2017 Women's Luncheon

Community Objects: The Lithographs and
Charitable Projects of Fitz Henry Lane
A conversation with Melissa Geisler Trafton

Melissa Geisler Trafton is an art historian with an area of interest in nineteenth-century American landscape painting. She received her undergraduate degree in art history at Harvard and her Master’s and PhD in art history at the University of California, Berkeley. Until last year she was the Adjunct Curator & Managing Editor for Fitz Henry Lane Online, and helped to develop and launch the web-based resource. She is an author of one of the essays in the exhibition catalog for Drawn from Nature & on Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane. Currently she is an adjunct professor of art history at the University of New Hampshire, Manchester.

“Fund a Need” Auction

Funds raised at this year's luncheon will be dedicated to the purchase and installation of historically accurate carpeting in the Captain Elias Davis House, a Federal style structure built in 1804.

In 1923 the Cape Ann Scientific and Literary Association purchased the House as the first home of what would later become the Cape Ann Museum. Today, the first floor of the Davis House is open for public viewing; its furniture and decorative arts give visitors a sense of domestic life enjoyed by Elias Davis, his wife, Lucy and their large family. The kitchen, dining room, front entryway, central staircase, parlor and back parlor are representative of traditional mid-nineteenth century rooms. Funds raised at the 2016 Women’s Luncheon led to installation of wallpaper in three rooms and the stairway. This year, to continue the interior restoration of this project, funds will provide purchase and installation of period floor coverings.

Carpet for this project will be made by the Grosvenor Wilton Company Ltd. founded in 1790, one of the most highly respected makers of traditional carpeting. Their craftsmanship and attention to detail—along with your support—will insure the success of this exciting project.