Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America, 1815-1860 Arctic Museum and a secular Christian among

and a secular Christian among clergy

2019–2020

Anne Collins Goodyear is codirector of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Coaster with leather inlay and Bowdoin sun seal medallion in a presentation pouch

one of the first secular publishing houses owned and operated by an African American in the United States

Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America, 1815-1860 Arctic Museum and a secular Christian amongEdited by Laura Fecych Sprague and Justin Wolff Once called the Yankee Da Vinci, Rufus Porter was an itinerant portrait painter and muralist, a publisher and author, an inventor of mechanical improvements, and an impresario who engineered an airship that promised to fly gold rush prospectors from New York to California in three days. Through his diverse interests in painting, mechanics, aeronautics, and publishing, Rufus Porter helped transform art