Our History Revealed

The present-day Sail Loft Art Collective reimagines the historic Provincetown women's art club, The Sail Loft Club, founded in 1916. At that time, the original Sail Loft Club was created specifically as a social and intellectual hub for women artists. The Sail Loft Club was not the only grassroots community organization supportive of artists and writers in that timeframe - others include Group 7, the Nautilus Club, and the UpAlongs. These groups emerged after Martha Dewing Woodward and her partner, Laura Louise Johnson, established the Cape Cod School of Drawing and Painting in 1896 (Lawless, 2011 and Dunlap, 2026).

To mark the 110th anniversary of the original Sail Loft Club, Nika Feldman, MFA, and Elspeth Slayter, MSW, MA, PhD, are leading a team* of artist-researchers to locate and record this history/herstory.

Ada Gilmore (1883-1995)

Sail Loft, c. 1916

Color white-line woodblock print, 10.75" x 11"

From the Helen and Napi Van Dereck Collection, Courtesy of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

Research Questions

Ada Gilmore (1883-1995)

(1) Who were the members of the original Sail Loft Club (as well as Group 7, Provincetown Printers, Nautilus Club, and the UpAlongs)?

(2) What did those people make?

(3) Why did they make what they did? 

Ancillary research questions:

(4) What catalyzed the formation of independent women's arts/other organizations in early 20th-century Provincetown? 

(5) What were the Sail Loft Club's activities?

(6) What can we learn about the Sail Loft Club’s landmark 1919 exhibition? 

*Research team members include Peter DuCharme, Grace Emmet, Valerie Isaacs, Kelly Knight, Karen Miller, and Hilary McHugh. Our team also thanks Amy Davies, Bill Evaul, Megan Hinton, Lesley Marchessault, Stephen Orr, and Marion Roth for helping locate and share information about the artists we are interested in.

Our first phase of research began by identifying newspaper and magazine articles about the Sail Loft Club and other grassroots women’s organizations of the time. We compiled names mentioned in those articles for each group to document official involvement. We then conducted full-text searches for information about the 49 women identified.

Sources: Academic Search Premier database; American Art News; The Arts; Boston Journal; Cape Cod Times; The New York Times; Provincetown Advocate; Provincetown Art Association and Museum online archive; Provincetown Artist Registry; Provincetown Banner; Provincetown Independent and Touchstone.

Our second stage of research will involve interviews with 15+ key community members; archival research at galleries/antique stores with historical holdings; archival research at museums that have held exhibits on the women and the region's art history; and organizations with physical archives that are not digitized.

Ongoing Research

Ada Gilmore (1883-1995)

Ada Gilmore (1883-1995)

Ada Gilmore (1883-1995)

We identified artists who were members of each grassroots women’s group in the early 1900s by reviewing newspaper articles and announcements from the period. Now we are digging deeper to learn about each of these 49 women, and hopefully, learn a bit about their artwork. Hyperlinks in this list go to exemplar websites where you can learn a little bit about these women (where we have information), although we do not yet have information for all of them!

Note: This list is under construction and should not be considered complete.

  1. Bacon, Peggy – Sail Loft Club (SLC) (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  2. Bean, Caroline – SLC

  3. Boies Hopkins, Edna (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  4. Boxell, Althea – Nautilus Club

  5. Brigadier, Anne (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  6. Brown, Florence Bradshaw – Nautilus Club (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  7. Burlingame, Sheila – Group 7

  8. Caliga, Elizabeth Howland – SLC and this link and search for her as Elizabeth Howland at PAAM (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  9. Carr, Myra Musselman

  10. Chaffee, Mrs. Melzar possibly Naomi Mackenzie – SLC

  11. Curtis, Ida M. – SLC

  12. Davis, Bertha – SLC

  13. Ferguson, Nancy Maybin – SLC and this link (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  14. Gilmore, Ada – Group 7 and this link (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  15. Gregory, Dorothy Lake – SLC and Group 7 (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  16. Hackett, Mary – Group 7 and this link (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  17. Hawthorne, Marion C. – SLC (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  18. Hiebert or Hebert, Emily – Nautilus

  19. Hopkins, Edna Bois - Provincetown Printers

  20. Houstis, Louise L. – SLC or this link

  21. Howella or Howells, Alice – SLC

  22. Johnson, Antoinette Thackwell – SLC

  23. Johnson, Laura Louise – (Cape Cod School of Drawing and Painting) CCSDP

  24. Jones, Mary Bacon (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  25. Kelly, Arianna – SLC

  26. L’Engle, Lucy – Nautilus Club (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  27. Lazzelle, Blanche – Group 7 and SLC (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  28. Levy, Beatrice – SLC

  29. Lokke, Marie

  30. Loeb, Dorothy - possibly SLC (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  31. Mars, Ethel - Provincetown Printers (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  32. McMillen, Mildred - Provincetown Printers (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  33. Mears, Helen Farnsworth – SLC

