Edwin Dikinson
Catalogue entry
The Haystack Prayer Meeting
Catalogue no. 131
1925
Provincetown, MA
Oil on composition board
24 x 24 in. (61 x 61 cm)
Inscribed, signed, dated on reverse: "The Haystack Prayer Meeting / Williamstown, Mass. / E
W Dickinson 1925"
W Dickinson 1925"
Gilbert Scharf
Photo: Tibor de Nagy Gallery
Notes
Painted in Provincetown, M, April 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, (journal). To EHS, April 15, " . . . have under
way . . . one of the Haystack Prayer meeting which took place in Williamstown Massachusetts many years
ago." ED note: "In about 1875 in Williamstown a group of college students, taking a walk, were overtaken
by a violent thunderstorm and rain and took shelter in the lee of a haystack. These Christian young people
at Williamstown decided to hold a prayer meeting which they accordingly did while the thunder was
clapping around, and from this meeting grew the Presbyterian Board of Farm Missions. (when my father
was in Amherst)."
Provenance
Private collection
Gilbert Scharf
Exhibition History
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Edwin Dickinson, November 29–December 31, 1961.
Provincetown Art Association, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1962.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Peale Galleries, Philadelphia, Paintings by Edwin Dickinson, April 21–May 29, 1966.
Katonah Gallery, Katonah, New York, Paintings and Drawings by Edwin Dickinson, June 12–July 12, 1966.
Pratt Institute Manhattan Center, Brooklyn, New York, Paintings and Drawings by Edwin Dickinson, March 10–26, 1970.
American Academy of Arts and Letters and National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, Paintings by Members, November 10–December 17, 1972.
Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, Edwin Dickinson Retrospective, August 14–September 7, 1976.
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina, Edwin Dickinson, Wallace Putnam and Richard Maury, June 16–July 2, 1992.
Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, Edwin Dickinson In Provincetown 1912-1937, July 20–September 23, 2007.
Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Dickinson Baldwin, Helen. "The Haystack Prayer Meeting, 1925 (Catalogue no. 131)." In The Edwin Dickinson Catalogue Raisonné. www.edwindickinson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=131 (accessed on July 30, 2026).