Many a visitor to the Sawin Museum has admired the engaging mural painted by Diane Gilson in early 2016.  Since this allegorical view of Dover and its setting is replete with details meaningful to the artist who grew up across the street from the Museum as well as the curators, Pam Kunkemueller and I, we feel that it might be beneficial to provide some information on these details so that future art historians or Dover history enthusiasts will not have to wrack their brains in order to grasp and explain the “inner meanings” of the scene represented.

First of all, why a work in the style of Rufus Porter (1792-1884), that prolific and well- known  painter of murals in New England private residences and  taverns from 1825  to 1845?  Porter was also a versatile inventor — and founder of Scientific American no less — keen to improve the lot of his fellow Americans and someone who would surely have been appreciated by forward thinking individuals like John Williams and Benjamin Sawin. 

In addition to Sawin’s theoretical approbation, the major reason for painting this scene was the fortuitous gift to the Dover Historical Society of the Chippendale arm chair rescued from the Williams Tavern as it was consumed by fire in 1908, apparently the result of arson. 

This chair, after much needed repairs to its frame, and then upholstered to great effect, inspired the creation of the Williams Tavern Corner.  It sits on original 18^th century white pine floor boards salvaged from  the Fisher Farm that overlooked the Charles River on Center Street prior to its demolition in 1999. 

Beside the chair stands a fine copy of a period tiger maple table, with replicas of a “frog mug” similar to that also retrieved from the burnt tavern and a clay pipe, not to mention the French leather-bound 1731 prayer book of unusual function. 

Despite the obvious gravitas conveyed by the eye-catching arm chair and accompaniments, the corner needed to be anchored to the main Sawin exhibition room, and how better to achieve this  than by painting a scene in the Rufus Porter School style on the surrounding walls displaying details that the tavern’s patrons would have noted in the neighborhood, or known about? 

After all, such a scene could well have been commissioned from Porter himself.

The following description proceeds from left to right, starting with a tall stylized elm tree in the foreground, followed by a towering white pine further from the viewer, all in signature Porter style.

Equally characteristic are the rather tropical looking ferns and other vegetation in a dark foreground enhancing a sense of perspective common to many of this artist’s scenes. 

Other features create the local landscape such as the Dover Church with its elegant spire on the left beneath the imposing mass of Noanet Peak, chosen over loftier Pegan Hill by Diane because she visited it frequently as a little girl.

Since it rose a mere mile southeast of the tavern, it was probably visible at a time when the original forest had made way for agricultural land. 

Indeed, it should be noted that the mural’s landscape consists of a patchwork of meadows and plowed fields delineated by rough stone walls, whose stones had been painstakingly and laboriously cleared from the very pastures they defined so they might be plowed with ease. 

Several herds of cattle graze in the mid-distance, but the white dots in the field in front of the Caryl House in the center of the scene, are none other than Ancon sheep, that short legged breed arising in Dover and exploited throughout New England from 1791 onward, but allowed to go extinct in 1876. 

Nor should one overlook a bubbling brook lined by trees running behind the Caryl House and Fisher Barn towards the Charles River which winds its way through the countryside. 

The landscape of rolling hills dotted with farms and their barns, and general lack of dense stands of trees, would have been typical of the period when most land in eastern New England was grazed by sheep and cattle or plowed to be sown with wheat, barley and various root crops. 

A notable feature in the  foreground is the line of twelve rather rag-tag militia men learning how to march and bear arms on the Old Training Field, already designated as such in 1755.  One may be certain that many would have retired to the Williams Tavern opposite for a pint of ale once their drilling was completed.

The second towering elm tree partially hides the so-called “Great Primeval Oak”, in the mid-19^th century a stately middle-aged tree that would only succumb in 2016 in what was perhaps its fourth century of life.

At the time represented in the mural, the Town House was yet to be built next to the oak.

The last elm on the right of the mural is accurately shown supporting the tavern’s sign. The 18^th  century  original  now  hangs  above  the  chair  and  arguably represents one of the Sawin Museum’s most prized possessions.

On one side it displays a rather enigmatic fierce looking feline (were it really a bob cat it should have a short tail) prowling the countryside on a moonlit night, and on the other a mad eyed, aggressive wolf.

In addition to the livestock, the mural is also populated with an assortment of creatures, common then as now.  The little black dog running towards the militiamen is none other than Diane’s childhood pet, “Ivan”, which she included as a personal touch. 

The fox slinking away to the left with a last look at the marchers would have been a common visitor to the farmyards with their poultry, perhaps to be chased by a second dog sitting under a tree near the church. 

Fortunately the fox has yet to notice the rabbit at the edge of the pasture.  The turkeys heading across a field behind the Fisher Barn would surely have been eyed by the red tailed hawk circling far above. With its four foot wing span it remains the most commonly seen, and heard, bird of prey in the region and would on occasion have been mobbed by the vociferous crows flying hither and thither. 

Finally, one should not forget to look for the red dashes representing cardinals partially hidden in the dense foliage of several trees.

As the mural matures with time, it will surely become a well-known and loved memento of our 19^th century town, also serving as a token of the Historical Society’s endeavor to further enhance the Sawin Museum as an engaged member of the Dover community. 

By Stuart Swiny