Rufus Porter’s Curious World

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick

NOW CLOSED

Francis Howe House Mural (detail; 1838), Rufus Porter and Stephen Twombly Porter. Photo: David Bohl

An artist, inventor, and the founder of Scientific American, Rufus Porter (1792–1884) was once described by Time magazine as ‘Yankee da Vinci’. His panoramic New England landscape murals are on show here alongside designs for rifles and flying machines. Find out more from Bowdoin’s website.

Preview the exhibition below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Submarine Sighting Mechanism (1806), Robert Fulton. Library of Congress

Plumb and level indicator (c. 1846), invention of Rufus Porter, engraver unknown.

Plumb and level indicator (c. 1846), invention of Rufus Porter, engraver unknown. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick. Photo: Luc Demers

‘The Traveling Balloon’, illustration in Scientific American (1845), Rufus Porter.

‘The Traveling Balloon’, illustration in Scientific American (1845), Rufus Porter. Courtesy American Antiquarian Society

Martha Swan Flagg (c. 1830), attributed to Rufus Porter.

Martha Swan Flagg (c. 1830), attributed to Rufus Porter. Photo: David Bohl