Saturday, June 21, 2025

History Shines at the Eaton Museum

             This Sunday, June 29,  we will have our 30th Anniversary Celebration.
We are hoping the weather will cooperate this time.  To all those hit by the storms last Sunday like us... we wish you well.  The cake was frozen and will come out rain or shine....Please join us!

The Old Town of Eaton Museum will be hosting its 30th Anniversary on Sunday with a special treat.  Artist of note, Virginia Keith's portrait of Mary will be unveiled at the museum at 1:30 during an award ceremony.  The oil portrait will be donated to the museum by the artist.


Virginia Keith hails from the Town of Brookfield, also in Madison 
County, where both her parents served as Town Historians. Virginia has 
also served on the Board of the Brookfield Historical Society. She has 
painted as a hobby her whole life, but it wasn't until 2015 that she 
studied portrait painting.

During the initial COVID 19 shutdown, a group of five Mohawk Valley area 
women, who had studied portraiture together at Munson in Utica, won a 
commission from the Women's Fund of Central New York to Commemorate the 
100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment granting women 
the right to vote.

This effort was immediately followed up by a Commitment to paint a 
collection of portraits of significant and highly accomplished local 
women. The show called Women Paint Women hung in the public Library in 
Utica and in the Arts Center in little Falls, and was commemorated in a 
book by the same name.

Virginia chose to portray Mary Messere for her contributions to the 
collection and preservation of local history. As this painting is done 
with the techniques of the European masters, it is hope to serve as a 
loving picture of Eaton's History Champion for many, many decades to come.
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Virginia Keith currently lives in Waterville NY and can be reached at 


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