Edward Hicks Peaceable Kingdoms Presented to Seven Newtown Quaker Meeting Young Adults at Quaker Homecoming

(Photo 1: left to right, Shay Karr, Sophie Myles, Kyra Spence, Baxter Hurst-Blair; photo 2: Alexis Van Hart)

Peaceable Kingdoms Presented to Seven Newtown Quaker Meeting Young Adults

Seven young adults of Newtown Quaker Meeting were recognized at Quaker Homecoming over the holidays with reproductions of Edward Hicks’ Peaceable Kingdom at the historic Friends Meetinghouse, 219 Court Street. www.newtownfriendsmeeting.org.

Each young person at age twenty-one in Newtown Quaker Meeting receives a framed replica of Edward Hicks painting of The Peaceable Kingdom inscribed “in recognition of your being a part of our own ‘peaceable kingdom’ and in celebration of your attaining your majority as an adult member of the Newtown Friends Meeting community.”

Edward Hicks was co-founder of Newtown Friends Meeting in 1815. During his lifetime, he was known primarily as a Quaker minister and painted coaches, signs and “ornamentals” for a modest living.

The young adults who received their Hicks paintings this year are:

Savannah Bancroft of Newtown and Penn State (Nursing Sciences);

Jack Dugan of Newtown and Bates College in Maine (Economics, semester abroad in Denmark);

Baxter Hurst-Blair of Newtown, employed at NMR Events Digital Media (also takes classes, paints, and plays in a band);

Shay Karr of Ivyland and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia(Animation major, plans on a master’s in teaching);

Sophie Myles of Newtown and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland(English and History of Art, year abroad at McGill University in Canada);

Kyra Spence of Newtown and Barnard College (English with a concentration in poetry and creative writing -- runner up for Bucks County Poet Laureate); and

Alexis Van Hart of Philadelphia, employed at the Olive Garden.

Similar copies of The Peaceable Kingdom have been presented by members of Newtown Quaker Meeting to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and to Quaker leaders throughout the country.

Hicks traveled throughout the area and sometimes gave one of his more-than sixty versions of The Peaceable Kingdom to Friends who provided hospitality for him during his travels. The paintings are based on the Old Testament prophecy that in God’s peaceable kingdom, the lion shall lie down with the lamb and a little child will lead all creatures. In the background of the painting is the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, arranging a treaty with Native Americans.

Hicks’ paintings now hang in leading museums throughout the country and are highly valued. Many replicas of his Bucks County farmscapes, paintings of historic occasions such as The Signing of the Declaration of Independence and General George Washington on his horse, as well as versions of his Peaceable Kingdom are exhibited in the Newtown Meetinghouse Gathering Room. Edward Hicks’ former home is on Center Street and his modest grave is in the burying ground at Newtown Friends Meeting.

Newtown Friends Meeting is open to the public for First Day School with classes for children and adults at 9:45 a.m. and worship “after the manner of Friends” at 11 a.m. Childcare is provided.