Oil Paintings | Cambridge Series

The Cambridge series of paintings were done to commemorate the May 13 - 15, 2011 60th reunion of the 1951 Cambridge High School class. As was earlier stated, Dr. Brown is a member of that class.

The series is dedicated to Mrs. Fran Applegarth.

Mid-twentieth century Cambridge was markedly different from the town of today. Then it was a major seafood and agricultural hub. The former, centered on Cambridge Creek packing houses such as Clayton's, involved processing oysters and crabs local watermen harvested from the Choptank and Little Choptank Rivers and Chesapeake Bay. The latter, centered on Phillips Packing Company, involved canning tomatoes and other produce harvested from farms throughout the Delmarva Peninsula.

By early twenty-first century standards, existence in 1940's - 1950's Cambridge was impoverished. The major means of transportation was walking, the major means of information and entertainment were radio, newspaper, books, an occasional movie and socializing. Communication was mostly by face-to-face contact, handwritten letters and telephones attached to a wire.

The economy was simple. Most townspeople were employed by Phillips Packing Company, were into farming or participated in the seafood industry. Those employment bases supported ancillary retail and services establishments ranging from shoe stores to physicians' offices to school teaching.

Few regarded themselves as impoverished. The waters were pure, producing seafood in abundance. Family farms grew tomatoes and other produce in abundance. The air was clean and fresh. "Home Run" Baker living in nearby Trappe was a big deal.

The poorest folk were the African-Americans. Racial segregation was strict and insidious. Unfortunately, the issue was resolved for Cambridge in a riotous manner abetted by outsiders. That has left a resentment that lingers to the present. However, it is a sad fact that for white children and youth of the time, racial segregation was part of the ethos, a non-issue.

The paintings that follow illustrate Cambridge as it was during the youth of Class of 1951 members. They are not paintings of obvious landmarks such as the post-office, churches or courthouse. Rather, the paintings emphasize life as it was then.

Recording any living history with a degree of accuracy is a daunting task. Memory is a notorious thief and liar. Memory discards, distorts, rationalizes, is altered by subsequence experience and re-forms to an extent that compromises the realities. Memory is not at all analogous to videotaping an event, it is more like trying to record events as an ink sketch on a slice of Swiss cheese.

The task is not hopeless, however. The historian can draw on shared or collective memories, media reports from the time, previous historical accounts and photographs.

Cambridge was fortunate in the latter regard. The renowned Baltimore Sun photographer A. Aubrey Bodine was enamored with Maryland's Eastern Shore, including Cambridge. He produced a legacy of 1930's through 1960's photographs that are important works-of-art in themselves. A visit to aaudreybodine.com is to see photography that is as-good-as-it gets.

Dr. Brown utilized all of the above to inspire him and to expand his imagination.

Herewith is Dr. Brown's tribute to the Cambridge High School Class of 1951: