On February 5, 2026, the MDI Historical Society hosted an online talk with Jennifer Booher, a Bar Harbor artist who has been a vital part of making our annual history journal, "Chebacco," the excellent publication it is today. Jenn uses still life photography, cyanotype, and drawing to explore the fascinating intersection of science and history. She was a Resident Artist with Acadia National Park for several years and has served as our own Artist-in-Residence since 2018. Jenn is the recipient of numerous honors, including two Maine Arts Commission project grants, a Frenchman's Bay Partners Environmental Stewardship award, and a Kindling Fund award from the SPACE Gallery/Andy Warhol Foundation. She brings an incredible depth of knowledge to her craft, holding a BA in Art History and Asian Studies from Vassar College and a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia.

For our 2025 "Chebacco" edition, 'The Art of Nourishment,' Jenn created 12 photographs inspired by the 16th-century Dutch still-life tradition. While the project started with food, Jenn and our authors soon realized they were talking about many kinds of nourishment: the community of church suppers, the preserving of culture through recipes, and even the weight of cultural expectations. Jenn spent months sketching concepts, cooking historic recipes, and crowdsourcing props like neon signs and child-sized shopping carts. Her work in this edition bridges the gap between high art and the everyday, substituting modern materials like plastic bottles and aluminum for the silver and glass found in traditional Dutch paintings. In this program, she shares the misadventures behind creating these images, from the challenge of photographing artifacts in museum basements to the creative use of a plastic lobster named Clawdia.