Interviewee: Ruth Folinsbee
Date of birth/age at interview: August 8, 1890/93
Interviewer: Mary Barry
Interview date: August 1, 1984
Interview location: Follinsbee home on Main Street , New Hope, PA
Interview length: 45 minutes
Time span discussed: 1920s – 1940s and present day (1984)
Summary: Ruth’s voice was weak at 94 years old and she was confined to bed. However, parts of this interview are helpful to get a feel for the area’s artist colony of the 20s and 30s. Her husband Jack’s painting and work is finally touched on from minute 25:30 to 30:00.
Time markers:
02:20 – moved from Connecticut to New Hope; Jack could roll around town here
04:00 – artists mentioned: Charles Rosen, Edward Redfield, Margaret and Robert Spencer, William Lathrop; Sunday afternoon artist gathering at Lathrop’s in Phillips Mill, showing each other their work
05:20 – Phillips’ Mill exhibitions developed
08:30 – Lathrop/Redfield falling out, mentioned “silly”
09:00 – artists not competitive, friendly atmosphere
09:50 – Holmquist School, Dr. George Marshall
11:50 – long discussion, quite indistinct, mostly about putting on amateur plays at the Phillips’ Mill
16:15 – Henry Chapin and other artists teaching school
18:00 –play discussions
25:50 – Jack’s painting style; first trip to Maine in 1930’s, “he fell in love with the ocean”
29:15 – painting style
30:05 – Jack’s “scientific evenings – poker nights”
32:00 – New Hope changes
37:20 – river traffic
38:30 – 1955 flood, time in Maine
39:50 – spring and fall evenings barge trips on the canal, dinners and friends
