The Cornell Farm in 1848
Painted by Quaker Artist Edward Hicks
Bucks County
Above: The Cornell Farm. Inscribed: "An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock OF JAMES C. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural society, October the 12, 1848 Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age." Image source: National Gallery of Art.
Edward Hicks was apprenticed to a Pennsylvania coachmaker when he was thirteen and became a Quaker minister in 1811. Throughout his life, he struggled to reconcile his religious calling with his desire to paint, fearing that art distracted him from “the Lord’s work.”
The Cornell family was not Quaker. Their ancestry included Dutch and French Huguenot families.
Detail of the Painting:
Above: Detail of the Georgian-style farmhouse and outbuildings of the Cornell Farm. Image source: National Gallery of Art.
This stone farmhouse no longer survives. In 1885 Theodore Cornell and Anna (Buckman) Cornell replaced it with the Victorian-era house now known as Cornell Manor.
Location of the Cornell Farm
On an 1857 Map:
Above: This 1857 map shows the James C. Cornell farm on the site now occupied by Cornell Manor, southwest of Newtown. Theodore Cornell and Anna (Buckman) Cornell built the ornate Cornell Manor in 1885. A springhouse from the earlier farm survives there and has an 1822 datestone. Theodore was the youngest son of James C. Cornell and Judith (Everett) Cornell. Image source: Map of Bucks and Montgomery Counties…, Kuhn and Shrope, 1857, AncestorTracks.
Edward Hicks’ Paintings
of Farms in Bucks County:
Links: