Collections
The Saco Museum collection contains more than 15,000 artifacts, including superb examples of documented local furniture, clocks, and other decorative arts. The museum is well known for its rich collection of paintings and portraits from the Saco River region, including the finest and largest collection of portraits by the renowned deaf artist John Brewster, Jr. (1766-1854). Other regional artists represented in the collection include Gibeon Elden Bradbury (1833-1904) and Charles Henry Granger (1812-1893). Granger was one of the founding members of the York Institute, the original name of the museum. An important collection of glass plate negatives and other early photography has been digitized and made available with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Girl in a Pink Striped Dress, 1796-1801, John Brewster, Jr. (1766 – 1854), oil on canvas, Gift of Cecilia Snow Williams.
Besides the fine arts, the museum houses a number of treasures of national significance. The Scamman Jug is a remarkably preserved stoneware jug from the Westerwald region of Germany bearing the medallion of King William III of England, originally owned by Humphrey Scamman (1640-1727) of Saco. The Wolcott-Johnson camera was the first daguerreotype portrait camera in the United States. Built in 1840, it was presented to the York Institute by its first president and the camera’s co-creator, John Johnson. A group of samplers and other examples of needlework from the region is a subject of scholarly focus and study. Catalogs relating to the two sampler exhibitions mounted by the Saco Museum were published in conjunction with the exhibitions. The museum has extensive holdings relating to other aspects of life in the lower Saco River Valley: tools and equipment for farming, ice cutting, and the textile mills, domestic artifacts, and clothing and textiles to name a few categories.
Jug, circa 1689-1702, Westerwald, Germany, salt-glazed stoneware, Gift of Katherine Deering.
A rare and unusual artifact, the 850-foot long Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress cannot be displayed because of its size. One of only a handful of 19th-century panoramas to survive, the Pilgrim’s Progress was painted in New York in 1851 by a group of artists and illustrators associated with the National Academy of Design. It is a unique example of this nearly extinct art form.
