Ellen Vincent, Collector

Ellen Vincent was the author of Down on the Island, Up on the Main: A Recollected History of South Bristol, Maine, an honorary citizen of the Town of South Bristol, and a founder of South Bristol Historical Society (SBHS). Born in Washington, D.C. in 1949, Ellen grew up in a Maryland suburb outside of Washington, D.C., and graduated from high school in 1967. She received a B.A. in art education from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1971, and a Masters of Fine Arts from George Washington University in 1973. She began her academic career at the Maryland College of Art and Design and in 1989 moved to Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design where she was Professor of Art until illness kept her from the classroom. Ellen was the catalyst for a group of townspeople interested in local history to carry out the idea of a historical society, leading to the formation of SBHS in 1998. She passed away February 24, 2007 from breast cancer.