November Exhibit
In November, the Durham Public Library will feature an exhibit of the paintings of Olive Esther (Libby) Adams (1840 – 1931). She and her husband, Joseph Adams, kept a summer resort/boarding house at Adams Point and she spent the winter painting landscapes to sell to the summer tourists. The paintings were gifted to the Durham Historic Association by the Estate of Roy Kent, another resident of the Adams Point area.
Olive Esther Libby – Artist Biography
Olive Esther Libby, was born November 7, 1840 to James Libby and Elizabeth Hayes (Quimby) Libby, in Scarborough, Cumberland County Maine. Her family referred to her by her middle name, Esther, and that name persisted in her correspondence, though she signed her paintings OEA or OE Adams. She married Joseph Martin Adams in 1860 and helped to run a self-sufficient 80-acre farm on Adams Point in Durham. Nothing is known of Esther’s education or background as an artist, but during her lifetime, she captured the beauty of familiar scenes around the Great Bay. Her paintings record old farmhouses, the neighborhood schoolhouse, and watercraft on the Bay. Her works allow us to measure how much things have changed and how many things have remained the same. Esther survived her husband for twenty-four years before her death in 1931.