RSW's Diary Comments

Woodward did not keep records of his chalk drawings.

Editor's Note:

Buckland school teacher Miss Mabel
Raguse in her apartment in Shelburne Falls,
MA beneath the chalk drawing From a May Hill

Buckland school teacher Miss Mabel Raguse purchased 2 oil paintings and 3 chalk drawings over her life time. This is quite a feat on a teacher's salary. Safe estimates of what it cost her are anywhere from $25,000 to $27,000 in today's dollars. We do not how much her wages were in that time yet it is safe to say what she spent on paintings by Woodward probably totaled around a quarter of a year's salary.

The other paintings purchased by Miss Raguse, plus Woodward's gift to her we call, The Surprise:

• Spring Window
• Village Church in Winter
• Unfinished Silo
• The Surprise

For more about Miss Mabel Raguse and her love of RSW's work CLICK HERE

North Adams Transcript, 8 June, 1932

Editor's note regarding the North Adams Transcript article:

"In The Sugar House; Boiling" is not mentioned specifically in the article which only talks about the oil paintings. Yet still, the clipping is worth a read.

While the large holding tank is no longer present, the sugar house is still in use, located near the Edge Hill golf course in Ashfield, Mass.

A close up of the title, signature, hammer and bricks

A close up of the man boiling

A close up of the boiling pot