Skip Navigation

RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Arts

Humphreys Painting Dedicated; Artist Honored

Sat, May 21, 2011

Humphreys Painting Dedicated; Artist Honored

PETERBORO -- What started out as the dedication of a piece of art turned into a major "thank you" to the artist Friday.

Hamilton's Hugh Humphreys explained the work behind and the content of Come Join the Abolitionists, a massive painting now hanging in the second floor of the Smithfield Community Center. And, when he had competed his presentation, a number of people who have worked with Humphreys on past projects stepped forward to say thanks.

The parade of admirers included the Lingo Family, Max Smith, Lauri Tomberlin, Norm Dann, Dot Wiltsey and others. All thanked him for bringing his time and considerable talents to bear on making known the abolitionist history of this modest Madison County hamlet.

Come Join The Aboilitionists may be a high water mark in Humphreys' efforts. 

The 40" x 80" painting depicts what an abolitionist rally might have looked like had one been held on the green in Peterboro. Humphreys explained the many stories within the story of the painting, which was inspired by an actual anti-slavery rally held in Cazenoivia in 1850.

Among the 200 or so people in Humphreys' mural-sized work are:

  • Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became one of the abolitionist movement's most eloquent spokesmen;
  • Gerritt Smith, Peterboro's favorite son and active leader in the temperance movement and leading abolitionist;
  • John Brown, the radical abolitionist best known by many for his failed raid on Harper's Ferry;
  • The Dominee, a.k.a John West, an African American preacher;
  • Elizabeth Smith Miller, Gerritt Smith's daughter and women's rights advocate;
  • a group of Peterboro women warming up to sing at the abolitionist meeting;
  • a student from nearby Madison University, now known as Colgate;
  • boys playing on the green;
  • an African American family;
  • and the large and gathering crowd attending the meeting.

The title of the painting is also the title of a song often sung during abolitionist times. A group of singers -- many from Hamilton -- quickly recruited by Humphreys just for the occasion -- sang Come Join the Abolitionists Friday. They also sang two other songs popular at the time of the meeting shown in painting.

Humphreys said the painting took about three years of on-and-off work to finish. During that time it occupied two easels in what used to be his son's bedroom of his Smith Road home. 

Now the painting hangs in the room that Humphreys explained holds a significant place in the histories of Peterboro and the abolitionist movement. The retired judge explained that an anti-slavery rally in Utica in 1935 was broken up and Gerritt Smith invited everyone to reconvene in Peterboro. They met in the second-floor sanctuary of the then-Presbyterian Church, now the Smithfield Community Center and home to the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame.

Humphreys also said the painting was, in part, an extension of some of his other work on the history of the anti-salvery movement in the county. He spent about four years researching a daguerrotype -- a photographic image made on a glass plate -- for the Madison County Historical Society. It turned out that it was the only image made of an anti-slavery rally, one held in 1850 in Cazenovia.

The evening was capped by the presentation of a drawing of Humphreys, which will hang with his painting ... and a standing ovation for the artist.

Mugs, T-shirts and postcards of the painting are available for purchase.

Please login to post your comments.