  34. Miller, Nan - Nautilus

  35. Monroe, Sara – SLC

  36. Morrow, Julie Mathilde – SLC

  37. Morse, Jessie C. – SLC

  38. Nicholas, Juliette - Provincetown Printers

  39. Paxton, Elizabeth – SLC (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  40. Pfeiffer, Hope Voorhees – Group 7

  41. Pfeiffer, Mab – Nautilus Club (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  42. Patrick, Hilda Winslow – Nautilus Club

  43. Rayner, Ada – Nautilus Club (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  44. Ried (sp?), Bertha – SLC

  45. Rogers, Mrs. A. – SLC

  46. Scudder, Annette – SLC

  47. Schofield, Flora - Provincetown Printers (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  48. Smith, Helen - SLC (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  49. Squire, Maud - Provincetown Printers see also this link

  50. Tarvers, Mary “Molly” (Silva) – Nautilus Club (see work at Hidden Treasures on Comm. St.)

  51. Taylor, Elizabeth - Provincetown Printers

  52. Weinrich, Agnes (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  53. Woodward, Martha Dewing – CCSDP (search for some of her art in PAAM’s collection)

  54. Zorach, Marguerite – SLC

References

Abel, K. (December 25, 2025). In search of Helltown. The Provincetown Independent. https://provincetownindependent.org/history/2024/12/25/in-search-of-helltown/

Ahrens, N. (1997). Provincetown: The art colony: A brief history and guide. Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association.

American Art News. (1917, September 15). Provincetown news notes. American Art News, 15(36).

American Art News. (1919, August 16). American Art News, 17(37), 1–12.

American Art News Co. (1919, August 16). American Art News, 17(37), 1–8.

Brook, A. (1923). The purity of Provincetown. The Arts, 4(1), 49.

Carmack, K. E. (2008). 'Puritans, Painters, and the Portuguese': Henry Ryan MacGinnis in Provincetown. In E. Lee (Ed.), America en Plein Air: Henry Ryan MacGinnis (pp. 37–42). Trout Gallery, Dickinson College.

DaSilva, A. (2025, October 22). Spencer Keasey selects five historic women artists. Provincetown Independent. https://provincetownindependent.org/arts-minds/2025/10/22/spencer-keasey-selects-five-historic-women-artists/

Feldman, N. (2024). Research notes on Provincetown sail lofts and studio spaces [Unpublished research document].

Isaacs, V. (2024). Interviews and field notes on Cape Cod women's clubs [Unpublished research document].

Krahulik, K. C. (2005). Provincetown: From Pilgrim landing to gay resort. New York University Press.

Lawless, D. (2011). Provincetown: A history of artists and renegades in a fishing village. Arcadia Publishing.

Lazzell, N. B. (2023). Reflections on the early Provincetown art scene (My Daily Art Display, Ed.). (Original work written 1915/1918).

Lindenmuth, T. (1923). Fishermen [Artwork print]. The Arts, 4, 52.

McHugh, H. (2023). Historical research on the Nautilus Club and Group 7 [Unpublished research document].

Moffett, R. (1989). Art in narrow streets: The first thirty-three years of the Provincetown Art Association. Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association. (Original work published 1964).New York Times. (1919, August 17). Art notes: Sail Loft Club exhibition. The New York Times, Section 3, p. 35.

Philpott, A.J. (1919, August 10). Art and Fish Mix at Provincetown. Boston Journal. https://www.newspapers.com/image/427948929/?match=1&search-id=b234fbdf-2d21-4d69-9e0d-837c02068e7d&search-rank=2&clipping_id=new

Provincetown History Preservation Project. (1907). The first scrapbook of the Nautilus Club. Town of Provincetown Archives.

Sieminksi, M. and Renn, M. (2018). Dewing Woodward and the Cape Cod School of Drawing and Painting. Provincetown Arts. https://archive.org/stream/PtownArts2018/PtownArts-2018_djvu.txt

Smith, N. P. (1927). A book about the artists. Colonial Press.

Storer, A. (2023, March 29). The artistic legacies of Mary Hackett. Provincetown Independent. https://provincetownindependent.org/arts-minds/2023/03/29/the-artistic-legacies-of-mary-hackett/

Storer, A. (2023, March 22). Discovering an early generation of Provincetown artists. The Provincetown Independent. https://provincetownindependent.org/arts-minds/2023/03/22/discovering-an-early-generation-of-provincetown-artists/

Theriault, J. (2014). Bohemian lifestyle takes root in Provincetown 1914. Town of Provincetown History Timeline.

The Arts. (1923). [Reflections on the Beachcombers, the Sail Loft Club, and the Provincetown art scene]. The Arts, 4(1), 51.

The Provincetown Advocate (March 12, 1953). Provincetown History Preservation Project.

The Touchstone. (1919, January). In the Touchstone Galleries: Four Provincetown Painters. The Touchstone, 4(4), 347–348.