Exhibitions Archive

Jill Krementz, the nation's preeminent author portraitist, has spent a career photographing writers engaged in their "deeply comforting" activities. There is a mischievous Truman Capote in his apartment. Toni Morrison, on a sofa, with pen and paper. Maurice Sendak flanked by one of his "wild things." E.B. White in the boathouse where Charlotte wove her web. Authors Amy Tan, Stephen King and Edward Gorey with their pets under, around or on them.

The Mark Twain House & Museum has organized an exhibition of images of the renowned writers of our time from the remarkable files of Jill Krementz. As a photojournalist, Krementz covered the most newsworthy stories of the past 40 years for the New York Herald Tribune, Time and Life. As an author, she produced the groundbreaking Sweat Pea - A Black Girl Growing Up in the Rural South, and the acclaimed A Very Young and How It Feels book series. And in The Writer's Desk, she captured authors at work, at home, and at play. "I try to show the private side of people without violating their privacy."

Writers Unbound The Photograpgy of Jill Krementz ran from November 16, 2004 till January 30, 2005. Click here to see detailed information on this exhibition.

In his inimitable way, humorist, author and social critic Mark Twain may have best defined the importance of clothing when he said, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society."

Twain knew there was much truth to that humorous quip. He understood the impact clothing had on his era, he richly described clothing from King Arthur's era to modern times in his travelogues and novels, and he used clothing to manage his public persona.

Modesty Died When Clothes Were Born ran from June 25 - October 24, 2004. Click here to see detailed information on this exhibition.

Alvin Langdon Coburn’s unconventional approach to photography helped define modernism. His photographs become iconic images of the 20th Century, from the cityscapes of New York and London to the landscapes of the American West, to the most famous people of his time. In 1913, his hand-printed book, Men of Mark, captured in richly styled prints the images of 33 of the most influential artists, writers, critics and thinkers of the early 20th Century. Among them artists Rodin, Matisse, and Sargent, playwright George Bernard Shaw, novelists Henry James and Mark Twain, and President Theodore Roosevelt.

A.L. Coburn’s Men of Mark: Pioneers of Modernism recaptures the beauty of Coburn’s lavishly detailed photographs and presents the sculpture, artwork, personal letters and great works of the visionaries who bridged the 19th and 20th centuries and advanced the revolution of the literary and visual arts, philosophy, criticism, and politics.

A.L. Coburn’s Men of Mark: Pioneers of Modernism ran from March 5 - June 6, 2004. Click here to see detailed information on this exhibition.

You can find in text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your imagination.
- Mark Twain

Mark Twain was a voracious reader. He enjoyed poetry and the Greek classics; used the Koran and the Bible for research; told his daughters stories about Uncle Remus and Alice in Wonderland. And whenever he settled down to read, he had a pencil in hand, ready to stir arguments, correct grammar and add notes to his treasured books.

Selections from Twain's personal library have returned to Hartford and are on display in an exhibition organized by The Mark Twain House & Museum. In the margin of Darwin's Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, Twain questions God and speculates about humanity. He edits his More Tramps Abroad, even after publication. And he never holds his tongue about the authors he loves. (Browning and Shakespeare) or those he disdains ("It seems a great pity they allowed her to die a natural death," Twain said of Jane Austen after reading Pride and Prejudice).

Made possible with support from

Additional support has been provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and
The Hartford Courant, print media sponsor.

We are grateful for the support from the Exhibition Committee of Honor:
Shepherd M. Holcombe, Sr., Frederick and Philomena Sawyer, Mrs. Thomas Flanders,
Kathleen Coville Marr, and Ada Lucke.

Exhibitions are made possible, in part, by: