

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STACHOWICZ, JOHN

Seventh Day Baptist Church Oil on Linen, 1988 Gift of Sandra Lawrence

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STUMMER, HELEN M. (1938- present)
Fine-art photo documentarian Helen M. Stummer was born in Newark and resides in Metuchen.  She began photographing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1977 when she was enrolled as a student at the International Center for Photography.  Gripped by the surrounding street life of the lower East Side, she began to focus on children while working with the Children’s Aid Society.  Her photography is in the tradition of Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine and Dorothea Lange—who dynamically and passionately photographed impoverished immigrants, child labor and migrant workers from the 1800’s through the 1950’s.

Stummer earned her B.A. (Cum Laude) in Studio Art from Kean University in 1977.  In 1987 she graduated from Vermont College with an M.A. in Visual Sociology.  Her book, No Easy Walk, Newark, 1980-1993, was published by Temple University Press.  Her photographs have been widely exhibited in the New York metropolitan area.  She is represented in the permanent collections of The Library of Congress, The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, The Newark Museum and the Newark Library, as well as The New York and New Jersey Historical Societies.  In 2006 she was celebrated with the Gracie Allen Award from American Women in Radio and Television. 

In 2007, the Plainfield Cultural & Heritage Commission presented her works in an exhibit entitled “NO EASY WALK, A Social Documentary, 1977-2007” at the Plainfield Public Library.  The exhibit featured more than 50 of her photographs.  She later donated two images from this show entitled, Shirley's Children and Quinzel, Cornelius & Hasan, as well as four additional photographs to the library’s collection: Khalif by his Front Door, Loving Precious, Child Doing Homework, and Cookin' for the Hungry.

Shirley's Children Gift of the Artist		Quinzel, Cornelius & Hasan Gift of the Artist
Child Doing Homework Gift of the Artist		Loving Precious Gift of the Artist
Khalif by his Front Door Gift of the Artist		Cookin' for the Hungry Gift of the Artist

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TICE, GEORGE (1938- Present)
George Tice was born in Newark in 1938.   Self taught in the use of the view camera, he began photographing the rural Amish communities of Pennsylvania, a region that he grew up in and returned to over the time span of eight years. 

He has published many books of photographs, including Fields of Peace: A Pennsylvania German Album (1970), Paterson, New Jersey (1972), Seacoast Maine: People and Places (1973), Urban Landscapes: A New Jersey Portrait (1975), and Hometowns: An American Pilgrimage (1988). 

The photographs of George Tice are in major museum collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum.  The Plainfield Public Library owns four original photographs, one from the Amish series entitled, Ephrata Cloisters Interior, and three images of Plainfield, the only ones he has taken of our community: Train Station, East Front Street Storefronts, and Red Tower.

Ephrata Cloisters Interior Limited Edition, signed (Gift of Rhea Alper)		Red Tower Original Print
Train Station Original Print		East Front Street Storefronts Original Print

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