ADA GILMORE

Pioneers of the PROVINCETOWN PRINT

By | Bill Evaul

Ada Gilmore Chaffee (1883-1955) was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After her parents died young, she spent her early years with an aunt in Ireland where she studied design at the Belfast School of Art. In 1900, she returned to Kalamazoo to teach drawing. In 1903 Gilmore enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago where she met her long-time partner, Mildred “Dolly” McMillen. In 1912, they moved to New York where they studied painting with Robert Henri and then traveled to Paris where they met Ethel Mars and Maude Squire and began working together. The four friends left Paris and arrived in Provincetown in 1915. There they met up with Juliette Nichols and Bror J. O. Nordfeldt, and formed the nucleus of the Provincetown Printers.

Gilmore exhibited in the Provincetown Printers’ first exhibition in 1916 and the first show of the newly formed Provincetown Art Association included six of her woodblock prints. In 1925 she and Dolly McMillen took a trip to Vence, France to visit Mars and Squire. Oliver Chaffee, who had been in Paris at the time, also went to Vence to re-unite with his Provincetown friends. The result was that Oliver and Ada married there and lived together in France until they returned to Provincetown in 1928. Ada Gilmore continued to paint and make prints and, along with Blanche Lazzell, was a key promoter of the legacy of the Provincetown Printers.

Ada Gilmore, Gossip c. 1916, white-line woodcut, 9" x 10", Collection Helen and Napi Van Dereck. Image courtesy Provincetown Art Association and Museum.