Abby Williams Hill: Wanderlust, Works on Paper, 1895 - 1927

Kittredge Gallery University of Puget SoundMarch 7 – April 9, 2011

Curated by Andrea Moody

Laguna Beach/ Feb 10th ’16Pen and ink

The drawings included in Abby Williams Hill: Wanderlust, Works on Paper 1895 – 1927 span three decades and range in subject from Vashon Island, the North Cascades, Montana, and the Southwest to Germany, France, Switzerland and Belgium.

Following is a selection of works included in the exhibition as well as some excerpts from Hill’s journals and letters.

Untitled (Possibly Thun, Switzerland), 1908Watercolor

Lower Newport, Ohio/ October 4th ’95Graphite

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Have been walking around the farm with Uncle Lou. I enjoy the fall aspect, such great pumpkins, corn shocks, and mows full of hay, Aunt Annie’s table was loaded with good old fashioned farm cooking.

Will came up with us and has taken Romayne back to Margaret’s – We walked to the ferry with him. It was harder than I had thought. Frank comforted me in his quiet loving way, drew my hand through his arm. -- Abby Williams Hill, October 1895

The Hill family spend time in Ohio in the early fall of 1895 en route to Boston where Abby and Frank boarded The Persia to Hamburg, Germany.

Seven year-old Romayne was left with family in the Midwest. Abby sent many charming illustrated letters back to Romayne during their separation.

Lake McDonald/Mont/ Nov 16th ’07Pen and ink

Twelve years later, again on her way to Europe, Hill spent time in western Montana.

Fort Belknap Agency/ Montana,/ December 14th’07Pen and ink

Bruges, Belgium/ June 25th ’08Pen and ink

In 1908 – 1909, Hill spent nearly a year and a half traveling in Western Europe with her “brood” which included Romayne, Ina, and Eulalie as well as the girls’ biological brother Clifford.

Their travels took them from England and Germany to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, often by bicycle.

I tramped off to market with Mlle. and Eulalie. We passed several very beautiful places along the canals showing fine old stone bridges. The town is full of them and their students and no wonder, it is a fascinating place with something to paint at every turn.

- Abby Williams Hill, June 22, 1908

Chimney at La Grave, France and Detail of The Meije from La Grave, 1909Graphite

My precious husband:

I am behind again in giving you an account of our travels. When we are constantly wheeling there are so many things for me to attend to and now the days are shorter and I can not write by candlelight which would often be necessary.

-- Abby Hill to Frank Hill, October 8, 1908

Camp 4 miles from/ Oracle, Ariz./ Jan 31 ’27Pen and ink

In the late 1920s the Hills traveled by car, spending winters in Tucson and summers in the national parks.

The scenery about Tucson is a continual delight. One is on the desert but instead of seeing an area synonymous with, desolation, the word here, takes on a new meaning for instead of miles of monotonous sand stretches devoid of interesting growth one finds marvelous desert vegetation, gardens of cacti, palo verde, mesquite, creosote bush and towering above them the majestic sahuaro, centuries old forming an unrivaled fore-ground for the serrated mountain ranges that rise on every side to give magic charm to the distance.

-- Abby Williams Hill quoted in the Tucson Daily Citizen, May 12, 1929

The papers from the Hill Collection are held in the Archives of Collins Library and can be accessed by appointment.

For more information: www.pugetsound.edu/awh.

All images courtesy University of Puget Sound.

Paintings from the Abby Williams Hill Collection are on permanent display on the first floor in Jones Hall, in the reading room of Collins Memorial Library and outside the Slater Museum of Natural History in Thompson Hall on the campus of the University of Puget Sound.

Abby, Frank, Ina and Romayne Hill with friends in British Columbia, 1926