Not all visions of early America were created in the 1700s. Some were carefully produced in the 1900s.

This hand-tinted print in the collection, A Pool at Sandwich, was produced at the Wallace Nutting Art Prints Studio from a photograph taken by Wallace Nutting (1861–1941)—a minister, photographer, antiquarian, author, and entrepreneur whose atmospheric images of New England helped fuel the Colonial Revival movement that gained momentum in the late 1800s and flourished in the early 1900s.

At the height of his business, Nutting employed nearly two hundred colorists to hand-tint his black-and-white photographs. By his own account, he sold ten million prints between the 1910s and 1920s. These works were both handcrafted and mass-produced; studio colorists often signed Nutting’s name to finished prints, resulting in a variety of signatures across surviving examples.

What Americans embraced as a vision of “Olde New England” was more than scenery. Nutting’s images presented an orderly, peaceful, and timeless place—one largely untouched by industrial growth, immigration, urbanization, or conflict. Produced during a period of rapid national change and overseas expansion, they offered viewers a carefully composed vision of continuity.

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, this print invites us to consider how each generation has interpreted and reinterpreted the colonial past in its own time.

2026 Collection Focus — America at 250 🇺🇸
Throughout 2026, we’re exploring not only the nation’s origins, but how Americans have reimagined them. #America250 #SandwichMAHistoricalSociety