Rufus Porter Museum and Cultural Heritage Center , Bridgton Maine

Artist, musician, teacher, inventor and founder of Scientific American magazine, Rufus Porter, was ahead of his time in a number of ways. Porter (1792-1884) began his artistic life as a decorative painter and painter of portraits. Later he painted the murals that made him famous. He painted what he knew — landscapes depicting the farms around Bridgton, Maine, his childhood home, and seaport scenes of Portland, Maine, where he lived and studied as a young man.

Porter patented inventions that were useful in the home, on the farm, and in the factory. The patent for his revolving rifle cylinder, sold to Samuel Colt, helped to revolutionize the munitions industry. He designed and promoted airships that could fly people across the continent, although they were never built in his lifetime.

He founded Scientific American magazine in 1845, to encourage innovation in American arts and sciences. This pioneering attempt at progressive journalism often included clarion calls to clear the way for a bright and promising future. In this abridged version of his published poem, Porter sets a tone of excitement for an approaching age where thought and action must lead the way out of a darker and restrictive past.

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