Longfellow House Historic Site Gifted Winslow Homer Watercolor

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge has accepted a Winslow Homer watercolor painting to its collection.

The site was the home of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for almost 50 years, and it had previously served as the headquarters of General George Washington.

Now a museum, and a unit of the U.S. National Park Service, the historic site has accepted Homer’s “Waiting for the Boats” (1882) painting. The watercolor was painted during Homer’s two-year stay in the seaside fishing village of Cullercoats, England.

The painting was donated by Frances Appleton Wetherell, the great-granddaughter of Henry and Frances Longfellow, and joins an art collection of more than 2,000 works. It will be on regular display for the first time ever on May 26, when Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site opens for the season.

“The generosity of the Longfellow family is awe-inspiring,” Longfellow House Site Manager Chris Beagan said in a news release. “We’re deeply grateful to Mrs. Wetherell for continuing her family’s deep philanthropic tradition. It’s an honor to be entrusted with the care of such an extraordinary painting, and we’re thrilled to be able to share this work by Winslow Homer with visitors from near and far.”

The historic site will host a public program to celebrate the addition of the painting to its museum collection on June 6. Sylvia Yount, the Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, will present a talk, which will also be livestreamed. Interested attendees are asked to register in advance here.

“Waiting for the Boats is a wonderful piece of art,” Longfellow House Curator David Daly said in a news release, “and its intimate connection with the extended Longfellow family confers upon it a significance that’s hard to match. Waiting for the Boats not only enriches the Longfellow House fine art collection, but complements the site’s efforts to educate the public about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, his family, and their important roles in the development of American literature and art.”