Dove Lake, in Gladwyne, was the setting for the Thomas Eakins Painting “Swimming.” The work has undergone several name changes, but its current owner, the Carter Amon Museum of American Art (Fort Worth, Texas) has it cataloged it as “Swimming,” which is the title that Eakins used when he completed it, in 1885.
Eakins used his own students in photographic studies taken at Dove Lake.
According to the RISD Museum – The painting embodies Eakins’ belief in the beauty of the human body and its scientific study, as well as his commitment to the vitality of the classical tradition. It also reflects Eakins’ ambitions as head of the country’s most progressive art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, when he was at the height of his professional achievement.
However, when Swimming went on view in the academy’s annual exhibition in 1885, disaster, not triumph, ensued. The picture may have been too graphic a rep resentation of Eakins’ artistic values, particularly his insistence on study of the nude.
All of Dove Lake is situated on private property, but it can easily be viewed along Dove Lake Road, which is located almost exactly one mile from the Guard House Restaurant, in Gladwyne.
A Villanova Library Online Exhibit, The Making of the Lower Merion Elite cites Dove Mill, and later Dove Lake, as the quintessential example of how the area around Mill Creek evolved over a period of about 70 years (1850s to 1920s), from industrial to elite residential.
Source – Smithsonian Institute this image shows the watermark that was placed in the paper that was manufactured at Dove Mills.
As early as 1748, Conrad Scheetz operated a paper mill at the site of what is now Dove Lake. Thomas Amies bought the mill in 1798 and named it Dove Mill. The Mill produced exceptionally high-quality paper.
Samuel Croft, a descendent of Amies, bought the mill in 1844, and converted it to a brass and copper rolling mill. Croft dammed the lake in 1873.
Click above to enlarge
According to the Villanova Library exhibit “The last Main Line Atlas that listed Croft as the owner of the Dove Mill property was the 1880 atlas. In the next edition of the Main Line Atlas, printed in 1887, Croft’s son-in-law, I. Layton Register, was listed as the owner.”