Sumner Merrill

Sumner Merrill was an artist or artisan documented as active in 1937. Merrill’s existing institutional representation stems from five recorded designs preserved in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art. These documents typically relate to American folk art, decorative arts, and material culture studies, reflecting efforts to catalog domestic craftsmanship during the mid-twentieth century.

The five works represented in collections include examples of both maritime and domestic design, such as the detailed folk carvings Carved Goose and Stern Board Carving. Also documented are pieces of utilitarian furniture, notably the Painted Chest, Small Shaker Chest, and the Shaker Built-In Cupboard. The preservation of these designs ensures continued access to historical craft documentation. Records of these works, frequently held in the public domain, often become available as downloadable artwork for scholarly study. Today, high-quality prints of the original documentation help researchers analyze these examples of American material culture.