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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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George Fuller's (1822-1884) early paintings provide us with a record of the wide open sky and natural formations of Franklin County, Massachusetts, landscape in the mid-19th century. The distinctive geographic features of Franklin County served as an ongoing inspiration to Fuller, even in his later, more subdued and atmospheric works. This c. 1855 view from the east shore of the Connecticut River, in the town of Sunderland, Massachusetts, features Mount Sugarloaf. The indigenous Pocumtuck people called this formation Wequamps and likened it to a beaver. Note the way in which farmers had cleared most of the arable land for agriculture. The fence in the foreground also reveals the impact of farming on the landscape.

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