Huntington to Install 19th-Century American Murals
 |
| Jonathan D. Poor, Trickey House murals (as installed in Nantucket), about 1835. Photo: T. Walsh, courtesy of the Center for Painted Wall Preservation |
The murals were commissioned for the Zebulon Trickey House in Westbrook, Maine. Jonathan D. Poor was nephew and apprentice to Rufus Porter, a portraitist, muralist, inventor, and founder of Scientific American magazine. Poor's signature appears on a dozen murals in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. As many as 30 more murals have been assigned to him on stylistic grounds.
In the 1950s some bozo painted the Trickey House murals' misty gray skies a bright blue. When the home was torn down for a subdivision, the blue overpainting was removed, and the murals were reinstalled in a home in Nantucket. They came on the market in 2018. The Fieldings bought them for the Huntington via dealer Allan Katz.
Jonathan D. Poor is having a museum moment. A mural ensemble of his was recently installed at the Rufus Porter Museum, Bridgeton, Maine. The Huntington murals will go on view in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art on Sep. 21, 2025.
 |
| Trickey House Murals in Nantucket. Photo: T. Walsh, courtesy of the Center for Painted Wall Preservation |
 |
| Trickey House murals in storage at Huntington |
Comments
> painted the Trickey House
> murals' misty gray skies
> a bright blue.
A few older buildings in LA, including one originally of Beaux-Arts design, in the 1960s were stripped down and "modernized."
Going back centuries, when modern conveniences as slick as today's indoor plumbing or transportation didn't exist, the architectural-creative aspects of a society were still quite impressive.
The Palace of Versailles of the 1600s had amazing design/structural features, including massive fountains. But visitors to it would complain about how it stunk (literally) because people were taking a leak or a dump in various sections of it----bathrooms back then weren't a thing.
Going back even further, the engineering marvels of ancient Rome have long been famous. Features of them may have been even a bit better than centuries later in places like France:
Google/AI: The Colosseum did have public restrooms for spectators. These were typically rows of stone seats with holes in them, positioned over a drain that was flushed by running water. The water would carry waste away to the main sewer system. Visitors would use a sponge on a stick, potentially shared, to clean themselves, rinsing it in the running water.