Pedersen Gallery, 17. N. Union St., Lambertville, N.J., hosts an exhibition of paintings of Port Norris, N.J., by F. Hutton Shill painted 1906-1907.
“F. Hutton Shill and the Lost History of Port Norris” runs through Nov. 11.
In the first decades of the 20th century Port Norris and the adjacent areas of Bivalve and Shell Pile located on the Maurice River in South Jersey became the center for the greatest oyster harvesting industry in the world.
Entire towns arose in the support of the growing industry. And Port Norris became one of the wealthiest maritime communities on the East Coast. Several hundred schooners were built and sailed from the Maurice River Cove into the Delaware Bay for use in the oyster industry.
The Pennsylvania Academy trained artist F. Hutton Shill (1872-1946) first began visiting Port Norris in 1899 and worked until 1907 painting the oyster fleet. These paintings were exhibited over four times at the most important Philadelphia Academy exhibitions held between 1905 and 1907.
His paintings of the ships, docks and sheds of Port Norris are done in a powerful realist style that uniquely captures the life and activity of the important vibrant oyster industry.
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