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  Stowell-Wiles Art Gallery
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Archive:  See the website Archive for previous web articles about the Gallery.

The Gallery Story:

The Stowell-Wiles Art Gallery was dedicated in 1935 as an addition to the 1914 Carnegie library. The gallery and its original 18 paintings were the gift of Dr. Charles H. Stowell, nephew of artist Lemuel M. Wiles (1826-1905), a Perry native whose Hudson River school oil paintings depict both local scenes and views of Europe and the Western United States. The collection has grown to 44 paintings, most of which have been restored through an ongoing program funded by grants and individual donations.

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Lemuel Maynard Wiles (1826-1905):

Artist Lemuel M. Wiles was born in West Perry, a hamlet about one mile from this gallery. He showed an early interest in sketching, but his parents urged him to become a teacher. He was graduated from the New York State Normal School in Albany in 1847. His career as artist and teacher progressed together. Wiles was a student of J.F. Cropsey and William Hart for short periods, but he was largely self-taught. He was head master of a private school (1852-7) in Buffalo, librarian in Utica (1857-63), and for many years was art director at Ingham University in LeRoy, New York. Wiles married Rachel Ramsey, an art student, in 1854; and they had one son, Irving Ramsey Wiles (1861-1948), who became a prominent and sought-after portrait painter. Lemuel Wiles and his artist son conducted a summer art school from 1888 to 1904. The Silver Lake Art School building, erected on the west side of the lake in 1890, has since been destroyed by fire.

 

Gallery Tours:

Special group or individual tours may be arranged by contacting the Library Director Peggy Parker (585-237-2243 or e-mail).

Gallery Personnel:

Douglas Grant McDanel
Gallery Curator

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Herbert J. Hawley
Gallery Curator Emeritus

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Archive:  See the website Archive for previous web articles about the Gallery.

Theft of paintings ...

The two small Lemuel M. Wiles paintings shown
here were stolen from our art gallery some time
September 26-27, 2008.  They were recovered, but the frames were missing.   If you have any information regarding this theft, please contact the library director at 585-237-2243 or the
Perry Police Department at 585-237-5445.
Thank you.

Boat Landing--Silver Lake, New York.jpg (96313 bytes)
Boat Landing--Silver Lake, NY
Found without frame; returned to library January 2013; to be reframed

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Early Snow 1882
Found without frame; returned to library January 2013; to be reframed

On May 10, 2011, an arrest was made in the case of the missing paintings.
Click here for an online story and a videotaped interview of Library Director Peggy Parker
by YNN's Kate McGowan on May 11, 2011.
Click here for an article by Matt Surtel posted online May 12, 2011, in The Daily News.


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Contact us: perrylibrarydirector@owwl.org

Funding for the creation of this page was supported by Federal Library Services and Technology Act funds granted by the New York State Library to the Pioneer Library System.