Gamaliel Waldo Beaman (1852-1937)
As a young man, Beaman had a studio on Tremont Street in Boston. Although Beaman studied at the Lowell Institute and in Paris in the late 1870s, his preference was for a more rural lifestyle. He moved to Northfield, Massachusetts where he lived with a hermit atop the mountain back of Northfield village. In coming down to the village he passed the home of Charles Stearns of Main Street. He became acquainted with Stearns’s niece, Mary Priest Stearns, whom he married on October 22, 1885.
After the wedding, Beaman went west to paint in the Rockies. According to his daughter, this was one of his best periods as an artist.
Eileen Marie Sherman
His first wife died shortly after the birth of their second child, Mary, who also lived only a short time. He married his second wife, Eileen Marie Sherman of North Adams MA, in 1894. She was adept at promoting her husband’s talents and was a willing travel companion. Beaman and his wife traveled the fashionable hotel circuit across the country. She gave studio tea parties in these resort hotels to promote his work. In this way, Beaman found a market for his paintings at these resort hotels.
Beaman worked in both oils and watercolors. He exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1884 and 1885. He exhibited at the Boston Art Club in 1877, 1878, and 1880.
Later in life, he lived in East Princeton, MA in a house called Brookledge. He had a studio across the brook and augumented his art sales by selling antiques. This practice earned him the name “Antique Beaman.”
Some of his works are at the Forbush Library, Westminster, MA and the Princeton Public Library, Princeton, MA.
Reference
Edson Harrington, Columbus, GA