Explore the life and history of American inventor Rufus Porter in this special virtual lecture with Independent Curator Laura F. Sprague and University of Maine Professor of Art History Justin Wolff. In 2019, Sprague and Wolff co-curated the exhibit Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America, 1815-1860 at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine.
In partnership with the Rufus Porter Museum of Art and Ingenuity, located in Bridgton, Maine, this featured program tells the remarkable stories of Porter, whose quest for mechanized flight earned him the nickname “Yankee da Vinci.” A selection of Porter’s measurement instruments and patents are on display in the Mercer Museum’s summer exhibit, Magnificent Measures! The Hausman-Hill Collection of Calculating Instruments.
