This fall, after conservation at West Lake Art Conservation Center (WLACC), Lemuel Maynard Wiles’s The Vale of Elms (1872) returns to its home thanks to its rescue by LeRoy Historical Society.
Lemuel Maynard Wiles (1826-1905) was a West Perry–born landscape painter who never left Silver Lake and the Genesee Valley behind—even as he kept studios in New York City and traveled through Europe and the American West. From 1876 to 1888, he served as Director of the College of Fine Art at Ingham University in LeRoy—the first legally recognized university for women in the United States. He later founded the Silver Lake Art School with his son, Irving Wiles. A beloved teacher, he’s still honored by a 1922 commemorative bust outside LeRoy’s Woodward Library.
Largely self-taught, Wiles refined his eye studying with William Hart and J. F. Cropsey and, like many second-generation Hudson River School artists, specialized in Luminist techniques—a style of 19th-century American painting featuring even, glowing light and crisp detail.
Post-treatment
The journey of an artwork
Wiles painted The Vale of Elms while working in New York City. The landscape was shown at the Brooklyn Art Association’s Spring Exhibition in 1872 and again in Buffalo the following year. According to the artist’s ledger, Emily Ingham Staunton—founder of Ingham University—purchased the painting in 1873, and it was exhibited at the University. When Ingham closed in 1892, the painting was sold at the University’s 1901 auction (reportedly fetching the day’s highest price), then slipped from public record.
Fast forward 123 years. The painting resurfaced in Bangor, Maine, in 2023, where the family who now owned it, hoping to return it to its home region, reached out to LeRoy Historical Society. According to the family, their father—a psychologist—had received the painting as a gift from a client. It had hung in his workplace office for many years. LeRoy Historical Society raised funds to conserve the painting and bring it home. In March 2024, a group from LHS traveled to Maine to retrieve the painting, packing it into the bed of a pickup truck and driving it straight to Skaneateles to our former lab in Mottville, where several people managed to get it up the stairs—a 152-year-old painting catching its breath before its last miles home.
Before & after treatment, unframed
Repair and restoration
By the time The Vale of Elms reached our lab, time had left its marks. There was a large tear in the canvas (reportedly the result of an accident with a broom handle! ), punctures and edge losses, yellowed varnish and surface grime that dimmed the scene, and older restoration overpaint that obscured Wiles’s details. The original 19th-century frame, complete with the artist’s nameplate, was dulled by dirt and wear.
Diagram of damage
Approximately a year went by before GHHN grant funding came in to fund the conservation work. In that time, the painting made the move with us to our new lab in Owasco, where paintings conservator Raphael Shea finally got to work on it in June 2025. First, he cleaned the canvas of grime and old discolored varnish, reducing surface grime, magically revealing original color and obscured details—a couple sitting in a garden of red hollyhocks, a bridge over the river, a cow drinking from the water. He then lined the canvas and mended its tears and punctures to stabilize the support. He retouched areas of loss after filling and texturing to match—reintegrating forms previously muted by old overpaint. Finally, he cleaned and repaired the original frame and remounted the artist’s nameplate.
Frame restoration
The end result was stunning. Not only did the painting’s formerly invisible details suddenly spring to life, but the entire canvas appeared to glow from within, as though it were its own source of light. The valley reopened with a serene atmosphere detailed with signs of life: deep greens layered with golden air; a shimmering river and vivid blossoms. We were so taken with the painting that we made it the subject of our very first exhibition here in our new facility, the highlight of our 50th Anniversary Open House Event on 20 September.
To our delight, the first visitors through the door that day were the folks from LeRoy Historical Society, who got to see the restored painting for the first time. “It was a very emotional experience, and we were simply overcome with joy with the results of the conservation,” says Noreen Tillotson. “The return of the painting to LeRoy marks not only the triumph of historical preservation but the revival of a cultural treasure with deep local roots. After traveling over 1,700 miles in its lifetime, it is finally back home. We would like to think that both Wiles and all his many devoted students would be very happy.”
Paintings conservator Raphael Shea shows the newly restored painting to members of the LeRoy Historical Society during our 50th Annivesary Open House event in September 2025.
Homecoming
The Vale of Elms is now home where it belongs, and will be unveiled at the Historic LeRoy House this weekend. Staff from WLACC will join to celebrate this full-circle moment. We’ve been deeply honored to have played our part in a passionate chain of cultural stewardship.
Vale of Elms will be on view to the public from November 2, 2025
Open House: 12-4 pm
Where: Historic LeRoy House
23 East Main Street, LeRoy, NY 14482
Web: leroyhistoricalsociety.org
Conservation at WLACC was supported by the NYSCA/GHHN Conservation Treatment Grant Program (2024) administered by Greater Hudson Heritage Network with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Office of the Governor, and the New York State Legislature, with generous donations from members of LeRoy Historical society.
