These lunettes were created by Vesper Lincoln George (1865-1934) was born in East Boston and received his public school education there, with his art education being in New York and Paris. He began his career as an instructor at the State Normal Art School and Principal of the Evening School of Design in Boston. In 1897, he was selected to head the small Decorative Art Department at the newly formed Lowell Textile School, where he served for 10 years. In 1924, he founded the Vesper Lincoln George School of Art in Boston. He is known for decorative murals, including these. He was also a member of the Mural Painters’ Society and the Architectural Society of New York, the Boston Art Club, and the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
LEFT The Art of Printing, decorative lunette or painting on glass, 103″ x 60” represents Gutenberg in his printing office receiving a visit from a nobleman and his wife to whom he is explaining his invention of movable type. In this lunette, there’s belief that the young man at the far right is Fred Albert Greenwood (approximately 13 years old), who was a neighbor of Vesper George in Malden.
RIGHT The Textile Industry, decorative lunette or painting on glass, 103″ x 60″. The four figures symbolize the most important divisions of the textile art – spinning, weaving, dyeing and designing. The costumes and accessories are of the 15th century.
These lunettes were donated circa 1899 by Joseph Arthur Coram.
Coram was born in St. John, New Brunswick, schooled in the lower Canadians provinces. Initially involved with insurance, he engaged in the lumber exporting business with his father, but he saw great opportunities in manufacturing. He initially was involved in Bangor, Maine, and then made his way to Lowell. The Coram Block first appears on the 1896 atlas and the building that survived was industrial in type. This is now home to Western Avenue Studios, but at the time was the Massachusetts Mohair Plush Company. Coram was known as “the Copper King” or “the King of Copper” for his investment of mining of mica and later copper. While in Lowell, he was “ a member of the Highland Club, Lowell, the Middlesex Safe Deposit Co., and the board of trade. Some of the Industries in which the copper king is interested are the Butte & Boston Mining Co., the Butte City Water Co., the Butte & Montana Co. the Kalisfell electric Co., the Libby Town Site Co., the Mohair Plush Co., the Anytown paper Tube Co., and the Mercede Gold Mining four national banks and twenty-one corporations.” – The Lowell Sun