Through a Different Lens: Three Connecticut Women Photographers – Connecticut Historical Society

October 22, 2015
Written by: SCC Admin

Wednesday, November 4, 2015 at 6:30pm
Simsbury Library – Presentation Room

This exhibit introduced a new collection of photography donated by the Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation as well as a collection by Marie Kendall. The photographs document two generations of women photographers in Connecticut. Harriet V. S. Thorne (1843-1926), a talented amateur, used her camera to compose exquisite and moving pictures of the people and places that she knew, including her Bridgeport summer home, Schoonhoven, where her studio was located. Marie Hartig Kendall (1854-1943) published poetic views of the Litchfield Hills in Northwestern Connecticut where she lived after immigrating to the U.S. from her native Alsace-Lorraine. Rosalie Thorne McKenna (1916-2003) is best-known for her revealing portraits of artistic and literary figures of the mid-20th century; she also documented the fishing community of Stonington where she made her home.

Connecticut Historical Society

CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
South from Eldridge House, Norfolk. Photograph by Marie Kendall. 1898. The Connecticut Historical Society collections, 1981.58.1.
Phebe Van Schoonhoven Thorne in the Music Room at 914 Fifth Avenue, New York. Photograph by Harriet V.S. Thorne. 1910. The Connecticut Historical Society, 2011.344.179. Gift of the Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation. CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Phebe Van Schoonhoven Thorne in the Music Room at 914 Fifth Avenue, New York. Photograph by Harriet V.S. Thorne. 1910. The Connecticut Historical Society, 2011.344.179. Gift of the Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation.
CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Alexander Calder in His Studio, Roxbury, Connecticut. Photograph by Rosalie Thorne McKenna. 1958. The Connecticut Historical Society, 2011.344.1040. © The Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation. CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Alexander Calder in His Studio, Roxbury, Connecticut. Photograph by Rosalie Thorne McKenna. 1958. The Connecticut Historical Society, 2011.344.1040. © The Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation.
CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY