The Emma Lewis Coleman Photographic Collection consists of nearly 300 glass plate negatives, from which study prints have been made. Coleman's work covers many of the same subjects as the Frederick B. Quimby Photographic Collection but with the marked difference that she was concerned with achieving artistic effects which expressed the timelessness and universality of rural life, after the fashion of Jean-François Millet and other Barbizon school painters. Like Quimby, she worked extensively in York, Maine, where she often posed her city friends in costume to impersonate the rhythms and traditions of farming routines. In addition to the photographs that are strongly reminiscent of the Barbizon school, there are several studies of persons carrying out traditional handicrafts; views of historic buildings in York and Deerfield, Massachusetts; landscapes; and a small collection of 41 original prints, largely portraiture. Coleman's images are among the few examples of art photography in the collections of the Library and Archives. Sources: Guide to the Library and Archives, 10; Memorial Hall Museum website, 2009-11-25.