Mary Lane McMillan, an artist and illustrator, and her husband, George McMillan, a musician, established the McMillan School of Fine Arts Vacation School at their summer home in Rome, Maine. The home on Crystal Springs Camp Road was used during the 1920s and 1930s as a camp for vacation session students from their residence-studio school in New Rochelle, N.Y.

George taught piano and Mary taught sketching and painting.

The New Rochelle school was established in 1913.

According to the 1933 McMillan School of Fine Arts brochure, “The Vacation School is located in the small town of Rome, fifteen miles from Oakland, Maine, a village on the Maine Central Railroad … The School buildings, including our Camp-home, are removed from state roads and set among hills and trees on the shore of Great Pond, [the] largest of seven of the Belgrade chain of lakes … Fees cover board and room, occasional use of row-boats, canoe, power-boats and camp facilities provided for the enjoyment of resident-students.”

Summer sessions lasted 14 weeks beginning the third week of June and ending the second week of September.

Mary had a successful career first as an art teacher at Polytechnic College (now Texas Wesleyan University) in Fort Worth, Texas, from 1906 to 1912; then as a book and magazine illustrator in New York from 1912 through the 1930s.

Her illustrations appeared on the front covers and with stories published in Life, McCall’s, Every Week, American Magazine, Judge, Pictorial Review, The Designer, Harper’s Bazaar, The Saturday Evening Post, Woman’s Home Companion and Christmas Magazine.

She also wrote and illustrated Christmas pageants that were published in several of these magazines.

Mary Lane McMillan began spending time in Maine in 1922 where she enjoyed painting in “The Afterglow,” the garden at the McMillan camp. She taught outdoor sketching and painting in mediums including pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, watercolor, pastels and oils.

This was the result of her plein air painting experience in Italy in 1910 under the instruction of the noted American Impressionist William Merritt Chase, who encouraged his students to work from life outdoors rather than in a studio.

Mary continued to vacation at her summer home in Maine for more than 30 years; however, it is unknown how long the vacation school was in existence.

In August 1956, at age 72, she is known to have performed puppet shows in her home for local children and campers in the area. A miniature theater with two stages was set up in the main room of her camp to showcase her puppet creations.

During that summer, Mary was assisted in her puppeteering by visitors from nearby camps including Beverly Stevens, 12; Louise Cummings, 13; and Margaret McMullen, 15. She also had the help of neighbors who served refreshments to audience members. As many as 50 people would crowd into the camp each Friday to catch a show.

Mary Lane McMillan lived from 1883 to 1976. More information about her may be found at www.askart.com.

Sources: Text reprinted with permission from Maine Historical Society’s online museum Maine Memory Network.

Maine?s history is full of female pioneers who blazed a path for the women of today. The Bangor Daily News, in cooperation with the Maine

Historical Society?s online museum Maine Memory Network, the Maine FolkLife Center and others, will highlight a different woman each day throughout March. Photo (left) from the collections of Hollingsworth Fine Arts of Orlando, Fla. This image and thousands of others spanning Maine history are on Maine Memory Network, www.mainememory.net, Maine?s digital museum developed by the Maine Historical Society.