TOUR BOWDOIN'S TWO SPECIAL EXHIBITS: “Poetic Truths” at the Art Museum and “Before They Were Famous” at the Library. ​Tours will meet at NOON in the lobby at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

ART EXHIBIT AT THE MUSEUM OF ART

“Poetic Truths: Hawthorne, Longfellow, and American Visual Culture, 1840-1880”

Members of Bowdoin College’s Class of 1825, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow created some of the most popular literary works in nineteenth-century America. In response to Hawthorne’s novels and Longfellow’s poetry, artists created many remarkable paintings, sculpture, and prints. Conversely, the authors drew inspiration from art and objects of all ages, often using them as narrative devices. This exhibition explores how the two authors and their compelling stories influenced American visual culture during this period. Poetic Truths features artworks inspired by Hawthorne’s novels, "The Scarlet Letter" (1850) and "The House of the Seven Gables" (1851), and "The Marble Faun": or, "The Romance of Monte Beni" (1860) and Longfellow’s epic poems "Evangeline," "A Tale of Acadie" (1847), and "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855).

BOWDOIN LIBRARY EXHIBIT

“Before They Were Famous: The Student Days of the Class of 1825”

Thirty-seven students graduated from Bowdoin College on September 7, 1825, the College’s twentieth commencement. Among them were future Congressmen, a U.S. Senator, numerous state politicians, the President of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, a U.S. Marshall, the uncle by marriage to Emily Dickinson, a fiery, famous abolitionist and temperance minister who was jailed for his beliefs, and two of America’s foremost authors: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Long described as Bowdon’s most famous class, it is easy to forget that at Bowdoin they were just boys learning to navigate the world. This exhibit, in celebration of the class’s 200th anniversary, explores the college days, from academics to pranks, of the illustrious class. Meet the Class of 1825, before they were famous!

In terms of Longfellow materials, the items on view will include his silhouette, a letter to his sister while he was a student, the key he used for his apartment on Federal, some of his textbooks, the catalogue he and a few others prepared for the Peucinian society, a photograph of him from ca. 1875, around the time he returned to Bowdoin to deliver "Morituri Salutamus,"and a letter with classmate David Shepley reflecting on that experience. There are also plenty of other materials that directly relate to him.